Ball Bummer: Why Didn't They Ask the Players?
The January issue of Business West came by mail, thanks to the Chamber of Commerce whose members now get it free. Inside was a sad story similar to the New Coke disaster of 1985--The Spaulding Ball Bummer of 2006.
Local company Spaulding introduced a new basketball to be used in the NBA starting this season. The scientists decided that the decades-old leather balls were too slippery when they got sweaty, so a composite ball was created. Sounds like a good idea. But they didn't ask the men who worked with the thing--the players HATED the new ball.
According to Shaq, the new ball "felt like one of these cheap balls you get at the toy store," and other players reported getting paper cuts, tiny abrasions when handling the dry ball. The result: On January 1, the league goes back to the leather version.
It's been a PR nightmare, and the story focuses on Dan Touhey. Funny thing is, now that the ball is done for, it's become a hot commodity, selling briskly on eBay and all of Touhey's friends are emailing and calling to try to get one.
The funny thing is, every player in the NBA was sent the new ball before the season. Touhey thinks that many of them were never opened. Sounds like the company got the message, even in hindsight. "We realize now that it's important to involve that end user in the actual testing, to ensure you get a buy-in...that's the lesson learned here."
Local company Spaulding introduced a new basketball to be used in the NBA starting this season. The scientists decided that the decades-old leather balls were too slippery when they got sweaty, so a composite ball was created. Sounds like a good idea. But they didn't ask the men who worked with the thing--the players HATED the new ball.
According to Shaq, the new ball "felt like one of these cheap balls you get at the toy store," and other players reported getting paper cuts, tiny abrasions when handling the dry ball. The result: On January 1, the league goes back to the leather version.
It's been a PR nightmare, and the story focuses on Dan Touhey. Funny thing is, now that the ball is done for, it's become a hot commodity, selling briskly on eBay and all of Touhey's friends are emailing and calling to try to get one.
The funny thing is, every player in the NBA was sent the new ball before the season. Touhey thinks that many of them were never opened. Sounds like the company got the message, even in hindsight. "We realize now that it's important to involve that end user in the actual testing, to ensure you get a buy-in...that's the lesson learned here."
posted by Max Hartshorne at 2:31 PM
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