As of next week, February 16th, the manufacturer of high-performance sports equipment Wilson will sell a limited collection of its Airless Gen 1.
The 3D-printed basketball made a real splash in the industry last year as it is the first-of-its-kind 3D-printed basketball that never needs to be inflated. As a reminder, the basketball prototype was the result of a collaboration between Wilson, DyeMansion at the postprocessing level and EOS for the fabrication process.
“We were overwhelmed by the excitement from our Airless Prototype, and we knew it was time to bring this rare, first-of-its kind innovation to the world. Wilson has gone where no brand has gone before with the release of the Airless Gen1 basketball, further inspiring the next generation of sports innovation,” Kevin Murphy, General Manager, Team Sports at Wilson states.
The Wilson Airless Gen1 has similar functionality to the prototype, however over the last year, the Wilson Labs team has taken the steps to increase performance and streamline the manufacturing process. The basketball nearly fits the performance specifications of a regulation basketball, including its weight, size and rebound (bounce). While the Wilson Airless Gen1 is crafted for play, it is truly a coveted, technology-infused product meant to create and inspire a new community of innovation enthusiasts and basketball hype curators alike, a press release reads.
This time,  General Lattice provided computational design services for elevated performance optimization, DyeMansion provided color and finishing solutions, EOS provided technical oversight and a roadmap for mass production, while SNL Creative was the primary manufacturing hub for this first launch.
The main improvements are related to functionality, streamlined manufacturing, customization and color variety.
Limited units of the Wilson Airless Gen1 will be available exclusively on Wilson.com for $2,500.
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