Mizuno Prospect vs Wilson A500: the easy-close glove against the leather one

The verdict

PowerClose vs welted leather

A glove closes at a hinge that runs from the heel through the web. Everything a maker does to that line decides whether a kid can shut the glove with the hand inside it. Mizuno attacks the line directly: PowerClose is its branded hinge, and the Less 2 Lacing is a listed, specific change to the lacing pattern along the closing axis. The Parashock palm pad is the second half of the same argument, because a kid who expects the catch to sting closes the glove late.

Wilson does the opposite on purpose. Rolled dual welting is a strip of leather sewn between the shell and the lining at the finger seams, which makes the fingers hold their shape and the pocket hold a ball. The front-side double palm adds a second layer where the ball lands. Both of those make the glove better in its second season and harder to use in its first week.

That is the whole trade. It is also why the squeeze test on the youth glove size chart decides this page for you faster than any spec sheet: put the glove on the kid's hand in the store and have him shut it with that hand alone.

Pigskin against full-grain cowhide

Mizuno lists the Prospect as full-grain pigskin. Wilson lists the A500 as full-grain leather with leather laces. Pigskin is softer, lighter and cheaper, and it is why the Prospect arrives usable; it is also why it loses its shape sooner than cowhide under a season of real throws. Neither maker publishes a thickness figure, so we are not going to invent one. What is on the record is the material name, and the material name tells you what to expect: the Prospect is the glove that is best on day one, the A500 is the glove that is best in month six.

Sizes and webs on offer

One practical note that the table hides: the A500 line stretches to 12.5 in, so a kid who starts in an A500 can stay in the family through 13. The Prospect PowerClose stops being the right glove around 11, because by then the hinge is solving a problem he no longer has.

Which one at which age

• Ages 7–8. Prospect PowerClose 11 in. Closing the glove is still the whole game.
• Ages 9–10, first real glove. A500 10.5 in if he closes a glove easily; Prospect 11.5 in if he does not.
• Ages 10–12, plays several positions. A500 11.5 in utility, and plan a break-in week.
• Ages 11–13, one position, plays a lot. Neither. Step up to an all-leather glove with a small-hand pattern: see best gloves for a 10-year-old and A500 vs Rawlings R9.

Side by side

Both gloves outlast a rec season and neither is a mistake. The error is buying the stiffer one for a kid who cannot close it, discovering it in week two, and concluding he cannot catch.