Inventing a Soccer Ball for Poor Countries

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/giving/the-one-world-futbol-promises-a-lasting-source-of-fun-in-poor-countries.html?hp

by mhb • 14 years ago

199 122 14 years ago

nytimes.com

sabret00the3• 14 years ago

Obligatory "it's football not soccer" comment from the Brit.

That aside, this is a fabulous thing. Anyone can play football in tight spaces with a group and on their own. Being the biggest sport on the planet, it's a marvellous thing that you can go literally anywhere and ask someone to play a game and you pretty much all know the simple rules. I'll always get behind things like this.

EnderMB• 14 years ago

Agreed. Some of my happiest times playing football were on a small side street using a dustbin as a goal net. There's a reason it's by far the most popular sport in the world and as such this news can only be a good thing.

capdiz• 14 years ago

If any of you is ever in Uganda hit me up for a game of football. That aside i wish this had come when i was still younger. I remember inflating polythene that was used for packaging 1ltr milk sachets and using tyre tubes as strings for holding up these packagings and for football we lived. I should post a how to video for that come to think of it.

LargeWu• 14 years ago

If you're going to be pedantic, then you might as well at least go all the way. The sport is called "association football". It is correct for Americans to call it soccer because, well, that's the most common name for it here.

gokhan• 14 years ago

It seems that, as only Americans call it soccer, only Americans think it's real name is "association football".

kinleyd• 14 years ago

Not a Brit, but yeah, it is football to the world at large.

Congratulations to Sting and Tim Jahnigen, this is heart warming.

Regarding the cost of the balls, I think when you factor in a 30 year life and assume a cost of $30 per ball, we are looking at a $1/year cost. The up front cost might be higher, and that is an issue, but the actual cost per ball/year is a heckuva lot less. I'm not sure what kind of calculation Unicef is doing when they say “compared to the $2.50 we pay for a regular football, the current cost difference for the more durable solution is currently too high.”

froseph• 14 years ago

Their funds are finite and the increased cost of a football would take away funds for other goods and services which they deliver. They need to prioritize their the current needs and demands, not just optimize for the long term cost of a football.

GFischer2• 14 years ago

It is a great idea, if it works like they say it does :) .

I've seen foam footballs before... (after google search):

http://www.decathlon.es/balon-futbol-de-espuma-kipsta-foam-i...

and they're much cheaper than the proposed one (you can get them for 1-2 dollars), but probably way less durable.

"A lion at the Johannesburg Zoo, who would go through six regular balls a day, played with two balls. A German shepherd spent a year biting on a ball. In every case, the balls withstood the abuse."

That does sound durable. As stated, U$ 40 is way too expensive for a ball, so the only way it will work is if they continue giving them away as part of relief efforts.

Unicef: "“compared to the $2.50 we pay for a regular football, the current cost difference for the more durable solution is currently too high.”"

And the shipping problems are also a hindrance.

"because the balls cannot be deflated, they are more difficult to ship"

narag2• 14 years ago

I've seen foam footballs before...

I've played with it, my son has one. It has a weird way of bouncing, compared to inflated ones.

DanBC2• 14 years ago

Build a factory "over there" and provide employment opportunities. This helps develop infrastructure in a sustainable useful way.

This also provides income replacement for the little children who are no longer stitching traditional footballs.

(http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-09-27/rest-...)

[1] Sorry for the "over there" which is a lazy perhaps offensive way to refer to the developing world.

brudgers5• 14 years ago

In Britain, the game is called "Association Football" to distinguish it from Gaelic, rugby, and other forms of football.

The game is officially, "soccer" in the U.S. [United Sates Soccer Federation] and Canada [Canadian Soccer Association].

FIFA calls the game beach soccer, "Beach Soccer." It is played under the "Beach Soccer Laws of the Game."

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/52/76...

sabret00the3• 14 years ago

I ignored the other comment, but since people are trying to quote stuff, I feel it's important to put it right. Football is the official name in the United Kingdom and especially England. We don't have the Association Football Association but rather the Football Association. It doesn't not have a prefix when it's referred to in any form of media at all. 'Beach Soccer' has no relevance here.

nollidge• 14 years ago

You may already be aware of this, but the word "soccer" in fact comes from shortening the word "association":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_for_association_football

Dylan16807• 14 years ago

Then I'll throw in the obligatory counter that the term 'soccer' was coined in Britain.

mongol• 14 years ago

It is my belief that the common usage of this word will be an indicator when the English language stops being defined by its native speakers and starts being defined by its more numerable foreign speakers.

In most languages, it is called something very similar to football.

Since I don't have a native English language, I prefer to call it football for that reason. I don't give a damn about its history, soccer's origin as association football, etc etc.

Football is Fussball is fotboll is futbol is fudbold is futebol is futball is fútbol is ..

lmm2• 14 years ago

Football is what the English, who have the best claim to being native speakers of English, call it.

jacalata• 14 years ago

No it won't, it'll indicate when the sporting options available to people have shrunk so that they no longer need words to differentiate between football (soccer), football (gaelic), football (Aussie Rules), football (rugby league), football (rugby union), football (gridiron) and any other kinds I'm not aware of.

mmanfrin• 14 years ago

Up until a few years ago, a lot of the english-speaking world called it soccer: Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the US, Canada. It is called 'sokker' in Afrikaans. Additionally, in Japan is is most commonly called 'sakka'.

Brits were truly the only ones calling it Football.

mylittlepony• 14 years ago

In Argentina there is only one word for it: "fútbol"

protomyth• 14 years ago

I guess I'll make the obligatory American comment that we should ship them balls used for Stickball (American not Australian game) so when they grow up they would become fans of Baseball.

bryanlarsen2• 14 years ago

The article has a link to where you can buy one, but it's not called out as such. To make it easier for you to buy and/or donate to this awesome cause, here it is: http://www.oneworldfutbol.com/

netcan• 14 years ago

Fairly pricey. Even at bulk and without the built in donation they are $15-$20 in bulk.

JulianMayorga• 14 years ago

I agree it's really pricey. I remember when I was a kid, a lot of times we didn't have a ball and we used whatever round thing we had and still had A LOT of fun.

Let me tell you that scoring a goal with a can of coke it's priceless!

bryanlarsen2• 14 years ago

And shipping outside of the States doubles the price. The high cost makes it even more important to donate.

stevesearer4• 14 years ago

I think that the durability of the ball and its ability to outlast previously donated balls by many years makes the price acceptable. The article notes that standard inflatable balls will become useless in short order, whereas this ball might still be in use for years after it is donated.

utopkara• 14 years ago

An inflated football in the middle of a game of 10 kids stopped because of a punctured ball is priceless.

Bought 1, and will take 1 with me to my hometown next summer. This is not a cure for inequality, it will only make a temporary difference for the little people who are bound to suffer a lot further in their lives. I don't have any illusions of having done my part or anything, which is something that is being marketed at Starbucks with fairly traded coffee, donations etc. This is something I am doing, because I want the kids to be happier right now.

jasonkostempski2• 14 years ago

YouTube/Hulu ad campaign: Black screen, large font "Give Balls", small font "oneworldfutbol.com", 5 seconds. How much would something like that cost to run for a week?

Goronmon• 14 years ago

Then he happened to be having breakfast with Sting, a friend from his days in the music business. Mr. Jahnigen told him how soccer helped the children in Darfur cope with their troubles and his efforts to find an indestructible ball. Sting urged Mr. Jahnigen to drop everything and make the ball. Mr. Jahnigen said that developing the ball might cost as much as $300,000. Sting said he would pay for it.

Well...that's always helpful.

josefresco• 14 years ago

Always helpful to know a super rich guy whom you can have lunch with and propose business ideas to. Funding aside, I'm sure it helped to have Sting's backing when this guy was approaching material producers and manufacturers and other corporations for sponsorship. I'm happy that it did get done, but how far would an average hacker get without those kind of connections? I suspect the startup cost would have been larger.

debacle2• 14 years ago

Sting: Like Bono, without the douche?

jff• 14 years ago

Somebody never watched Dune.

kanamekun• 14 years ago

True! However what's amazing is that with a vision like this, he could have pretty easily funded this through Kickstarter... and given out indestructible soccer balls as a reward. I would've funded something like this in a second... it's a powerful vision.

NathanKP3• 14 years ago

Essentially they do the same thing as One Laptop Per Child. You buy one and a third world child gets one. They didn't go through Kickstarter but I think the model they use is more effective anyway.

brudgers5• 14 years ago

That's just the startup/angel investor template.

aortega• 14 years ago

> Mr. Jahnigen told him how soccer helped the children in Darfur cope with their troubles and his efforts to find an indestructible ball.

Indestructible balls will only lead to a race of stronger, indestructible-ball-destroyer children.

qq66• 14 years ago

That's what Kickstarter is doing very successfully -- turning the Internet into your rich friend who sponsors your projects.

Evbn• 14 years ago

Years ago I saw a video where kids made a ball by blowing up a condom and covering it with some srap fabric.

hammock2• 14 years ago

That's not too far from what an actual ball is. Much better than a trash & string ball.

anothermachine4• 14 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57ndLGhffwE

rickmb• 14 years ago

The great thing about soccer is that even having an actual soccer ball is not a necessity. Empty cans, ragged tennis balls, anything will do. This used to be perfectly fine in the first world country I grew up in, so although this is a great product, it doubt it will make as much of a difference as the author suggest. Kids will play soccer and enjoy it no matter what.

Millennium• 14 years ago

The point is not so much to get kids playing soccer: they do that on their own. The point is safety: if the ball holds up, they won't resort to making their own from unsafe materials.

ScottWhigham2• 14 years ago

"In May, Chevrolet, the General Motors division, agreed to buy 1.5 million One World Futbols over the next three years and donate them to needy children. "

"At the end of September, the factory in Taiwan that produces the balls has been working two shifts a day to meet its target of 45,000 balls a month."

Do we have a production problem? Maybe I missed it but it seems so. If Chevrolet is buying 1.5m balls in three years, that's 500,000 balls per year. If production is ideally reaching 45,000 balls per month, that's leaving very few for defects and other buyers.

The other thing I thought of is that, if the ball is virtually indestructible, at some point there are enough balls deployed/in-place and we can stop production all together, right? At 500,000+ balls per year, how many years will it take before everyone who wants one has one? I know there are a lot of poor areas but surely there's a number at which point critical mass has been reached.

Avshalom• 14 years ago

well at 6 billion people on the planet and growing they might just run out of an market in a few thousand years.

ScottWhigham2• 14 years ago

??? The market is poor countries/people who cannot afford soccer balls. That's hardly 6 billion.

devin• 14 years ago

Maybe this guy could pivot and invent a soccer ball that feeds starving people.

debacle2• 14 years ago

The real pivot would be soccer-balls-as-a-service.

phy62• 14 years ago

Meat balls!

moheeb• 14 years ago

Cut it in half and hollow it out.

nicpottier2• 14 years ago

I live in Rwanda and see kids playing with the trash/string balls all the time (among other toys they build out of random waste). I really don't see the point. The kids have plenty of fun with their homegrown balls.

Just as the cardboard box the toy came in came be more fun than the toy alone, the fun of playing with a ball doesn't come from it being a 'proper' ball, but rather than it is a game to be played with others.

This is a first world solution to a problem that it created to make itself feel warm and fuzzy inside.

filip01• 14 years ago

Do you play soccer? For someone with a real appreciation for the game, I'd say there's a huge difference between a trash/string ball and a proper soccer ball. Or maybe I'm just narrow minded.

hammock2• 14 years ago

And this ball probably isn't for) those people. Sort of how you can tell when a basketball or a football is not regulation, or one of those self-inflating ones. It's just not the same and won't satisfy a player who wants a "proper" ball (get them a regulation ball)

stevesearer4• 14 years ago

I agree. While I don't live in Rwanda, I have been there a couple times and played soccer both with college students and young children. In all instances, we played with the best ball available.

juliano_q• 14 years ago

I agree. As a brazilian I grew up playing soccer with anything available, and the joy to have a proper ball for a kid is amazing. Also there is a much better chance for a kid to evolve his skills and maybe be a professional player if he have a decent ball to learn the game.

NathanKP3• 14 years ago

I've never played soccer with a ball made of trash but I'm sure that this ball would be seen as better by any child comparing it to a ball made of trash.

Sure first world quality soccer balls aren't necessary for children to have fun, but there is nothing wrong with an intelligent entrepreneur making them available to third world children.

If we all spent more time on projects like this instead of the next Twitter, or designing new weapons the world would arguably end up a better place.

DanBC2• 14 years ago

> but there is nothing wrong with an intelligent entrepreneur making them available to third world children.

Unless money is diverted from more useful projects to buying balls?

I don't have enough information to say. Personally, I think this is a good project.

nicpottier2• 14 years ago

  " If we all spent more time on projects like this instead of the next 
   Twitter, or designing new weapons the world would arguably end
   up a better place."

This is an all too common attitude and one I used to share before spending time in the developing world. The plain fact though is that it is wrong.

Doing something is not always better than doing nothing. As a matter of fact a great many things, perhaps even most, interventions do more harm than good.

I'd recommend starting off reading "White Man's Burden" if you are interested in the topic. For a more fun example, google "one million t-shirts for africa"

slykat• 14 years ago

What's wrong with trying to build a Twitter?

Twitter was instrumental to communication during the Arab Spring. In general, it has served as a very nimble and functional communication medium that has, in some cases, surpassed the speed and breath of news networks for covering events in real time.

Open and powerful platforms like Facebook and Twitter aren't just outlets for wasting your time, but can be used in meaningful and impactful ways. The game is far from over - we still need people to build products like Twitter .

antidoh2• 14 years ago

The guy making the ball didn't create the problem, except in a very indirect and academic way. He certainly can't stop the problem. But he can can make a contribution today. Good on him.

corin_• 14 years ago

It's not a problem that needs to be solved, but that doesn't mean an improvement isn't worth having.

I went to a private school in England - about as far removed as the kids this ball is aimed at - and therefore for us money was never the problem, but sometimes due to various reasons we'd be playing football in school breaks using a tennis ball, and we'd much preferred to have a real football to play with but happened not to that day. That doesn't take away from the fact that we still enjoyed ourselves with the tennis ball, and no doubt if circumstances had required it we could have enjoyed ourselves with a self-made ball.

The current solution doesn't have to be unenjoyable for this to be a great improvement

brudgers5• 14 years ago

The durable ball potentially changes the economics of building community organizations based upon sports. Organized sport may be used as a less belligerent means of expressing community solidarity and a relatively healthy outlet for rivalries between communities.

While this may be marketed on the basis of "Do it for the children," sport specifically and play in general are important mechanisms of adult social interaction. Futbol is no more a child's game than dominoes.

aes256• 14 years ago

> Organized sport may be used as a less belligerent means of expressing community solidarity and a relatively healthy outlet for rivalries between communities.

Tangentially related to this point, I've often wondered if this is simply a zero-sum game, and the unity you gain through supporting a particular team comes at the cost of disunity with supporters of other teams.

Sports team rivalries produce all kinds of stupidity the world over. People are routinely killed or severely injured simply because of the sports team they support.

DanielStraight2• 14 years ago

I see a lot of reasons to think otherwise:

According to the article, regular balls are already being donated but usually go flat quickly. This basically means donations are currently being wasted. If this wasted money can be redirected into something which will not be wasted, that seems like a definite win.

Further, balls are not just used for neighborhood games, but by organizations which use football as a tool for reaching other goals. If these organization are at all helpful, scrounging in the trash for materials to make balls is probably not a good use of their time. An organization may need dozens of balls, and if a trash ball only lasts for an hour (just a guess, I've never played football with a trash ball), then they may need over a hundred of them a day. The opportunity cost of the time spent making trash balls is probably higher than the cost of these balls, especially if they can truly last for years.

You could apply the same thinking about opportunity cost to the children's time. If play is important for children and if making balls out of trash is not play, then giving them more time to focus on play is a win.

Having cool things seems to be universally enjoyable. This gives the children something cool, probably adding to the fun of playing.

Digging in the trash is probably a lot less safe than playing football.

According to the corporation's website, 20 million deflated balls are discarded in Africa every year. If these balls last longer, there will be an environmental impact.

And finally, the main ways other charity attempts backfire (economic damage, not meeting the whole need [providing things the community can't maintain/support], giving a fish instead of teaching to fish, etc) seem to just not apply.

michael37• 14 years ago

Agree with most points, a real football beats trash and amplifies the positive experience many time over.

rowanseymour5• 14 years ago

I also live in Rwanda and whilst I don't agree with my friend's argument that playing football with a piece of trash is as much fun as playing with a real ball, I do agree with his conclusion that this a solution looking for a problem.

There's no doubt that kids will be happy if you give them a shiny new football. They'll also be happy if you give them a secondhand t-shirt or new pair of shoes. That makes for lots of donor 'feel good' and nice photos on your Facebook page, but that doesn't make it good aid.

If the priority here is to do something helpful for the developing world, and that's why they're willing to put all the required effort and money into this project, then why not start by asking the developing world what their pressing problems are? Ask a few developing country governments and see how many of them report a lack of good footballs as a pressing problem.

When people don't ask questions like that it's usually an indication that the aid is more about the donor than the recipient. This project sounds a lot like TOMS Shoes Buy One Give One which has been frequently criticized for being a donor oriented initiative with little long term benefit [1]. It might sound completely harmless to hand out free shoes to kids, but it ends up undermining local producers and sellers, and perpetuates a 'handout' aid culture.

[1] http://goodintents.org/in-kind-donations/toms-shoes http://www.nextbillion.net/blogpost.aspx?blogid=2345

curiousDog• 14 years ago

I strongly disagree. I grew up in uganda as an expat's kid (age 1-15). I used to play everyday with a lot of kids in the neighborhood. I was the only one with an actual fifa ball and they always waited for me with giddy eyes to show up on the local grounds despite having their own ingenious banana bark and kavera (plastic bag) balls. I made sure to give each one of them a ball when i left and most of them still treasured them when i went back a year ago. Sometimes it's not about a warm and fuzzy feeling. You have to see first hand how these kids live.

egonschiele• 14 years ago

I grew up in India and totally agree. Sure, playing with friends is what made it fun. But it was always better to play with durable toys. Nothing kills fun faster than a torn rubber ball during a game of cricket.

rowanseymour5• 14 years ago

Happy kids doesn't equal good aid. Are those footballs helping to improve the long term living conditions of those kids? If we have money and resources to help the developing world, assuming that actually is our goal, then shouldn't we strive to find interventions that actually have lasting impact?

shardling• 14 years ago

You could try asking the kids which they'd prefer.

vacri3• 14 years ago

It's nice to know that you've decided that your local kids are having enough fun, and that you've decided that there's a ceiling to it that they don't need to cross.

Ah, how I wish I had been told when I was younger "no more Lego for you, you're having plenty of fun with the one set you do have". I needed to have my wings clipped for my own good!

antidoh2• 14 years ago

Minimum viable help.

isabre• 14 years ago

Amazing story. Love the game and love the idea!

phy62• 14 years ago

Don't we have more pressing matters to devote brain power to?

ygra• 14 years ago

Sure. And there are plenty of people working on that, too. But maybe the skills to invent a durable non-inflatable football aren't needed so badly when trying to solve energy problems or trying to bring peace to Syria. Or should people having an idea scrap it immediately just because it's not the most pressing concern to the world at the moment?

jpxxx• 14 years ago

Exactly! What a risible waste of time and effort.

Now: take your pet, snap its neck, and throw it in the trash. Then make a list of your family members and sort them by value. Get the least essential ones out of your life, by hook or by crook. Finally, start removing your least essential fingers. You can type with just two! Focus, focus, focus. This world is made for Big Thinkers, Important Ideas, and Stuff That Matters. Like you, your worthless values, and your blithering cynicism! It's all about YOU!

jasonkostempski2• 14 years ago

Like commenting on HN?

Axsuul• 14 years ago

Like making another social app?

robotmay• 14 years ago

I laughed out loud on first reading this sentence (it could use an extra capital letter): "A German shepherd spent a year biting on a ball. In every case, the balls withstood the abuse."

Man that must have been one bored shepherd.

asnyder• 14 years ago

No idea why this wasn't mentioned, but http://soccket.org/ (a soccer ball that's also a generator) seems like it would be significantly more useful, while also satisfying the same fun purposes.

vacri3• 14 years ago

The core reasoning behind the foam ball was that inflatable balls don't even last a day.

tghw2• 14 years ago

I have one of these (and donated one). It's a pretty amazing ball.

There's another charity called Alive & Kicking[1] that makes more traditional balls. The main advantages are that the balls are actually made in Africa, giving people jobs, and the outside of the balls have HIV/AIDS awareness messages on them.

[1] http://www.aliveandkicking.org/

ebiester• 14 years ago

How does it feel as a ball? Can you give a short review?

tghw2• 14 years ago

The material feels like the Crocs foam, and I think it's a bit lighter than a regulation ball. It also squishes down more easily; you can flatten it by stepping on it, though it'll pop right back into shape. It also has different bounce characteristics than a regulation ball, I assume due to its weight and materials.

The biggest downside is that the one I got is slightly out of round, though for anyone playing on a dirt "field", it wouldn't matter that much.

Overall, it's kind of incredible what they've been able to do with it. That said, I wouldn't choose to use it over a regulation ball. But if it's all I had, I'd be glad to play with it.

sp332• 14 years ago

Why is GM spending millions of dollars on soccer balls? Didn't they go bankrupt recently?

Someone• 14 years ago

Marketing? Also, it is not as if 'millions' is a lot of money for them. They will spend half a billion or so sponsoring a football club (http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/30/uk-gm-manu-idUKBRE8...)

SystemOut• 14 years ago

Yes, but they came out of bankruptcy and are profitable again.

See https://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NYSE:GM.

For the nine months ending in September they increased their cash position by 7.2 billion if I'm looking at their financials correctly. Their net income for the last quarter was 1.8 billion.

ghoul2• 14 years ago

I am sorry, but I have to ask. Why ship bulky non-de-flatable balls from their manufacturing in China (presumably) or North America all the way to Sudan or Rwanda? All this is being run with donations anyway, right? Why not setup a ball-manufacturing unit somewhere in Africa? Something that uses the bare minimum of automation that still results in a decent product? Employ a few dozen/hundred locals, aid the economy, more or less solve the shipping problem. Its probably not easy, given political situation, but I am sure some location can be found out there? Won't that help even more?

I understand that something like the iPhone or a Tesla S cannot be manufactured out there. Supply chain issues, profitability concerns, reliability of production, etc etc. But these balls are anyway meant for Africa, they are meant to be given away, and they are supposed to be in a charitable cause. The complexity of production is (presumably) much much lower than manufacturing an iphone, there isn't much of a concern for profit, labour would be as cheap in Africa as it is in China, if not cheaper, and periodic disruptions in production won't affect the stock price of any large corporation.

So why not?

lmm2• 14 years ago

The article says they're made in Taiwan. The manufacturing process for fancy plastics can be quite complex, and the whole point of these balls is to be consistently high quality, something that would be hard to achieve with African production.

Not to mention that setting up your own factory is a massive amount of work compared to simply coming up with a design and outsourcing production to an existing supplier. Best to start with small steps for the first iteration.

fcc2• 14 years ago

http://www.aliveandkicking.org/what-we-do/

What We Do Alive & Kicking manufactures quality sports balls in Kenya, Zambia and Ghana. Our footballs (soccer balls), volleyballs, netballs, handballs and rugby balls generate employment for over 120 people, provide a product tailored for the African market and are used as a tool for raising health awareness.

Established in 2004 by the late Jim Cogan OBE, an inspirational teacher with a passion for African development, we are the only formal manufacturer of sports balls on the African continent. His vision was to see the large scale production of sports balls in Africa – to use the continent’s passion for football to boost local economies, provide children with the right equipment to play and to use sport to help combat the spread of deadly disease.

This vision drives Alive & Kicking to this day.

We are a social enterprise – an organisation that uses business practices to pursue our charitable objectives:

Creating sustainable employment in the manufacture of sports balls Ensuring that disadvantaged children have access to balls that are suitable for the conditions Using sport to raise health awareness in sub-Saharan Africa The standard Alive & Kicking ball is made of African leather, which makes it twice as resistant to puncture as the most robust synthetic ball on the market. This helps our balls to be competitive in African retail outlets, where the majority are sold. We also supply NGOs, companies (for CSR and marketing) and government departments.

Each of the 120 people that we employ typically supports an extended family of six people on their salary, so their jobs are extremely valuable to their communities. By focusing on sustainable solutions to real problems, Alive & Kicking is driving change in the communities in which we work.

rgo• 14 years ago

TL;DR: entrepreneur invents always-inflated, indestructible ball made of Crocs' foam, finds an investor (Sting) who sees a business opportunity selling to charities who cater to third world children. Now they're making ~$1M/month from customers such as GM and Unicef.

jadc• 14 years ago

It is true that this not a non-profit organization. It is a B corporation. According to Wikipedia: "A benefit corporation is a class of corporation required by law to create general benefit for society as well as for shareholders. Benefit corporations must create a material positive impact on society, and consider how their decisions affect their employees, community, and the environment. Moreover, they must publicly report on their social and environmental performances using established third-party standards."

How common are these B corps? Any other notable examples?

masterponomo• 14 years ago

Anyone else thinking such a ball would make an ideal "case" for a Raspberry Pi, especially once they add wi-fi to the R-Pi? Here's a ball, kids...BTW, it's a computer too. A kickable, waterproof, indestructible computer.

enraged_camel• 14 years ago

I was born and raised in Turkey. When I was little, I and the other kids in my neighborhood got together regularly and played soccer using crushed soda cans. While it was fun, there were several disadvantages:

1. They required one of us to purchase a soda (and chug it) 2. The cans only worked on asphalt and concrete. We couldn't play on grass. 3. Since the crushed cans had sharp edges, they ruined our shoes. 4. Occasionally they would take to the air and become dangerous flying projectiles.

That said, they were far more reliable than actual soccer balls, which we could buy easily from sporting stores. They didn't go flat (they already were, ha!) and didn't need to be inflated regularly.

GiraffeNecktie• 14 years ago

I'm not knocking this idea, but it would be so much better if the balls could be manufactured in Africa using locally sourced materials rather than paying a factory in Taiwan to make them and ship them around the globe.

jdhzzz• 14 years ago

How long before folks complain that the indestructible ball is, well, indestructible?

johnobrien1010• 14 years ago

I wonder if I'm the only one who wished someone would start a company to sell soccers balls at a low price point to poor people instead of donating them, as it seems a better solution then making uber expensive balls that are then sold on a buy one/donate one basis (looks like it's about $40 http://www.oneworldfutbol.com/shop/one-world-futbol/)?

Is that crazy?

kleiba• 14 years ago

"Then he happened to be having breakfast with Sting, a friend from his days in the music business."

Ahhh... that was easy.

mistercow2• 14 years ago

>But “compared to the $2.50 we pay for a regular football, the current cost difference for the more durable solution is currently too high.”

My brain hurts. If a ball that costs $20 and lasts 30 years is too expensive, then a ball that costs $2.50 and lasts a day is also too expensive. This is not a difficult math problem.

gus_massa• 14 years ago

One possible problem is that they say (estimate) that the new model last 30 years. (Let's wait until 2040 and see.) It's very difficult to estimate how many years it will last with the real use.

* What happens when they get wet? Does it get a lot of mold?

* What happens during a flood?

* How fast the surface wears away?

* What happens when a dog bites it?

* Does the dirt accumulate inside and make the ball heavier?

It's looks like an interesting idea, but the 30 years claim is a little optimistic.

mistercow2• 14 years ago

Even so, it only has to last 8 days to break even.

arturglier• 14 years ago

Hats off to you mr. Jahnigen and hats of to you mr. Sting for not just being good with music, but for being Good in general :) It's absolutely one of the most beautiful ideas I've ever heard. So simple, so powerful. Saw the Joy and harvest the Good.

Inventing a Soccer Ball for Poor Countries

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