Here’s a pretty outstanding look at how Adidas soccer balls (or football, depending on what part of the world you’re from) are made. [via]

I had no idea that making a soccer ball was such a complicated procedure involving both machine and humans. I just figured that it was all machine-made by now. My question is: Why do they ship the balls blown up? That’s a total waste of shipping material and energy. Packing them in tighter as flat objects would be more appropriate I think. But hey, what do I know about ball production, right?