If the Glove Fits.....

Gloversville, NY, is located in upstate New York, about an hours drive outside of Albany, at the base of the Adirondack mountains. The area provides much of the raw resources needed to make gloves; an abundance of furs and leather as well as bark for tanning. In the early 19th century, the little village became an epicenter for glove making, thus giving the town it’s name when the first post office opened in 1828.

One of my assignments here is to photograph recently retired glove maker Bob Perrella. I get him to pose in front of one of his old shops.

After our shoot, Perrella asks me to follow as he slowly makes his way down the basement steps of his house. His arthritic knees of 82 years make the trek even more difficult.

Downstairs, stacked against the wall, are the remnants of his glove making business.

Perrella is a second generation glove maker. His parents started the business years ago. And when Bob and his brother were old enough, they too joined the family business that he ran up until recently.

Bob Perrella pulls out one of the boxes stacked against the cold wall in his basement. He opens it up and pulls out a few gloves. “You can’t afford to make these any more,” he says as he goes through the box. Glove making today has mostly moved overseas to China and other countries where labor is cheap, reducing costs and undercutting American glove makers. Gone too is some of the quality as Bob shows off the inside of one of his fur lined gloves.

These are not simple work gloves. Some are the elegant, long gloves similar to the ones Audrey Hepburn wore in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

And there are stacks of them in Bob’s basement, along with cutting dies and old photographs.

The town that got its name from being a major hub for glove making has lost many of the companies that made it the center of the glove making world. And when Bob Perrella retired, the town lost one more.