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Nendo Designs a Flatpack, Non-Deflatable Soccer Ball for Developing Nations
By Rain Noe - January 21
Soccer, a/k/a football is a popular children's pastime around the world, particularly in developing nations. A patch of ground, the ball, and improvised goal posts are the only infrastructure required. Should the ball deflate, however, an air pump is required; should the ball be punctured, it's worthless.
To solve this, Nendo has designed a soccer ball that doesn't rely on air pressure to hold its shape, requires no inflation, and therefore cannot be deflated.
Instead, their design is composed of three different types of interlocking components, 54 pieces in total. The bands and structural inserts are made of recycled polypropylene, and the pentagonal exterior panels are made from softer EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) for cushioning.
The product ships flat, meaning more units can be fit into a shipping box versus a conventional ball.
The end user must assemble the ball by referring to an Ikea-like language-free instruction manual.
Once assembled, the ball is soft enough for bare feet, and is "unlikely even if broken to develop a sharply fractured surface that might cause injuries," Nendo writes.
They reckon the ball is also durable enough to take a pounding--and in the event that a section of the ball becomes damaged, it can be replaced (assuming there's an infrastructure/ordering process for replacement parts).
The product is called My Football Kit and was designed for Molten.
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Rain Noe
I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.
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Nendo Designs a Flatpack, Non-Deflatable Soccer Ball for Developing Nations
Regular footballs also ship flat packed, you just need to deflate them first, which they always are...
I get suspicious of the project when they use that flat pack vs inflated balls, seems kinda uninformed. Also replacing a sturdy "solid" straightforward object with something that has pieces that can get lost and needs assembly. And all that vs the destructive force of kids on concrete/dirt
Very clever...
That's pretty cool. Are there holes on this ball? Kids play in rocky fields, I would think the ball would end up with small rocks and dust and sticks and other debris. But maybe you pop a panel off and 'drain it'. Great idea.
I'm from a soccer loving nation and when I was young we were told that our best soccer players learned to play the game using tennisballs.
Because the balls were small they were able to greatly increase their skilllevel.
We wanted to be like our heroes and used tennsiballs instead of our regular ball.
Hope I didn't burst anyones bubble...
bood idea bad use, ball are supplyed flat
Forced solution for sure... the points of failure alone on this design would make it a nightmare for the real world