Super Bowl 2020

Super Bowl 2020: Create an NFL game ball at the Super Bowl Experience

Saturday, February 1, 2020

Create a NFL game ball at the Super Bowl Experience

"The Duke" Wilson football has been about the only constant in Super Bowl history. At the Super Bowl Experience, you can follow how the exact process is made to create your own custom NFL football.

MIAMI (KGO) -- A lot changes year to year at the Super Bowl, the prices, the teams and the years on the calendar, but one thing remains constant: "The Duke".

Wilson Sporting Goods Company has created the official football for every single NFL Super Bowl game.

Here at the Super Bowl Experience, you can actually make your own football in four easy steps.

Wilson created a mini football factory with actual employees from its Ada, Ohio facility to give fans a souvenir, unlike anything you can buy in a store.

Why?

You get to make it with the help of the employees and customize it to how you want.

"It's like a normal factory for us," Plant Manager Andy Wentling said. "We've got the sewing, the turning, the lacing and the molding process that we do every day at the factory. It's a huge attraction, everyone loves to see it done. They think it's automated until they see our process. This is what we do every day."

For the past 20 years, Wilson has been setting up at the Super Bowl Experience to give fans a lesson in creating a football.

As mentioned, it comes down to sewing, turning, lacing and molding before you can get a finalized football.

The sewing process consists of sewing four panels of the leather football together to create the base of what the ball will be.

This process is done inside out and by hand by an expert.

From there, it goes to their turn specialist that works the football to its normal shape with the use of hammers and a special pole.

After tightening up a few seams, the lacing expert adds the bladder for the air in the football and laces it up nice and tight.

Finally, the football is molded to the exact specifications of the league and the football is created.

Each employee is trained to do his/her specific task.

No one role is more important than the other and they all pride themselves in the work they do to create the official ball of the NFL.

"We're proud to be a part of this process," Wentling said. "It's the biggest game in the world and it comes from the smallest town in the country. It's a really cool story."

You can choose one of three specific items to customize and create.

The footballs cost around $300 without customizations.

Take a look at the latest stories and videos about the San Francisco 49ers and Super Bowl 2020 here.

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