Future of the Business World Podcast · Wharton Global Youth Program

The Art, Business and Community of Baseball Gloves

February 18, 2025·22 min·1 clip

A friend in Japan translated Ryan’s ideas so he could commission a fully customized glove with his own drawings.

Future of the Business World opens with Ryan Pat introducing himself as a senior at St. Sebastian's School in Needham, Massachusetts. He keeps his business centered on baseball gloves. The shop runs on Instagram, where he posts gloves, talks to buyers, and moves deals through direct messages. He explains that the work includes buying, selling, trading, fixing, and designing gloves. Rare gloves and game-used gloves sit near the center of that model. The host keeps pushing on the practical side of the business. Ryan talks about the materials, the labor, and the amount of detail needed to restore a glove well. He describes how that work changed the way he thought about charging for break-ins and restorations. At a certain point, he decided to stop charging for that work. He says the money was never the real point for him in that part of the business. He prefers being around leather and doing the work itself. He also points out the liability side of the decision. If he does not charge, there is less room for complaints and refunds. That makes the arrangement easier to manage. He also says the time involved makes the money feel small anyway. The real revenue, he says, comes from buying and selling gloves. That shift gives the episode a practical edge. It shows how a young entrepreneur learns what parts of a business are worth monetizing and what parts are better treated as craft or service. The conversation then turns to Instagram itself. Ryan treats it as more than a storefront. It is where the gloves can be shown visually. It is where customers can respond quickly. It is where transactions can move fast without a long sales process. He also sees it as a community space. People engage with posts, offer feedback, and ask for help designing gloves. The host follows that thread and lets him describe how the collector world forms around those exchanges. That keeps the episode grounded in a real niche rather than a generic business pitch. Late in the conversation, the topic shifts toward branding and athlete entrepreneurs. Ryan brings up Shaquille O'Neal as someone who used his name and public image to build businesses. He connects that to the larger lesson that branding can be powerful even when the starting point is small. The closing question pushes him to imagine building a business from scratch with no money, only his name. That ending gives the interview a wider frame without losing the original subject. The show stays patient throughout. It lets a student entrepreneur explain his own path in plain language. It then organizes that story into the language of markets, pricing, process, and reputation.

As heard by us

A glove shop on Instagram becomes a tight look at labor, liability, and collector culture.

The episode follows Ryan Pat, a Needham, Massachusetts senior at St. Sebastian's School, as he turns an Instagram baseball glove shop into a story about work, taste, and community.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Hear how a high school baseball glove shop turns Instagram into a real marketplace.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Future of the Business World Podcast