Headed to the ball park but forgot your glove? Don’t worry, the Atlanta Braves have got you covered.
At the Braves’ new ball park, which is opening in 2017, visitors will be able to borrow gloves — for free. That way they can catch foul balls and homers without relying on their bare hands.
“We want fans to be really comfortable when they come to games,” said Braves President of Business Derek Schiller. “We haven’t found that this has ever been done before.”
The gloves will be available at two kiosks when fans enter SunTrust Park. There will be plenty of gloves on display that fans can choose from.
While they are free to check out, fans must leave either a credit card or driver’s license in order to prevent theft.
Schiller compared it to the concept of going to the bowling alley and getting a pair of shoes: You pay to bowl, but the shoes come free.
After the game, visitors can either return the glove or, if they think they’ve found a lucky one, purchase it. For those who want a new model, Mizuno will offer exact copies in its store that can be personalized.
Schiller said they hope to eventually offer pro-model gloves that can be rented by fans.
“Famous Braves like Chipper Jones [and] Tom Glavine used Mizuno gloves,” he said. “We anticipate fans would want to rent replicas of the very special kind of gloves that might be associated with one of their favorite players.”
These gloves would likely carry a small fee to rent since they’d be considered an upgrade. So far this is still in the conceptual phase.
The glove kiosks are sponsored by Mizuno as part of a new partnership with the Braves that was announced Wednesday. Mizuno is also the Braves’ official baseball gear partner. Through the partnership Mizuno will open its first U.S. retail store in the new Battery Atlanta development where SunTrust Park is being built.
SunTrust Park seats 41,000 people and is scheduled to be open by the Braves’ first home game on April 13, 2017.