Pakistan a power in soccer balls - CNN report

[Bas_tum_Pak]

CNN |Sialkot Pakistan

Through choking traffic and crude streets, pastoral scenes and fields of wheat, there is a journey to be made in the heart of the Punjab that will take you to the very soul of the beautiful game.
For a country some have come to see as the world's leading exporter of terror, it is a glimpse into all that is possible when you consider that for decades now Pakistan has also been a leading exporter of hand-stitched soccer balls.
This is no cottage industry, in a typical year Pakistan produces almost half of the world's hand-stitched gems. In a World Cup year like this one, as demand explodes, that portion edges up to almost 70 percent.
The craft here has been handed down for generations and now hundreds of stitching halls dot the agricultural landscape of this region.
"A good player will play with this ball, it makes me feel good, it brightens our country's reputation and that makes me feel proud," says one young man as he continues stitching about six to eight balls a day.
That will earn most of these workers anywhere from six to 10 dollars a day, as much as double Pakistan's minimum wage.
Khawaja Masood Akhtar is the owner of the aptly named Forward Sports. For almost two decades he has won big-brand contracts against the odds and is currently a prime supplier for Adidas.
"The ball stitched in Pakistan will definitely be of a higher quality," said Akhtar. He adds that he has great admiration for the stitchers that craft his perfectly rounded balls.
"It's hard work -- you need very strong upper body strength to do that, and this is not easy. They are doing the job by hand but it looks like some machine," adds Akhtar.

For years now, Forward Sports has been binding the tradition of craftsmanship with the demands of research and development. Their goal here is to not just meet, but surpass FIFA standards.
Balls are poked repeatedly and pressed for hours to test water resistance. Then they are heat-tested to simulate how they will be after two years.
And then there is the shooter machine, where a ball is kicked repeatedly by a shooting machine more than 3,500 times. The stitching string is stressed, there is even a machine that simulates headers, all of it part of the struggle in keeping Chinese manufacturers from dominating the game.

 

[Adios Amigo]

One important point that needs to be noted that, there is no doubt about the world class sports industry of Sialkot, which produces high quality products, specifically footballs, but Pakistan never made any huge profits (which it deserves to make) out of it. Infact Pakistan makes the very minimum out of it,i.e almost negligible for its true potential. The reason behind it, is extremely Poor Marketing and Promotional activities. The Lack of a Strong Brand in this regard is the key cause for failure of our spotless and matchless products.

Its is infact Brands like Adidas, who makes out the maximum with minimum effort. And we Goofs think we have struck the Jack Pod. The ball which is bought for a few dollars is sold by Adidas for Much Much More, then its original price by them.

It reminds me of the famous statement of Sara Lee, the CEO of Kewi, and she says with Pride," We are an Asset-less Company", same is true for Adidas.

I don't know till when we would like to live in the fools world, even though we now realize it.






Adios

 

[Nima]

football is a religion in Iran and I remember we used to play with Pakistani balls all the time! The quality wasn't that good though, not b/c there were anything wrong w/ them, but b/c they were hand made. That was a long time ago though, I bet they are better now.

 

[Creder]

Whats the labour like in this industry ? are they given any welfare plans ?

i think iran beat states in one of the world cups