Retired MLB Player Launches Premium Youth Glove Company

EAST GREENBUSH — Kevin Smith, an East Greenbush native whose MLB career culminated with a stint on the 2024 New York Yankees, has a new venture keeping him busy during retirement: a premium youth glove company called Kali Gloves.

Smith, a Columbia High School grad who also played with the Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland Athletics, co-founded Kali Gloves with Matt Talarico, the Yankees’ former director of speed and baserunning.

The idea for their new collaboration was born in the Yankees clubhouse, where players and staffers struggled to find a high-quality, customizable leather glove specifically designed for kids and little leaguers. Smith began taking matters, quite literally, into his own hands.

“We started to cut up gloves in the locker room,” Smith told Saratoga TODAY. “I was cutting up my own gloves trying to figure out a way to make them easier to close [and] have them fit little kids’ hands better…We took our experience of seeing kids always using the wrong glove, making it harder for them to be good at playing catch and play the game and have fun, and we paired it with as many innovations as we could to say, ‘Okay, this is the glove that I want my kid to have.’”

The key ingredient in the Kali Gloves recipe is Japanese kip leather, which is lighter and softer than traditional rawhide, but durable enough to hold its shape after years of wear, tear, and ground balls. It’s also easier to break in, and it does a better job molding itself to the smaller hands of young athletes.

According to Talarico, one unnamed MLB All-Star said he liked a Kali glove designed for Talarico’s daughter better than four custom gloves designed just for him. “He couldn’t believe there was a youth glove that felt like that,” Talarico said in a message posted to the Kali website.

This All-Star apparently wasn’t the only major leaguer to try out a Kali glove. Smith said that Yankees ace Max Fried recently wore one at Yankee Stadium.

“A lot of former players and coaches are buying it for their kids,” Smith said. “That was the best thing because they’ve been around the game for so long.” 

The swanky-looking gloves are all 10.5 inches, an ideal size for kids learning baseball basics. They also feature elastic wrist laces that prevent slipping and sliding, elastic finger loops that ensure correct hand placement, and palm slits that help the gloves maintain their shape and performance over time. All told, the Kali glove distinguishes itself from both cheaper competitors and pricier custom gloves that can sometimes take up to a year to receive. (By contrast, a mint-colored Kali glove imported from Japan takes only 3-4 weeks to arrive.)

Smith said that designing and manufacturing these youth gloves began as a hobby, but soon blossomed into a booming business.

“We went through a bunch of prototypes that started catching on and a lot of people were interested in them, so we figured we’d make a few more, and it’s been really fun,” Smith said. “The long-term vision is to be a youth athletic company trying to make premium products for kids, ones that help them play the game and love the game better.”

It might not be long before Smith, who is settling into a post-playing career in Arizona, starts designing gloves for his own kids: an 18-month-old and a 7-month-old.

“I got to play in the big leagues and my wife traveled with me and we had a lot of fun but now we’re trying to grow a family, and the hotel life with two little kids wasn’t going to be ideal,” Smith said. “My family still lives in Albany [and] we’re in [Arizona] raising a family.”

Last season, Smith played in two games for the Yankees, the team he grew up idolizing as a youngster. “I was one of those kids watching [Derek] Jeter every night,” Smith told the YES Network’s Jack Curry during spring training.

Perhaps now, young New Yorkers watching the Bronx Bombers on TV will have better gloves to bring with them to the ballpark.

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