Branding sports equipment is a fantastic way to extend the quality of your brand and connect with your audience. Here at Branded we make all our sports equipment using our retail-manufacturing arm with customisation and fulfilment down to the individual piece. In this blog series we give you an insight into ‘How It’s Made’. In this instalment, we show you how our promotional baseballs are created.
Promotional Baseball Design process
Typically you’ll need a 300DPI art file or vector. You can use a template in Photoshop or upload your logos and send us design specifications online. If you don’t have in-house art team don’t worry we’re here to help with free design support.
Crafting and Baseball Printing Process
Baseballs are created from the outside- in, with each layer developing both the strength and bounce of the ball. The first step in creating the promotional baseballs is moulding two shells of black rubber to a cork sphere. This is then fused to a thin layer of red rubber using a fine coating of adhesive cement. The small rubber ball is then wrapped in three layers of yarn, each layer varying in ply and colour.
BaseBall Printing
The more recognisable top layer is made of leather or sythetic PVC leather (depending on it’s use). The 300DPI design is then made intro a ‘screen’ (a separate screen for each colour). The leather is layed flat and each layer is printed onto the ball. The process is repeated until all layers are complete and a final finishing layer is applied The two figure-of-eight strips are then stapled to the yarn ball before being stitched with waxed red thread. Lastly, the promotional baseball is put through a rolling machine to remove any raised stitches.
Promotional Baseball Packing
Each baseball is individually checked and cleaned typically wrapped in card or plastic. Custom packaging can add a lot of value in this case. In the past our promotional sports equipment has been used in displays, giveaways, product launches and competitions.
The BRANDED. guarantee:
- All products are made athlete-ready to the same standard as our retail equipment
- Free design support,
- No MOQ
- 1% of ALL campaign spending goes to help change the lives of Refugees through sport