7-708: Sherrin is a brand of football used in Australian rules football and is the official ball of the Australian Football League , designed to its official specifications. It was the first ball designed specifically for the sport. Sherrin footballs are manufactured in Melbourne , Australia, from cowhide -lined, machine-stitched material, but other-sized models are often made in India or China using synthetic rubber . In 1879, Thomas W. Sherrin opened
14-628: A day. That claim was in direct contradiction to the company website that claimed the balls were made in Scoresby, Victoria . A follow-up investigation by Fairfax Media in September 2013 revealed that another brand of rugby ball was being stitched using illegal child labour in Jalandhar , Punjab , for sale in Australia. Football (ball) Too Many Requests If you report this error to
21-522: A factory at 32 Wellington Street in Collingwood. The first Australian rules football was invented by Sherrin himself in 1880, when he was given a misshapen rugby ball to fix. He designed the Sherrin with indented rather than pointy ends to give the ball a better bounce. The sport known as football , or "footy", was rapidly increasing in popularity, and Sherrin footballs soon became the icon for being
28-413: A type of Sherrin football. When T.W. Sherrin started manufacturing footballs, several models were produced (such as the "MATCH III" Sherrin), but the "Kangaroo Brand" was Sherrin's best-selling, highest-quality, and most favoured and traditional football. Sherrin is the official brand of football used by the Australian Football League , which has been the case since the 1880s. At the state level, Sherrin
35-802: Is used in the Victorian Football League and many local competitions. The other major brand of football is Burley-Sekem , which is used at state level in the South Australian National Football League and West Australian Football League . After a 12-month-long investigation, The Saturday Age , a Melbourne newspaper, claimed that "two of Australia's best-known football brands, Sherrin and Canterbury, have operations in India that use banned child labour." The children took an hour to make one AFL ball and were paid 7 rupees (A$ 0.12) per ball, amounting to $ 1
42-560: The first ball made for Australian rules football. The new-shaped ball was so quickly accepted that the National Football League of Australia eventually used the size and shape as standard. Sherrin began production in 1897 in a workshop in Collingwood , which had produced a variety of leather sporting goods since 1880, including footballs, cricket balls, boxing gloves and punching balls. The quality of Sherrin's goods
49-580: Was widely regarded. The company was sold in 1972 to the Australian subsidiary of Spalding . In 2003, Spalding was acquired by the Russell Corporation , which would become part of Fruit of the Loom three years later. Sherrin still makes its footballs by hand in Scoresby, Victoria . Full-Size Ball (nĀ° 5) Models of the Sherrin football include: The term "Kangaroo Brand" ("KB") refers to
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