BRUCE BOLT's partnership with RBI Austin

BRUCE BOLT has been an interesting journey, to say the least. A few months ago, Bear and I met with Matt Price and Amanda Terry from RBI Austin, a non-profit affiliated with the MLB whose mission is to “engage and develop inner-city Austin youth athletically, academically, and spiritually, empowering them to lead the transformation of their communities”.  

RBI Austin -- Leighton & Booker from RBI Austin on Vimeo.

In a previous post, I discussed BRUCE BOLT’s desire to give back to the baseball community.  After a lot of consideration, Bear and I decided that for every pair of our 2019 “Natural Series” Batting Gloves that we sell, we are going to give a pair of gloves to players in underserved communities. While batting gloves aren’t necessary to actually play, Bear and I believe batting gloves are that one piece of equipment that gives players a little bit of swagger at the plate and a cool factor when they are sticking out of their pockets in the field - something that can make these great kids feel special.  

As fate would have it, we were pointed in the direction of RBI Austin, a faith-based, non-profit that mentors youth in the underserved communities of East Austin.  

In the first week of October, Bear and I got to meet with Matt Price and Amanda Terry from RBI Austin.  We had a great conversation about college baseball, Bear’s knuckleball, Amanda’s former employment with the worst :) organization in baseball (the Red Sox who had just beat our Astros in 5) and how RBI started.  We talked about our mission to give back and how we wanted to do it.

In 2019, RBI Austin expects to have 1300 baseball and softball players, ages 7 - 15, participate in their summer leagues.  The more we’ve researched RBI Austin and the more we’ve discovered how deep their commitment to mentoring kids through faith, academics and athletics actually is, the more I know this is the right organisation to support.  

So that’s our goal. We need to sell at least 1300 pairs of our new Buckskin gloves between January and June.

Bear and I are excited to work with Matt, Amanda and all of RBI Austin on this worthwhile cause.  It’s going to be exciting to see the smiles on the faces of all these great kids.