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As soon as this year’s Super Bowl matchup was set, workers at the Wilson Sporting Goods football factory jumped into action. The factory in the rural village of Ada, Ohio, makes the game balls used by every NFL team along with many of the nations top college programs and high schools. But this time of year it’s all about the Super Bowl. The Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs will face off for the Lombardi Trophy for the second time in three years on Feb. 9 in New Orleans. Heres a look at the footballs, by the numbers: How many balls are made for the big game? The two teams will each get a shipment of 108, plus a dozen more for the kickers, all stamped with the Super Bowl logo and team names. Some of the balls will be for practices, while the best ones will be set aside by the quarterbacks. About 50 of those will be bagged and locked away for each team until it’s time for kickoff. How are NFL footballs different from other footballs? Wilson makes five different sizes for players of all levels, from the pros to youth leagues. Some have different patterns. NFL balls are notable for the lack of a stripe on the ends. They’re also embedded with a chip that tracks the ball’s position on the field, how far it travels and its trajectory. How long does it take to make a football? Normally it takes three days from start to finish. But the first batch of footballs must be sent to the Super Bowl teams Monday, within about 18 hours, so they have enough time to break them in for practices and the game. That’s why the workers start production right away the night of the conference title games. How are they made? It’s a 20-step process, most of it by hand, from cutting out the four leather panels that are sewn together with 250 stitches to putting in the laces. For NFL footballs, the work goes to the factory’s most experienced and skilled workers. Certain parts of the process require a handmade feel, said Kevin Murphy, general manager of Wilson Team Sports. It’s like making a beautiful, sculpted pair of shoes. How do they become game ready? Throughout production the balls are weighed, measured and inspected for flaws. Once finished, they’re checked again. By the time they’re packaged and ready for shipping, each one will have been touched by about 50 workers. How many does the factory normally produce? It churns out roughly 500,000 footballs each year, or about 2,500 per day. NFL teams go through several hundred during a season. For the Super Bowl, Wilson will make between 10,000-20,000 commemorative balls that will be sold by retailers nationwide and at the game site. If there’s high demand, the factory will keep producing the souvenir balls well after. How long has Wilson made footballs for the NFL? Since 1941, Wilson has made every football used by the league. Its factory in Ada has been making the official game balls since 1955. This year the company opened a new plant in the village that allows for more production and a museum. Fans can tour the factory, too. John Seewer, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
While it may feel as if American politics is run by octogenarians, members of Congress are, in general, younger than they used to be, according to a new analysis from Pew Research Center. For the first time, baby boomers are no longer the largest generation in the House; Gen X now makes up the biggest slice at 41%. (Boomers are, however, still the majority in the Senate.) !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r
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E-Commerce
A small business is cashing in on President Donald Trumps tariffs with a new viral product: stickers of Donald Trump pointing with the caption I did that. A TikTok post from Atomic Cactus Stickers, with 231.9K views, encouraged viewers to buy the stickers through the apps shop and place them everywhere from grocery stores to gas pumps. The merch starts at $5 for a five-pack, up to $80 for a pack of 200. They need to go everywhere just like the Biden ones, one user commented. Another added, print these on eggshell stickers please. One comment read: I hope you have tons in stock. Youre going to need billions and billions for everything that inflates. This isnt the first time stickers like this have been spotted. In August 2021, alt-right provocateur Jack Posobiec shared a photo on X showing a gas pump adorned with a sticker of a grinning Joe Biden pointing at the meter, which read $97.60 for 29 gallons. I did that! the sticker read. These merch stickers became a staple in the campaign to pin blame on Biden for everything from inflation to rising gas prices. By late 2021, as gas prices climbed, the stickers began cropping up on pumps across the country, much to the annoyance of gas station employees tasked with scraping them off. Hundreds of vendors sold the merch online, with variations including Kamala Harris stickers proclaiming And I Helped! or Donald Trump stickers declaring I Can Fix That. Now, its Trumps turn in the sticker-based hot seat. While the president has not yet imposed the tariffs he promised on the campaign trail, they are reportedly coming February 1 and will lead to “massive amounts of money” entering the US Treasury. “Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” Trump said during his inauguration speech. “Tariffs are going to make us rich as hell,” he continued. “It’s going to bring our country’s businesses back.” The president has pledged import duties of 25% on Canada and Mexico, as well as 10% on global imports and 60% on Chinese goods. Imported goods are a key driver of the American economy, totaling $2.9 trillion in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. China, Canada and Mexico account for over 40% of that volume. Economists have now warned that these tariffs could stoke inflation, forcing the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates, and costs will largely fall on American consumers. The left-leaning Center for American Progress has estimated that Trumps trade plans could cost the typical household an extra $1,500 annually. Stickers in hand, people are ready to hold Trump accountable.
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E-Commerce
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