Wednesday, 16 June 2010 23:53 youssefg

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Jabulani - Showcase your leadership in your core expertise in a meaningful way! [Video]

"Come to bring happiness to everybody" or Jabulani, is an African name that Adidas adopted for the World Cup 2010 match ball. Jabulani is a promess that Adidas achieved through its leadership in product design and innovation.

Designing such a product is one of the most challenging tasks. As Thomas Weege, Design Director at Football Adidas sports performance division, points out surpassing the proceeding ball is a high expectation to start with.

In terms of design, the ball had to get its inspiration from the South African culture and communicate it to the world in an appealing way. One must recognize Thomas skillful diplomacy that helped him deal with the different stakeholders. He had to bring together Adidas marketing team who aim to consolidate their market positionning, soccer players who want to score, FIFA members who seek better games, and the most of those who care about celebrating soccer.

Jabulani is distinguished by a pattern of 11 discontinuous lines in 11 different colours meeting in the holistic design. The design is inspired by the 11 languages of South Africa showcasing its diversity yet its unity. The colours are also inspired from South African colours and put together in a way that is likely to unite the world. Adidas designers dived in the South African culture, talked to people, and travelled around the country to explore distinctive patterns in clothes, tribal masks, architectures that lie on the surface, as well as undress these apparent patterns and discover the underlying belief system.

Soccer ball optimization is a tricky question. The intrinsic parameters that determine the stability of the ball are the shape, the surface and the spin. Other outside factors interact with the ball and give different results under different conditions. Adidas engineering team took into consideration the geography and weather conditions in South Africa, where the difference in altitudes can result in up to 5% difference in the flight path and distance of the ball. More pricesly, the air is thinner thus less resistant in high altitudes which gives the ball a straighter path and a higher speed.

Adidas engineers spent about 6 years testing the ball behavior in wind tunnels and performing analytical analysis to optimize the aerogrooves on the surface of the ball and optimize it by minimizing the influence of the air on the ball. The main results of this research are the thermally bonded 3D panels, versus the 2D panels, make the ball perfectly round thus more aerodynamic. Adidas Gripn'Groove technology appears in the dash-like micro-structures on its surface that breaks the water in wet conditions and offers a better grip and consistent playing conditions for players and goalkeepers. Jabulani is faster, and more stable in flight and spin than its predecessors,

Adidas branding leadership led to its achivements in product design, as the CEO points out: soccer is the soul of Adidas, and the world cup is soccer`s ultimate celebration. Adidas found resources in its roots, used its expertise to provide a product with a meaningful design and an excellent product. Several companies could use this best case practice to improve their brand, the first example that comes to mind is Nokia.

Lessons learned: Showcase your leadership in your core expertise in a meaningful way!