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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Give 'em a hand

Winnipeg institution Raber Glove is still cranking out the classic winter warmer: THE GARBAGE MITT

By: Connie Tamoto / Fashion

30/01/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 1

(KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Our city is filled with all sorts of only-in-Winnipeg gems -- Sals, Kelekis, Old Dutch, the Nutty Club and Raber Glove, just to name a few.

What, never heard of Raber Glove before? Don't worry -- neither had I, until I did a Google search for Winnipeg glove manufacturers and the company's website popped up. Let me tell you, I felt like a prospector who just struck it rich during the gold rush when I clicked on the link to the site.

After a brief browse I just knew I had to feature this company -- a Winnipeg fashion institution (I'm not kidding) that was right here under my nose all this time.

Raber Glove was founded in 1941 by Abraham Raber and his son (Abraham, I should mention, was already well known in the glove business for manufacturing dress/fancy gloves for the Eaton's catalogue service during the '30s).

While the company no longer manufactures their dress gloves for the consumer retail market, they are still ordered and worn by several municipal police departments, including ones in Winnipeg, Ottawa, the RCMP, OPP, the Canadian military and Rhode Island state troopers (these troopers were named the nation's best dressed by late-night funnyman David Letterman).

Now most of you, I am assuming, weren't in the business of ordering from the Eaton's catalogue in the '30s, but my guess is you're probably familiar with another fabulous product Raber Glove manufactures -- the Garbage Mitt.

"We all grew up with a pair of them," says Howard Raber, owner and grandson of Abraham. "We had our friends' phone numbers on them, we played street hockey with them and the name 'Garbage Mitt' is part of Winnipeg folklore."

The mitt, you see, was named here in Winnipeg after the kinds of mitts garbage men wore back in the day. Raber is hoping to have the name trademarked this year, making the Garbage Mitt title official.

Each year, thousands of these loud-clapping, hand-warming classic Winnipeg winter essentials are created for kids and adults alike. And according to Raber, beige is still the colour of choice.

In addition to their retail market, Raber Glove also created gloves for a few Hollywood flicks, including The Arrow (the Dan Ackroyd flick about the Avro Arrow), the fighter pilot gloves for Pearl Harbour, Jim Carrey's gloves in Me, Myself & Irene, and George Eads' gloves in the made-for-TV movie Evel Knievel.

Gloves fit for heroes, truly Winnipeg mitts and some Hollywood props -- Raber Glove is one of those Winnipeg gems I am happy to have dug up.

connietamotofashion@hotmail.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 30, 2010 F10

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1 Comments

Posted by: Susan

January 31, 2010 at 7:12 AM

Oh my goodness, thank you sooo much for this article.For years my mother has been scouring the country looking for garbage mitts and people look at her as if she is crazy. We thought they were no longer manufactured. I can’t wait to call her this morning with the good news, she lives in Calgary.