Meet Braden Yardley | Glove Repairman and Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Braden Yardley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Braden, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
The name of my business is Reglove. It means to recycle baseball and softball gloves. My business provides a valuable service to baseball and softball players. I work on broken ball gloves to allow players, coaches, and fans to get back in the game when their glove breaks. Since 2009, I have repaired thousands of gloves. This has allowed me to see the good and bad of the glove industry. With the knowledge I’ve gained working on gloves, I’ve started another company called Yardley Sports. Our gloves help players find the right sized glove and pattern for their style of play. They are also constructed to be durable and long lasting. My businesses greatest impacts are reducing waste through fixing and restoring old gloves and creating new sustainable ones. When someone buys a new glove or gets their old one fixed they are always very happy with the result. I believe the products and services I provide bring people a lot of happiness in the baseball and softball community.

What should our readers know about your business?
I have two businesses that operate alongside each other. Reglove is focused on the repair side of ball gloves and Yardley Sports is my new endeavor where I’ve created my own ball gloves and products. Long before I started creating my own gloves, I worked on gloves from nearly all the glove brands available in North America. I’ve provided services for glove companies and even customized gloves for Adidas athletes for a few years. Fixing and repairing gloves has given me a great foundation to understand the parts and functions of a glove. I create many of my own products to clean and restore gloves as well as cut my own glove lace. I believe this working knowledge as well as my dedication to going to onsite events and baseball tournaments has helped my business to grow to where it is today.

Business growth has not always been easy. I have worked full-time, attended grad-school, and tried to balance other aspects of my life while trying to maintain my business. It has been very stressful at times. There have been points where I felt like I couldn’t do it anymore On the other hand it has been so rewarding. I am dedicated to continuing to perfect my skills, products, and services. I love what I do! The friendships that I’ve made within the baseball community as well as the support from my family have helped me to overcome many of the obstacles and challenges I’ve faced along the way. I receive so much encouragement from people when I am at tournaments and events. Without that it would be easy to give up.

I’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way! I used to work for the National Park Service (NPS). One thing that I really like about the NPS is when you visit a park there is a consistent theme and message with their signage, uniforms, and branding. You know when you are in one of their managed parks. Developing consistency with branding and services has been one of my greatest challenges and opportunities for growth. I’ve tried to take the lessons I learned working for the NPS and apply it to my own business. It has been fun to develop new products, branding, websites, and packaging. It is a great creative outlet and developing my own themes and consistency has been a great learning process. Sometimes things haven’t always worked out, but it usually does the second time around.

I want people to know that my brands, but especially Reglove and its track record have been successful because of the great baseball community. I am confident in my skills and am continually trying to improve, but without the customers and friendships I’ve developed this simply wouldn’t work. I started fixing gloves because my own glove broke and it was extremely frustrating. There is no need to throw your old glove away because I can fix it and get you out enjoying the game again. I’m really looking forward to seeing the growth and connections I make providing new gloves. Someday when a Yardley glove is on a Major League Baseball diamond I hope that everyone who has been part of my journey really feels like they played a big part in that.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I have lived in Arizona for just over a year, so I may not be the best at answering this question. I really enjoy going to baseball games. I would take them to a D-Backs game or one of the great Cactus League venues. There is a lot of college baseball in the Valley and Arizona State has one of the best settings in college baseball at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. We’d go to a lot of games and eat a lot of ball park food. One of the best things about Phoenix are all the concert venues. The Crescent Ballroom is my favorite and it is also a great place to eat before or after the show. I also enjoy mountain biking, so we’d hit the trails in the White Tank Mountains.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I owe a great deal of my companies success to the ball players, parents, coaches, and fans in the Arizona and Utah baseball communities. None of this would be possible without their support. Rocky Mountain School of Baseball, Southern Utah Baseball, Victory Lane Sports Park, and the Arizona Fall Classic have been beyond gracious in allowing me to bring my mobile glove shop to their events. I’ve had great mentors and encouragement from friends and family along the way. I’m incredibly humbled and grateful for all the people that entrust me to work on their gloves.

Website: www.reglovebaseball.com

Instagram: @reglove

Facebook: @reglovebaseball

Other: If you’d like to check out Yardley Sports we can be found at www.yardleysports.com or @yardleysports across all social media platforms.