Producing around 700,000 balls a year the Wilson Football Factory accounts for only about 10% of the revenue the Wilson Sports Equipment Company yields yearly. With balls ranging from 35 dollars for the youth version of the ball to the 130 dollars for the special Super Bowl stitched game balls, Wilson Football Factory creates a wide range of different footballs (Wilson.com).
Wilson’s partnership as the official ball of the NFL has done wonders for the business, along with providing an estimated 60,000 balls yearly to the NFL teams alone, being an official sponsor and provider of NFL balls has boosted sales of Wilson football’s to the average consumer making them the premium selection for footballs worldwide. With football continuing to grow in popularity it is easy to see a continued growth in the football production business.
The NFL’s partnership with the Ada Wilson Football Factory is fairly interesting subject, why did the NFL choose this partnership with a small factory as opposed to outsourcing production to somewhere cheaper? Football is known as America’s sport and no where else in the world is it as popular, the NFL, a huge organization is paired up with a small factory which create the games most important piece of equipment. This importance and American spirit of football is one of the main reasons we believe the NFL continues business with the factory in Ada, being 100% American in the materials for crafting a football is a very important aspect, including that it is completely assembled in the US (Thomas 2008). This allows the NFL to advertise an American made ball with American material for an American sport, something very important to a lot of people in the United States. This marketing scheme seems to be working for the most popular sport in America.