Why do spherical sports balls have different stitch patterns for each sport? Why don’t they mix it up?

649 viewsOther

Soccer balls ⚽️ are made with a bunch of hexagons

Baseballs ⚾️ and Tennis Balls 🎾 have two a rounded hourglass shapes

Basketballs 🏀 have their own weird thing going on

Volleyballs 🏐 have the rectangles

Why aren’t there soccer balls with the volleyball pattern? Why not make a baseball out of hexagons?

In: Other

11 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Part of the reason is that the stitching changes the performance of the ball. So each ball has its “traditional” design and they stick with it. A baseball, for example, heavily depends on aerodynamics and any changes would fundamentally alter how pitches work.

FWIW, the World Cup does introduce a new official ball for each tournament. This causes the expected problems and some balls – such as the 2010 “Jabulani” are heavily criticized for behaving differently than a normal ball.

You are viewing 1 out of 11 answers, click here to view all answers.