Fast Radius and Rawlings Partner to Make Baseball Glove

Fast Radius, a digital manufacturing company, has partnered with Rawlings and 3D printing technology company Carbon to manufacture the major baseball brand’s newest release, the REV1X glove. This glove features 3D-printed lattice inserts, developed with cloud manufacturing technology, for performance-enhancing capabilities.

The new REV1X glove uses an intricate lattice design in the pinky and thumb inserts. The lattice, made using the Carbon Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) 3D printing process, is lightweight and flexible without sacrificing protection or durability, the companies say. The inserts don’t wear out easily and provide playability and improved ball handling on the field, the companies add. 

Rawlings had identified the Carbon DLS process as the best way to make the thumb and pinky inserts for its new glove and reportedly needed a partner who could ramp up to mass market production. As the largest, Carbon Production Network partner in North America, Fast Radius had the infrastructure, software and expert technicians to make these parts.

With Fast Radius, Rawlings was able to quickly move from prototyping to production, manufacturing the gloves at scale so baseball players anywhere—from within the Major Leagues to high school ball fields—could access the future of baseball equipment. Rawlings, known for its equipment, also wanted to ensure each glove met their standards and expectations. Fast Radius’ strength in producing repeatable, reliable and consistent parts at scale helped make that vision a reality, the companies report.

“With our Cloud Manufacturing Platform and our expertise in additive, we were able to execute on a complex manufacturing process and get the REV1X gloves to market faster,” says John Nanry, chief manufacturing officer at Fast Radius. 

“We needed someone who could make our REV1X glove design a reality, and we found that in Fast Radius,” says Ryan Farrar, senior director of ball gloves at Rawlings. “The glove is transformative for everyone in the baseball industry—both professionals and amateurs alike.”

Fast Radius’ Cloud Manufacturing Platform, custom solutions and expertise combined with Carbon’s 3D printing technology, enabled Rawlings to manufacture lattice inserts at scale for mass production and get the glove out of development and onto the diamond as quickly as possible, companies report.

“The REV1X glove is validation that our DLS process accelerates time to market by producing functional prototypes that are ready for mass scale. The lattice insert is a major milestone in glove design and brings the latest in additive manufacturing to baseball,” says Philip DeSimone, co-founder, chief product and business development officer at Carbon.  

The REV1X glove is now available online from Rawlings, Dick’s Sporting Goods and JustBallGloves.com.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

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