Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Sunday, October 08, 2006

The NBA says "no" to leather

In the bling bling world of the National Basketball Association (NBA), leather is on its way out. Not the shoes, boots, sneakers, pants, or ubiquitous motorcycle jacket…I’m talking about the ball itself.

“Spalding urged the NBA to switch to a composite model because it was having trouble securing ‘consistent’ leather to keep manufacturing the ball that has been used for decades,” writes Marc Stein of ESPN.com. New Jersey Net Jason Kidd is skeptical. “They probably couldn’t sell (the leather ball),” he said. “It was an indoor model. A lot of kids play outside, so maybe that was the reason.” Whatever the reason for the switch, here’s a little something the $1.5-billion-and-100-million-animal-skins-per-year U.S. leather industry would prefer you didn’t know.

Read that “little something” here.