How to Relace & Restring a Baseball Glove in 6 Steps

Not many are willing to go through the trouble of replacing the old laces on their baseball gloves, simply because it’s too complicated for beginners.

If you want to try your dexterity, here’s a detailed guide on how to relace & restring a baseball glove. To give you an idea, look at the baseball glove lace diagram and visualize the sections that we will go through:

What You Need to Prepare for Baseball Glove Relacing

Or you can purchase a baseball glove repair kit, which can cost somewhere around $20 – $25. You will have important pieces like the lacing tool, a thread of laces, a leather cutter, a punch tool, a U-wire lacing tool, and more, depending on the specific kit.

However, you’d probably want to purchase separate laces for your gloves, since the usual pieces included in the kit are not as strong as we want.

Steps to Restring or Relace a Baseball Glove

Important note: Before relacing, you have to unlace the whole string from your glove. It’s easier if you take the lace out hole by hole.

While you are unlacing, thread the new string right into the old one’s hole. It’s best to keep track of every piece to prevent making a mess because it can get complicated later on.

Step 1: Condition the glove and the laces

Spread the large newspaper pieces on the table to avoid making a mess.

You can directly apply the conditioner onto your glove by pouring it on your hand and spreading the agent evenly.

Make sure you reach every corner, including the palm and fingers, covering every lace hole you will thread later.

Then, rub the glove thoroughly, applying some pressure to soften it.

Afterwards, apply some conditioner onto the laces. Use your two fingers to dab it in. Then, run your fingers over the entire length of the strings. With that, the laces can smoothly go into the gloves.

Step 2: Restring the baseball glove’s palm

Start by punching a hole in the tip of the lace to insert the U-wire lacing tool through the hole. Now, you have the lace attached to the tool, ready to thread the glove palm.

Begin with the lowest hole just below the inner side of the little finger. Use the U-wire with lace to punch through the opening from the palm.

Then, lace the string back through the hole right next to it, and bring the lace back to the palm.

Continue to work through the series of holes on your glove palm to the final one right below the thumb.

Once done, cut the lace, sparing about 2 inches to make a knot there. That’s your first successful stage of baseball glove restring.

You can watch this video for a visualization of the process:

Step 3: Restring the baseball glove’s heel

The next step of restoring baseball gloves is to lace their heels.

Start with punching the lace through the side hole right below the little finger, getting through it from the palm to the back. Keep lacing one hole at a time until you finish.

Then, thread the string to the thumb and leave out several inches of lace.

Do not knot the lace just yet, just leave out 3 inches from the thumb’s end and the fingertip’s end. Tuck it there for knotting later.

Step 4: Relace your glove’s little finger, thumb and wrist

In this next stage, we will work on the little finger, lacing through the hole near its end and going up. Make sure you tight a knot when it’s done.

Do the same for the thumb.

As we move to the wrist, we will start threading the lace from the wrist strap on the side of the little finger. Leave about 2 inches of lace and pull it through, and work through the wrist.

Check out how to lace the wrist part right here:

Now, you can tighten the 2-inch short lace left at the beginning of the wrist hole with the end of the lace.

Step 5: Relace the webbing of the glove

Now, move to your glove pocket. Take the lace to punch through the first front hole of the webbing, getting to the second hold located on the thumb.

Afterward, thread the lace through the next holes lining along the web’s top; knot and tight when it’s done. Do the same with the middle and the bottom of the webbing.

Step 6: Restring the top of the fingers

You can start from the little finger, starting from the hole on its tip, connecting through the tip of every finger.

Work through the entire glove and knot the spared ends of the lace in step 3.

Now, it’s done!

Restring Baseball Glove Service

If the task is too complicated for you to follow, you can always have the option of using a professional service. Please know that it might differ, depending on the glove type and position (fielder or catcher).

Below are the glove relacing prices as a reference:

You can ask for a specific price if combining two services. First, make sure you find a reliable place.

Read more: What is the price of a baseball gloves?

Conclusion

Are you letting out a long exhale? I know it’s pretty confusing to try this task for the first time. Still, through trial and error and extra detailed instructions on how to relace & restring a baseball glove, you might be able to pull this off.

If not, you can always visit a professional or ask for help from someone experienced.

Good luck with the task.

Michael Rogers

Rogers is a hardcore baseball enthusiast. He joined Nations Baseball as a writer to share his knowledge and help others realize their passions for the sport. Roger is striving towards becoming a coach at his local baseball club.