When your brand is already the official basketball of the NBA, you wouldn’t think the folks at Wilson have much to do on the innovation front. However, just because the greatest bag of them all has been secured doesn’t mean Wilson is sitting back and cashing cheques, as the company has just revealed a prototype for a 3D-printed airless basketball.
The goal of finding an airless alternative to inflatable objects has been around for a while now, with different attempts to create shock-absorbing airless tires for cars and bikes probably among the most practical and widely known. A basketball is an entirely different challenge, however, as not only does it need to be equivalently bouncy as a regular basketball, but also needs to have a grippy enough surface to interact with athletes’ hands and the court.
Wilson’s solution, revealed at the AT&T Slam Dunk Contest over the weekend, was to create a hexagonally latticed ball with the help of 3D-printing company EOS, which is transformed from a bed of white powder into a solid structure thanks to a laser printing method. The ball went through countless different prototype forms, including rigorous testing with NBA athletes, to ensure it felt as close as possible to a traditionally inflated basketball from the way it feels in the hand to the way it moves through the air. While the ball remains a prototype in its current form, Wilson hopes to release a version of the innovative basketball to the public soon.
