Assembly Line

How soccer balls are made

The classic ball is a truncated icosahedron: 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons, stitched round an inflated bladder.

stations
7
things upstream
52
raw sources
17
steps from the ground
8

The short version

A soccer ball is a rubber or plastic bladder inside a stitched or glued shell of 32 panels. Synthetic leather is laminated, cut into pentagons and hexagons, and printed. The panels are joined around the bladder, which is then inflated to between 0.6 and 1.1 atmospheres and checked for weight, size and roundness.

  1. Laminate the panel material

    Layers of fabric and foam are glued under a skin of synthetic leather. The stack is waterproof, springy and tough.

    Goes in
    PolyurethanePolyester

  2. Print the colors

    Designs are printed onto the sheet before it is cut, so the graphics line up across the panels.

    Goes in
    Ink

  3. Punch out the panels

    Dies cut 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons. The two shapes are often different colors, which makes the ball easy to follow on TV.

  4. Make the bladder

    A rubber or plastic bladder is made with a valve. It holds the air that makes the ball bounce.

    Goes in
    Vulcanized rubber

  5. Stitch the panels

    Panels are sewn together by hand or machine, leaving one seam open. Some balls are thermally bonded instead.

    Goes in
    Sewing thread

  6. Insert the bladder

    The bladder goes in through the open seam, which is then closed. The cover bulges into a near-perfect sphere when it is inflated.

  7. Inflate and check

    Balls are pumped up and checked for size, weight and roundness. Under the laws of the game, a ball weighs 410 to 450 grams.

    Goes in
    Air
End of the lineSoccer ball

Worth repeating

  • The oldest football still in existence, from around 1550, was found in the roof of Stirling Castle in 1981.
  • The first 32-panel ball was marketed by the company Select in Denmark in the 1950s.

Back to the ground

Follow every input upstream and soccer ball starts as these 17 raw sources.

AirWaterNatural rubber latexSulfurCrude oilRock saltSoybeansRapeseedClayTitanium oreIron oreCornSugarcaneNatural gasCoalLimestoneSugar beet

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Hip implant 9 stations · 22 raw sources Airliner 9 stations · 33 raw sources Sparkling water 6 stations · 19 raw sources Drumstick 8 stations · 8 raw sources Olive oil 6 stations · 1 raw source Action figure 7 stations · 22 raw sources

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Sources

Cite this page: "How soccer balls are made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/soccer-ball

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