Today we’d like to introduce you to Jackson Bradds.
Hi Jackson, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
Hello, thank you so much for having me! My name is Jackson Bradds and I am a recent college graduate from Nashville, Tennessee. I graduated in 2021 with a BBA in Economics and Finance from Tennessee State University. I currently run a small business making various sports-related, bespoke leather items. My work consists primarily of upcycling vintage baseball gloves into wallets, card holders, money clips, clutches, and keychains. I also make use of vintage footballs as well. I started working with leather about three years ago. My dad is a huge baseball fan and saw something online about turning vintage baseball gloves into leather items. He has a massive collection of gloves and encouraged me to try making a wallet from one of them. I had no experience working with leather and wasn’t sure where to begin. I started reading up on leatherworking, watched a lot of videos, and picked up some basic tools. At first, the hardest part of the entire process was working up the nerve to cut open a vintage glove. Once the glove was taken apart, there was no turning back from the daunting pile of scrap leather. Although rough, my first attempt at a baseball glove wallet was surprisingly successful. The process was also a lot of fun. I made several more, and each was better than the last. Eventually, family friends began asking if I would make glove wallets for them. I never intended on making as many items as I have. Once I started, I never stopped. I could see a noticeable improvement with each item I made. It was a great incentive to continue. After about a year, I started selling my items online and started an Instagram account to promote my products.
My dad and I process all of the gloves that get used, together. He is typically responsible for cutting up the gloves and getting them ready to process into useable leather, while I am responsible for turning that leather into whatever item I am making. Even though we have processed countless gloves, cutting up something like a vintage baseball glove still feels unnatural. Many of the gloves I use have existed two or three times longer than I have been alive. After decades of use, many gloves are in poor condition and on the verge of being thrown away or lost. I’ve heard many stories about people throwing away their old gloves because they thought they were too old, worn, or damaged to be of use. Vintage baseball gloves are just not as cherished as they should be, and the next stop for many of them is the garbage. And while some gloves are definitely damaged beyond use, many of them are not. I’ve made great items from gloves that seemed unusable at first glance. One, in particular, was from a glove from the late 1940s. The glove belonged to the buyer’s father and had been left in a barn for decades; it was dry-rotted in many places and covered in mildew. The glove was disassembled, washed, stretched, and conditioned. The leather slowly recovered to a usable condition and became an awesome wallet. By using gloves in this manner, its spirit can be preserved.
While I never intended to have a small business centered around upcycling vintage baseball gloves, I am very glad that it happened. One of the most rewarding parts of making these items is the reaction that people often have to them. Baseball is incredibly nostalgic and great at connecting people from all walks of life. Because of this, my items often resonate very deeply with people. I am always very appreciative of the fact that so many people have made my creations part of their life, it’s allowed me the opportunity to interact with many wonderful people from all over the world. I have also been lucky enough to have the chance to make items for many former athletes and celebrities. These include former Detroit Tigers Willie Horton, Jon Warden, and Denny McLain; Toledo native and University of Tennessee basketball star Terry Crosby; NBA legend and all-time steals leader Alvin Robertson; International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame member and Grammy winner Sam Bush; and American sports commentator and journalist Roy Firestone.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Things have been relatively smooth. I started really focusing on making leather items during the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns. There wasn’t much else to do. I found it to be very therapeutic and I think I developed my skillset much quicker than I otherwise would have been able to. One of the main hurdles is sourcing materials. While there are many millions of gloves floating around the country, they are not as inexpensive as they use to be. I’ve noticed a sizable increase in the price over the last year or so.
There was a time when you could find gloves for only a few dollars. These days have passed. This is probably in part due to consumers like me who want to upcycle them. Other material costs have also gone up. I restock every few months, contact cement, magnets, thread, and leather are all noticeably more expensive each time I buy them. It’s one of the bizarre and terrible things about living during the worst inflationary period in roughly forty years.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
A lot of my work is currently focused on custom orders. I get a lot of customers that request special items. I also get a lot of customers who want to send in their personal gloves. These are some of my favorite projects. While I’m proud of all of the items I make, I’m especially proud of the items made from gloves that hold a sentimental value to the recipient.
I feel like it is a big privilege to be entrusted with someone’s valued glove. Last year, I made a custom wallet from a Stan Musial glove that the recipient had purchased in the early 1960s. That wallet now gets carried every day, and the owner can bring a small piece of his childhood with him everywhere he goes.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/jb_leatherworks98?igshid=MWM2YjBjM2Q=
- Website: https://www.ebay.com/usr/jb_leatherworks
Image Credits
Rebecca Oliver
