Another Gratuitous World Cup Blog

Forget the rather freaky looking new +Teamgeist ball (far right) from adidas (what is the plus about anyway?). Think about Bucky instead. That would be Buckminster Fuller he of the geodesic dome and Dimaxion car fame (okay so the Dimaxion is kind of ugly but…) Still the modern soccer ball (though probably not the +Teamgeist) owes its existence to him. Early soccer balls (that would be pre 1960) were all made of leather, that laced up and were brown (far left—first World Cup ball), but Fuller thought there was something better possible.

At the same time he was developing the geodesic dome, he reinvented football. Based on hexagons, pentagons and triangles, his new ball used those shape, fitting them together to make a perfectly round surface. (Though of course most advances in football technology are all around trying to make a more perfect sphere). The Bucky ball had 20 hexagonal and 12 pentagonal surfaces, and the black spots on the ball helped players catch the swerve the ball was making. Now of course when Adidas (those behind Teamgeist and every World Cup Football since 1970) adopted the shape, they did it not simply because it was a more perfect sphere, but also the black and white shapes were easier to see on telly. Hence it was named the Telstar (in the middle) short for the ‘star of television.’

Jennifer Kabat
Posted on Friday, 9th of June 2006 Permalink Comment (0)