The Last Wilson Football Factory: Why the NFL Refuses to Leave This Tiny Ohio Town

In 1966, the ball that decided Super Bowl I was stitched by hand in Ada, Ohio. Population 5,000. Today, 70 years later, 150 workers in that same town still hand-stitch every single official NFL game ball on the planet. Not some of them. Every one. While 700 American sporting goods factories collapsed between 1970 and 2005, Ada survived. While Schwinn, Rawlings, and Spalding all moved overseas, Ada stayed. While three separate automation attempts costing tens of millions of dollars failed to replace its workers, Ada kept stitching. This is the full story of Wilson Sporting Goods, the NFL's 80-year partnership with one Ohio town, the $47 million question that almost ended everything, the Deflategate scandal that put Ada's workers under a federal microscope they did nothing to deserve, and the 2019 Chinese acquisition that sent a chill through the factory that no machine could explain. This is not a story about football. This is a story about the last town America refused to abandon, and whether that refusal can survive what is coming next. #wilson #NFL #DukeNFLFootball #Football #americanindustrialhistory #ohio #industrialamerica #abandonedfactories #factorydocumentary #madeinamerica