Eight-year-old Gavin Batarse’s sports glove product, Glove Wrap, is a home run among little league and professional MLB players alike.
Gavin, alongside his dad Jon and 11-year-old sister Morgan, brought Glove Wrap to ABC’s “Shark Tank” in front of five celebrity investors on Friday, Oct. 13.
The Batarse family resides in Tustin and have watched the reality TV show together for years.
They first applied last summer to appear on the show, which receives around 40,000 applicants every season.
“Shark Tank was always a dream. Getting to see ourselves on there will be so rewarding,” Jon Batarse told the Business Journal in an interview on Oct. 2.
Gavin came up with the easier way to break in baseball, softball and hockey goalie gloves last year while trying to break in his own tee-ball glove.
The product is currently sold on Glove Wrap’s website for $19.99, but the Batarses hope to eventually get Glove Wrap on the shelves of every sporting goods store.
Overnight Solution
A high-quality sports glove can range between $300 to $400.
“It really is something that you want to protect and keep for a long time,” Jon said.
New gloves are too stiff and need to be softened before they’re considered game ready.
Prior to Glove Wrap, there was no safe way to break in a glove without damaging the leather, according to the Batarses.
People looking to speed up the process resort to methods that can shorten the glove’s lifespan, including pounding the glove with a mallet, running over it with a car or even tossing it in the oven.
Instead, Glove Wrap breaks in gloves by applying pressure overnight.
Made of a non-latex rubber material, Glove Wrap is wrapped around the glove as tightly as possible while a ball is inside to create the perfect pocket—ready to use by the next day.
Glove Wrap is packaged in a resealable pouch that can double as storage for gloves.
Family Business
Gavin started playing tee-ball at 4 years old, according to his father.
Jon, who is also Gavin’s coach, used anywhere between 50 to 70 rubber bands to break in Gavin’s gloves.
Last January, Gavin received a new glove for the spring season, but didn’t have enough rubber bands, so he thought why not simplify and create one large rubber band instead.
“He’s always been a smart kid and loves to figure stuff out,” Jon said.
From there, Jon walked his kids through the steps of making a sellable product from creating packaging to finding a manufacturer.
The Batarses began by handing out Glove Wrap to Gavin’s friends during little league practice.
Glove Wrap took off last year after a video of Gavin giving a sample to John Gray, pitcher for the Texas Rangers, went viral, which has now amassed over 5 million views on TikTok.
Since then, Glove Wrap has received endorsement from Brett Phillips, outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels, who filmed himself using the Glove Wrap on his own Wilson baseball glove.
Jon used his marketing experience as founder of Brander Marketing Agency and former marketing director of Billabong to help garner attention for Glove Wrap on social media platforms.
“I definitely saw that hockey stick, not only of awareness, but of revenue as well, so that showed us that word was getting out,” Jon said.
While Jon helps with the marketing and logistics, Glove Wrap remains a fully family-operated business.
Gavin and Morgan spend every morning packing and shipping orders and are involved in all aspects of the business.
“One of the most rewarding things has been hearing other parents and families become inspired to work on something with their kids,” Jon said.
