It's funny, this is the question that most people ask me, and I wish I had a more interesting answer. When COVID hit, I didn't know what to do with myself. On a whim, I bought myself some leatherworking tools. I wasn't planning on making a ball at that point, I just wanted to have something to keep myself busy whilst all this stuff was going on in the world.
I flailed around for a while, made a couple of things like a wallet and a pencil case, then one day, randomly, I decided to try and make a ball. It was really awful, but I had a good time doing it.
As soon as I finished it, I was like, 'OK, that was pretty fun,' but I felt I could do something a little bit better. And I've just been in that headspace ever since. Now there's hundreds of balls in my apartment. I feel like every time I get a little better and I learn something new about the process.
I've taken inspiration from all over the place. One nice thing now is, because people watch the videos I make, one great source of inspiration is people leaving comments. That's a really useful one.
I've made a few visually interesting balls. I've done really crazy ones. I made one out of money, a dishcloth, spikes, what have you. So material is one, and the other one I really like to explore is the construction of the ball – the shape of the panels, how they come together. You can depict things through the construction of the ball, create different shapes in a way that when two panels line up it creates a line, and you can almost draw stuff.
It varies slightly from ball to ball, but it usually starts with an idea, some sort of theme or thought. Then I just need to figure out exactly what I want to do.
There's often some sketching. Sometimes I just jump in directly but usually there is some time taken in making the pattern. That involves making paper models, or you can use previous balls as a stepping stone to get to new ones. I have a laser cutter which I use to cut out the material, usually leather; there's a layer of foam that goes between each leather panel and the bladder. The thing that takes the most time is stitching. Every ball is hand-stitched with this method called a saddle stitch which is this really impractical, slow, but strong way to construct a ball. About halfway through I'll put a ball bladder in and then add the final panels.
It's a grind, but the thing that keeps me going is knowing that there's going to be this moment soon where you get to blow air into the ball for the first time and you see it come to life. When it's deflated you kind of get a sense of what it's going to look like, but you only really get to see it for the first time when you pump air into it and all the seams become defined. There's this very satisfying moment where you go 'Oh yeah, that looks awesome', and then you get to play with it!
Well, I am working on this ball inspired by this classic 1990/91 Manchester United shirt. It's turning out to be a bit of a nightmare because these little leafy, petal-esque shapes are going to be individual panel shapes. There are like 180-or-so small panels and I underestimated its complexity. I think it's going to be a really cool ball once it's done but it's probably going to take me like a month or so to get over the line. And that's actually a theme that I want to explore – balls which are inspired by classic kits throughout history. I'm starting with this Man United kit because it's one of my favourite kits, but I want to use that as a source of inspiration and turn this into a bit of a series.
It's funny, I never did have an ambition for this; I never thought this would be a viable career path. For the first year or so, I would just snap a pic and upload it to my Instagram and no one cared.
After a while, I had developed a pretty good process, so I started making short 60-second videos documenting the process of each ball and quite quickly they seemed to resonate with people.
The most popular comments I would get on the videos would be people asking, "Do you sell these? I'd love to buy one of them." And since it takes me so long to make each one, I have to say no really, but it got to the point where it kind of wore me down.
I felt that I get this comment so often, that maybe I should just explore what it would look like to bring some of these designs to market. So with my wife’s help, we've been trying to figure out a path to do that, and we're in the final stages now. The plan is to mirror the sneaker drop community. The social media account will become a sort of public research and development lab.
I'll keep doing exactly what I'm doing; each video will be a pitch for a new ball and occasionally, when they really resonate, that will become available in limited quantities. It's been a long road to get to this point, but the balls are being shipped to our warehouse right now. So now I'm able to continue to get away with sitting around and making footballs all day!
It's funny, this is the question that most people ask me, and I wish I had a more interesting answer. When COVID hit, I didn't know what to do with myself. On a whim, I bought myself some leatherworking tools. I wasn't planning on making a ball at that point, I just wanted to have something to keep myself busy whilst all this stuff was going on in the world.
I flailed around for a while, made a couple of things like a wallet and a pencil case, then one day, randomly, I decided to try and make a ball. It was really awful, but I had a good time doing it.
As soon as I finished it, I was like, 'OK, that was pretty fun,' but I felt I could do something a little bit better. And I've just been in that headspace ever since. Now there's hundreds of balls in my apartment. I feel like every time I get a little better and I learn something new about the process.
I've taken inspiration from all over the place. One nice thing now is, because people watch the videos I make, one great source of inspiration is people leaving comments. That's a really useful one.
I've made a few visually interesting balls. I've done really crazy ones. I made one out of money, a dishcloth, spikes, what have you. So material is one, and the other one I really like to explore is the construction of the ball – the shape of the panels, how they come together. You can depict things through the construction of the ball, create different shapes in a way that when two panels line up it creates a line, and you can almost draw stuff.
It varies slightly from ball to ball, but it usually starts with an idea, some sort of theme or thought. Then I just need to figure out exactly what I want to do.
There's often some sketching. Sometimes I just jump in directly but usually there is some time taken in making the pattern. That involves making paper models, or you can use previous balls as a stepping stone to get to new ones. I have a laser cutter which I use to cut out the material, usually leather; there's a layer of foam that goes between each leather panel and the bladder. The thing that takes the most time is stitching. Every ball is hand-stitched with this method called a saddle stitch which is this really impractical, slow, but strong way to construct a ball. About halfway through I'll put a ball bladder in and then add the final panels.
It's a grind, but the thing that keeps me going is knowing that there's going to be this moment soon where you get to blow air into the ball for the first time and you see it come to life. When it's deflated you kind of get a sense of what it's going to look like, but you only really get to see it for the first time when you pump air into it and all the seams become defined. There's this very satisfying moment where you go 'Oh yeah, that looks awesome', and then you get to play with it!
Well, I am working on this ball inspired by this classic 1990/91 Manchester United shirt. It's turning out to be a bit of a nightmare because these little leafy, petal-esque shapes are going to be individual panel shapes. There are like 180-or-so small panels and I underestimated its complexity. I think it's going to be a really cool ball once it's done but it's probably going to take me like a month or so to get over the line. And that's actually a theme that I want to explore – balls which are inspired by classic kits throughout history. I'm starting with this Man United kit because it's one of my favourite kits, but I want to use that as a source of inspiration and turn this into a bit of a series.
It's funny, I never did have an ambition for this; I never thought this would be a viable career path. For the first year or so, I would just snap a pic and upload it to my Instagram and no one cared.
After a while, I had developed a pretty good process, so I started making short 60-second videos documenting the process of each ball and quite quickly they seemed to resonate with people.
The most popular comments I would get on the videos would be people asking, "Do you sell these? I'd love to buy one of them." And since it takes me so long to make each one, I have to say no really, but it got to the point where it kind of wore me down.
I felt that I get this comment so often, that maybe I should just explore what it would look like to bring some of these designs to market. So with my wife’s help, we've been trying to figure out a path to do that, and we're in the final stages now. The plan is to mirror the sneaker drop community. The social media account will become a sort of public research and development lab.
I'll keep doing exactly what I'm doing; each video will be a pitch for a new ball and occasionally, when they really resonate, that will become available in limited quantities. It's been a long road to get to this point, but the balls are being shipped to our warehouse right now. So now I'm able to continue to get away with sitting around and making footballs all day!
It's funny, this is the question that most people ask me, and I wish I had a more interesting answer. When COVID hit, I didn't know what to do with myself. On a whim, I bought myself some leatherworking tools. I wasn't planning on making a ball at that point, I just wanted to have something to keep myself busy whilst all this stuff was going on in the world.
I flailed around for a while, made a couple of things like a wallet and a pencil case, then one day, randomly, I decided to try and make a ball. It was really awful, but I had a good time doing it.
As soon as I finished it, I was like, 'OK, that was pretty fun,' but I felt I could do something a little bit better. And I've just been in that headspace ever since. Now there's hundreds of balls in my apartment. I feel like every time I get a little better and I learn something new about the process.
I've taken inspiration from all over the place. One nice thing now is, because people watch the videos I make, one great source of inspiration is people leaving comments. That's a really useful one.
I've made a few visually interesting balls. I've done really crazy ones. I made one out of money, a dishcloth, spikes, what have you. So material is one, and the other one I really like to explore is the construction of the ball – the shape of the panels, how they come together. You can depict things through the construction of the ball, create different shapes in a way that when two panels line up it creates a line, and you can almost draw stuff.
It varies slightly from ball to ball, but it usually starts with an idea, some sort of theme or thought. Then I just need to figure out exactly what I want to do.
There's often some sketching. Sometimes I just jump in directly but usually there is some time taken in making the pattern. That involves making paper models, or you can use previous balls as a stepping stone to get to new ones. I have a laser cutter which I use to cut out the material, usually leather; there's a layer of foam that goes between each leather panel and the bladder. The thing that takes the most time is stitching. Every ball is hand-stitched with this method called a saddle stitch which is this really impractical, slow, but strong way to construct a ball. About halfway through I'll put a ball bladder in and then add the final panels.
It's a grind, but the thing that keeps me going is knowing that there's going to be this moment soon where you get to blow air into the ball for the first time and you see it come to life. When it's deflated you kind of get a sense of what it's going to look like, but you only really get to see it for the first time when you pump air into it and all the seams become defined. There's this very satisfying moment where you go 'Oh yeah, that looks awesome', and then you get to play with it!
Well, I am working on this ball inspired by this classic 1990/91 Manchester United shirt. It's turning out to be a bit of a nightmare because these little leafy, petal-esque shapes are going to be individual panel shapes. There are like 180-or-so small panels and I underestimated its complexity. I think it's going to be a really cool ball once it's done but it's probably going to take me like a month or so to get over the line. And that's actually a theme that I want to explore – balls which are inspired by classic kits throughout history. I'm starting with this Man United kit because it's one of my favourite kits, but I want to use that as a source of inspiration and turn this into a bit of a series.
It's funny, I never did have an ambition for this; I never thought this would be a viable career path. For the first year or so, I would just snap a pic and upload it to my Instagram and no one cared.
After a while, I had developed a pretty good process, so I started making short 60-second videos documenting the process of each ball and quite quickly they seemed to resonate with people.
The most popular comments I would get on the videos would be people asking, "Do you sell these? I'd love to buy one of them." And since it takes me so long to make each one, I have to say no really, but it got to the point where it kind of wore me down.
I felt that I get this comment so often, that maybe I should just explore what it would look like to bring some of these designs to market. So with my wife’s help, we've been trying to figure out a path to do that, and we're in the final stages now. The plan is to mirror the sneaker drop community. The social media account will become a sort of public research and development lab.
I'll keep doing exactly what I'm doing; each video will be a pitch for a new ball and occasionally, when they really resonate, that will become available in limited quantities. It's been a long road to get to this point, but the balls are being shipped to our warehouse right now. So now I'm able to continue to get away with sitting around and making footballs all day!
It's funny, this is the question that most people ask me, and I wish I had a more interesting answer. When COVID hit, I didn't know what to do with myself. On a whim, I bought myself some leatherworking tools. I wasn't planning on making a ball at that point, I just wanted to have something to keep myself busy whilst all this stuff was going on in the world.
I flailed around for a while, made a couple of things like a wallet and a pencil case, then one day, randomly, I decided to try and make a ball. It was really awful, but I had a good time doing it.
As soon as I finished it, I was like, 'OK, that was pretty fun,' but I felt I could do something a little bit better. And I've just been in that headspace ever since. Now there's hundreds of balls in my apartment. I feel like every time I get a little better and I learn something new about the process.
I've taken inspiration from all over the place. One nice thing now is, because people watch the videos I make, one great source of inspiration is people leaving comments. That's a really useful one.
I've made a few visually interesting balls. I've done really crazy ones. I made one out of money, a dishcloth, spikes, what have you. So material is one, and the other one I really like to explore is the construction of the ball – the shape of the panels, how they come together. You can depict things through the construction of the ball, create different shapes in a way that when two panels line up it creates a line, and you can almost draw stuff.
It varies slightly from ball to ball, but it usually starts with an idea, some sort of theme or thought. Then I just need to figure out exactly what I want to do.
There's often some sketching. Sometimes I just jump in directly but usually there is some time taken in making the pattern. That involves making paper models, or you can use previous balls as a stepping stone to get to new ones. I have a laser cutter which I use to cut out the material, usually leather; there's a layer of foam that goes between each leather panel and the bladder. The thing that takes the most time is stitching. Every ball is hand-stitched with this method called a saddle stitch which is this really impractical, slow, but strong way to construct a ball. About halfway through I'll put a ball bladder in and then add the final panels.
It's a grind, but the thing that keeps me going is knowing that there's going to be this moment soon where you get to blow air into the ball for the first time and you see it come to life. When it's deflated you kind of get a sense of what it's going to look like, but you only really get to see it for the first time when you pump air into it and all the seams become defined. There's this very satisfying moment where you go 'Oh yeah, that looks awesome', and then you get to play with it!
Well, I am working on this ball inspired by this classic 1990/91 Manchester United shirt. It's turning out to be a bit of a nightmare because these little leafy, petal-esque shapes are going to be individual panel shapes. There are like 180-or-so small panels and I underestimated its complexity. I think it's going to be a really cool ball once it's done but it's probably going to take me like a month or so to get over the line. And that's actually a theme that I want to explore – balls which are inspired by classic kits throughout history. I'm starting with this Man United kit because it's one of my favourite kits, but I want to use that as a source of inspiration and turn this into a bit of a series.
It's funny, I never did have an ambition for this; I never thought this would be a viable career path. For the first year or so, I would just snap a pic and upload it to my Instagram and no one cared.
After a while, I had developed a pretty good process, so I started making short 60-second videos documenting the process of each ball and quite quickly they seemed to resonate with people.
The most popular comments I would get on the videos would be people asking, "Do you sell these? I'd love to buy one of them." And since it takes me so long to make each one, I have to say no really, but it got to the point where it kind of wore me down.
I felt that I get this comment so often, that maybe I should just explore what it would look like to bring some of these designs to market. So with my wife’s help, we've been trying to figure out a path to do that, and we're in the final stages now. The plan is to mirror the sneaker drop community. The social media account will become a sort of public research and development lab.
I'll keep doing exactly what I'm doing; each video will be a pitch for a new ball and occasionally, when they really resonate, that will become available in limited quantities. It's been a long road to get to this point, but the balls are being shipped to our warehouse right now. So now I'm able to continue to get away with sitting around and making footballs all day!
It's funny, this is the question that most people ask me, and I wish I had a more interesting answer. When COVID hit, I didn't know what to do with myself. On a whim, I bought myself some leatherworking tools. I wasn't planning on making a ball at that point, I just wanted to have something to keep myself busy whilst all this stuff was going on in the world.
I flailed around for a while, made a couple of things like a wallet and a pencil case, then one day, randomly, I decided to try and make a ball. It was really awful, but I had a good time doing it.
As soon as I finished it, I was like, 'OK, that was pretty fun,' but I felt I could do something a little bit better. And I've just been in that headspace ever since. Now there's hundreds of balls in my apartment. I feel like every time I get a little better and I learn something new about the process.
I've taken inspiration from all over the place. One nice thing now is, because people watch the videos I make, one great source of inspiration is people leaving comments. That's a really useful one.
I've made a few visually interesting balls. I've done really crazy ones. I made one out of money, a dishcloth, spikes, what have you. So material is one, and the other one I really like to explore is the construction of the ball – the shape of the panels, how they come together. You can depict things through the construction of the ball, create different shapes in a way that when two panels line up it creates a line, and you can almost draw stuff.
It varies slightly from ball to ball, but it usually starts with an idea, some sort of theme or thought. Then I just need to figure out exactly what I want to do.
There's often some sketching. Sometimes I just jump in directly but usually there is some time taken in making the pattern. That involves making paper models, or you can use previous balls as a stepping stone to get to new ones. I have a laser cutter which I use to cut out the material, usually leather; there's a layer of foam that goes between each leather panel and the bladder. The thing that takes the most time is stitching. Every ball is hand-stitched with this method called a saddle stitch which is this really impractical, slow, but strong way to construct a ball. About halfway through I'll put a ball bladder in and then add the final panels.
It's a grind, but the thing that keeps me going is knowing that there's going to be this moment soon where you get to blow air into the ball for the first time and you see it come to life. When it's deflated you kind of get a sense of what it's going to look like, but you only really get to see it for the first time when you pump air into it and all the seams become defined. There's this very satisfying moment where you go 'Oh yeah, that looks awesome', and then you get to play with it!
Well, I am working on this ball inspired by this classic 1990/91 Manchester United shirt. It's turning out to be a bit of a nightmare because these little leafy, petal-esque shapes are going to be individual panel shapes. There are like 180-or-so small panels and I underestimated its complexity. I think it's going to be a really cool ball once it's done but it's probably going to take me like a month or so to get over the line. And that's actually a theme that I want to explore – balls which are inspired by classic kits throughout history. I'm starting with this Man United kit because it's one of my favourite kits, but I want to use that as a source of inspiration and turn this into a bit of a series.
It's funny, I never did have an ambition for this; I never thought this would be a viable career path. For the first year or so, I would just snap a pic and upload it to my Instagram and no one cared.
After a while, I had developed a pretty good process, so I started making short 60-second videos documenting the process of each ball and quite quickly they seemed to resonate with people.
The most popular comments I would get on the videos would be people asking, "Do you sell these? I'd love to buy one of them." And since it takes me so long to make each one, I have to say no really, but it got to the point where it kind of wore me down.
I felt that I get this comment so often, that maybe I should just explore what it would look like to bring some of these designs to market. So with my wife’s help, we've been trying to figure out a path to do that, and we're in the final stages now. The plan is to mirror the sneaker drop community. The social media account will become a sort of public research and development lab.
I'll keep doing exactly what I'm doing; each video will be a pitch for a new ball and occasionally, when they really resonate, that will become available in limited quantities. It's been a long road to get to this point, but the balls are being shipped to our warehouse right now. So now I'm able to continue to get away with sitting around and making footballs all day!
It's funny, this is the question that most people ask me, and I wish I had a more interesting answer. When COVID hit, I didn't know what to do with myself. On a whim, I bought myself some leatherworking tools. I wasn't planning on making a ball at that point, I just wanted to have something to keep myself busy whilst all this stuff was going on in the world.
I flailed around for a while, made a couple of things like a wallet and a pencil case, then one day, randomly, I decided to try and make a ball. It was really awful, but I had a good time doing it.
As soon as I finished it, I was like, 'OK, that was pretty fun,' but I felt I could do something a little bit better. And I've just been in that headspace ever since. Now there's hundreds of balls in my apartment. I feel like every time I get a little better and I learn something new about the process.
I've taken inspiration from all over the place. One nice thing now is, because people watch the videos I make, one great source of inspiration is people leaving comments. That's a really useful one.
I've made a few visually interesting balls. I've done really crazy ones. I made one out of money, a dishcloth, spikes, what have you. So material is one, and the other one I really like to explore is the construction of the ball – the shape of the panels, how they come together. You can depict things through the construction of the ball, create different shapes in a way that when two panels line up it creates a line, and you can almost draw stuff.
It varies slightly from ball to ball, but it usually starts with an idea, some sort of theme or thought. Then I just need to figure out exactly what I want to do.
There's often some sketching. Sometimes I just jump in directly but usually there is some time taken in making the pattern. That involves making paper models, or you can use previous balls as a stepping stone to get to new ones. I have a laser cutter which I use to cut out the material, usually leather; there's a layer of foam that goes between each leather panel and the bladder. The thing that takes the most time is stitching. Every ball is hand-stitched with this method called a saddle stitch which is this really impractical, slow, but strong way to construct a ball. About halfway through I'll put a ball bladder in and then add the final panels.
It's a grind, but the thing that keeps me going is knowing that there's going to be this moment soon where you get to blow air into the ball for the first time and you see it come to life. When it's deflated you kind of get a sense of what it's going to look like, but you only really get to see it for the first time when you pump air into it and all the seams become defined. There's this very satisfying moment where you go 'Oh yeah, that looks awesome', and then you get to play with it!
Well, I am working on this ball inspired by this classic 1990/91 Manchester United shirt. It's turning out to be a bit of a nightmare because these little leafy, petal-esque shapes are going to be individual panel shapes. There are like 180-or-so small panels and I underestimated its complexity. I think it's going to be a really cool ball once it's done but it's probably going to take me like a month or so to get over the line. And that's actually a theme that I want to explore – balls which are inspired by classic kits throughout history. I'm starting with this Man United kit because it's one of my favourite kits, but I want to use that as a source of inspiration and turn this into a bit of a series.
It's funny, I never did have an ambition for this; I never thought this would be a viable career path. For the first year or so, I would just snap a pic and upload it to my Instagram and no one cared.
After a while, I had developed a pretty good process, so I started making short 60-second videos documenting the process of each ball and quite quickly they seemed to resonate with people.
The most popular comments I would get on the videos would be people asking, "Do you sell these? I'd love to buy one of them." And since it takes me so long to make each one, I have to say no really, but it got to the point where it kind of wore me down.
I felt that I get this comment so often, that maybe I should just explore what it would look like to bring some of these designs to market. So with my wife’s help, we've been trying to figure out a path to do that, and we're in the final stages now. The plan is to mirror the sneaker drop community. The social media account will become a sort of public research and development lab.
I'll keep doing exactly what I'm doing; each video will be a pitch for a new ball and occasionally, when they really resonate, that will become available in limited quantities. It's been a long road to get to this point, but the balls are being shipped to our warehouse right now. So now I'm able to continue to get away with sitting around and making footballs all day!
