What Pros Wear: Rawlings Pro Preferred vs Heart of the Hide 2022 | The Verdict is In

Debating Rawlings’ leading types is a by no means-ending fight. You have the players who grew up on Coronary heart of the Conceal and swear by it, and you have the gamers who sport a Professional Most popular and will not use anything else.

To split via the biases, we’re likely to just take a move back again and compare the designs head-to-head on the 5 most essential categories: 

Material Excellent

Rawlings’ Professional Favored gloves use Kip leather on its shell, while the Heart of the Hide takes advantage of a pick Steerhide leather.

Both equally are high high-quality supplies, but the Professional Most well-liked leather is undoubtedly the superior materials. It is softer to touch, lighter excess weight, and even though Kip leather has a standing of staying a bit significantly less resilient, we have yet to see that with the Professional Chosen gloves.

Pro Most popular wins this round, as Rawlings’ Kip leather is possibly the ideal on the market, even though the Steerhide has a ton of opposition in a crowded current market.

Comfort and ease

Just like the elements used on the shell, the lining components of the two designs range a little bit. The Pro Preferred employs the Pittards’ Sheepskin lining, and the Coronary heart of the Cover employs Rawlings’ renowned Deer Tanned Cowhide.

A different differentiator is that the Heart of the Disguise takes advantage of a foam-like substance for the wrist lining, even though the Professional Desired utilizes a comfortable wool wrist lining.

In terms of convenience, the Pro Chosen is likely to truly feel wonderful out of the box. Whilst Rawlings has built huge strides on their Deer Tanned Cowhide, the Sheepskin lining is just remarkable. The Pro Most popular wins on sheer comfort.

Problems may occur right after some use, as the Pittards’ lining has been identified to tear and the wool can start to scent if not cleaned. We haven’t seen the very same concerns on a lot of Coronary heart of the Conceal designs, and the foam-like wrist on the Coronary heart of the Disguise is incredible at hiding smells.

This class will come down to ease and comfort as opposed to longevity: which do you worth extra? The Sheepskin will sense fantastic for a while, but the HOH lining will final an eternity.

Available Models

At the time of this writing, there are about 20 available Pro Most popular models across the 9 positions on the industry. In the meantime, there are around 50 readily available Heart of the Disguise designs on Rawlings’ web page.

Though this looks like a night-and-day difference, a whole lot of the Coronary heart of the Conceal designs glimpse a bit funky. Confident, you can get a glove in a lot of distinct sizes, webs, and patterns, but some of the colorways on the styles are not my design and style.

The Pro Most well-liked choices are additional restricted, but they cover the very best designs that Rawlings features. They give lowkey colorways as properly, which is a massive in addition in my reserve. Hence, we give this classification to the Professional Preferred, as you still get the designs you want, albeit with much less flamboyant colorways.

MLB Use

When we broke down the range of active players in our databases who employed Rawlings, we discovered about an even break up among players who utilised a Professional Preferred and individuals who applied a Heart of the Cover. This spherical is a draw.

The most noteworthy players who use the Professional Favored line are Carlos Correa, Javier Baez, Manny Machado, and Mike Trout. Noteworthy HOH customers involve Nolan Arenado, Bryce Harper, and Cody Bellinger.

My Verdict

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Of course, a big factor in this discussion is the value. A Heart of the Cover expenses $300, although a Professional Most popular charges $380.

Regardless of the steeper cost, when it arrives to the value offered by each glove, we have to place the Pro Most well-liked on prime. Quite a few corporations present a fantastic steerhide glove, but number of companies certainly offer you a leading-of-the-line Kip leather-based glove. And for $80 additional, it is challenging to conquer the benefit you get. With that said, the longevity of a Coronary heart of the Cover is fantastic, but it wasn’t sufficient to sway my vote.

If you’re seeking for a higher-stop Rawlings glove, appear no even further than the Pro Desired.

Here are some of our favourite Pro Chosen models:

• Infield: Execs204-2C, an 11.5” mitt with an I-web
• Outfield: Pros3039-6TN, a 12.75” outfield glove with an H-web
• Catcher: The only option, but a great a person at that – PROSCM43JR10, a 34” catcher’s mitt
• 1st Foundation: PROSDCTCC, a 13” First Foundation Glove
• Pitcher: Execs205-30C, an 11.75″ mitt with a grip-concealing two-piece net