There is a good chance that the soccer ball you have in your house came from Sialkot, a city in northeastern Pakistan. The town's 1,000 factories make more than two-thirds of the world's soccer balls. The official ball of the World Cup in Qatar will be from Adidas. About 8% of the city's population works in the soccer ball manufacturing business. They usually sew the balls' panels by hand. Most of the soccer balls made in Sialkot use hand stitching, a laborious process that makes the ball more durable and gives it more aerodynamic stability. The stitches have more tension than those sewed with machines. According to the manufacturer, stitchers are paid 160 rupees per ball. The ones take three hours to complete. A stitcher can make 9,600 rupee a month if they work three balls a day. The wages are not high for a poor region. The living wage in Sialkot is 20,000 a month. Women make the balls. They might return home to cook for their children, then work in a nearby village for the rest of the day. Men work in different parts of the manufacturing process. The factories in Sialkot used to employ children as young as 5 with their parents. The prohibition on child labor was listed as a threat to the industry in Sialkot in a 2016 report. The soccer ball is made of synthetic leather. The components of the synthetic leather are made from different countries. South Korean materials are used for balls that are higher quality. The components from Japan are used for the balls. Soccer ball panels are being looked at by workers. The traditional ball is made up of 20 hexagonals and 12 pentagons. Hot glue is being used to piece soccer balls together. The balls are still high quality and cheaper to produce, but they are more expensive to transport and can't be deflated. Soccer balls are tested to make sure they meet the standards of the world's most popular sport. The perfect roundness of a ball is being tested here. Sales of soccer balls are expected to increase during the World Cup.
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