Select Sport America

job in the shoe- and leather industry. In 1951 Eigil Nielsen entered a contract with the Danish National Soccer Association (DBU) supplying soccer balls to the national soccer matches. A something completely new, the soccer ball had a build-in valve and no outside lace. This meant that the ball kept is roundness and shape much better than ever before and that the lace was not a nuisance when kicking or heading. The improvement was a radical new invention. At this time, all soccer balls were made up of eight sections of cow leather which most of all looked like a brown leather orange. Later 18 oblong strips were used before SELECT in 1962 introduced one of the greatest inventions in the history of soccer balls – the 32 panel soccer ball. In 1974 SELECT moved away from cow leather and made the first hand sewn synthetic leather ball. This material quickly become the material of choice instead of real leather and today practically all soccer balls are made of synthetic leather, regardless of brand. All sorts of soccer ball tournaments around the globe are still played with soccer balls based on Eigil Nielsen’s 32 panel principle – and almost all soccer balls produced in the world today is still based on Eigil’s innovation.