For more than a century, J.C. Newman has celebrated the tradition of baseball and cigars. This legacy continues with the new Home Run Humidor. Handcrafted in America by Jason LeGear, owner and craftsman of Milwaukee Humidor Company, the Home Run Humidor is a series of fifty unique cigar humidors made from game-used professional baseball bats. The first humidor will be unveiled this weekend at the Premium Cigar Association trade show in New Orleans.
“Baseball and cigars go hand-in-glove,” said fourth-generation owner Drew Newman. “These unique humidors are shaped like home plate with five sides. They were handcrafted from broken bats provided by a professional baseball team. Due to league rules, I am not able to disclose the team.”
The humidors are made from American Maple and Birch wood and European Beech wood from the baseball bats. Walnut details, sourced in Wisconsin by LeGear, mimic the stitching of a baseball. LeGear carefully repurposed each game-used baseball bat into veneers in order to transform them into one-of-a-kind humidors. In 2023, he handcrafted The American All-Star Humidor from the 2011 NBA All-Star Game court. Last year, he created humidors for the Tampa Bay Lightning with game-used pucks. He recently launched Milwaukee Humidor Co.’s premier product, the Modern Drybox, a humidor specially designed for dryboxing cigars.
“Any opportunity to incorporate handcraft and engineering into art is a challenge I am excited to step up to the plate for,” said LeGear. “The Home Run Humidor is the pinnacle of functional humidor design for me as a craftsman. The biggest challenge has been rendering baseball bats, a notoriously round object, into flat veneer, and then meticulously hand-seaming each individual piece into a cohesive whole, as well as designing a functional humidor of a non-standard shape. Every baseball and cigar enthusiast will be thrilled to be a part of the unique history and celebration of America’s national pastime every time they open the Home Run Humidor to enjoy a cigar.”
Because the wood used in the bats varies, each of the 50 humidors is a unique work of art. Each humidor has a capacity of 100 to 125 cigars and will include 25 Tampa Smokers cigars. The suggested retail price is $2,000. These special humidors will be ready to ship this summer. LeGear will be available at the trade show to meet with retailers and showcase his craft.
This is the fourth of five new products that J.C. Newman will be introducing at the PCA Trade Show this weekend.
