Wilson Sporting Goods / FTI Consulting

Every NFL point since 1941 has been scored by a Wilson football, known as “The Duke,” which is handcrafted in Ada, Ohio through a meticulous 20-step process. In June 2024, Wilson Sporting Goods, an Amer Sports brand, opened its new state-of-the-art football factory in Ada, demonstrating Wilson’s dedication, commitment, and continued investment in maintaining the quality and heritage of the iconic Wilson football.

Wilson, along with its strategic communications partner FTI Consulting, invited Bloomberg Businessweek to visit Wilson’s new facility in August 2024. The Bloomberg team received a private, full day tour of the 80,000-square-foot facility with the vice president and general manager of team sports at Wilson, as well as the plant manager of the Ada facility, to walk them through the step-by-step process to make an NFL football.

The resulting feature from Bloomberg was headlined, “Inside Wilson’s Football Factory, Where NFL History Is Made.” The piece explores the history of how Wilson got its start making footballs and details the intricate process to create one of the over half-million footballs a year, 25,000 of which are delivered to the NFL. It also highlights some of the 150 employees in the factory using both still-images and looped-images.

Through this Bloomberg feature, Wilson and FTI Consulting amplified the daily hard work and craftsmanship of Wilson’s Ada factory employees that allow these iconic footballs to be thrown and kicked by all players of the game – from a high school scrimmage to the Super Bowl.