Franklin

Black text on a light brown background with thin black lines

The rounded oval shape of the depicted football contrasts the pointed tips of contemporary footballs. Early footballs were inflated animal bladders placed inside leather covers and they had a rounded form based on the anatomical structure of the animal bladders. The shape of a contemporary football is a prolate spheroid.

Franklin is a sporting goods manufacturer founded in 1946 by brothers Irving H. Franklin and Sydney Franklin whose grandfather had been in the scrap leather business. Franklin took off in the 1980s with their professional-grade leather baseball batting gloves but have since expanded their business to the production of footballs and many other sporting accessories. Though Wilson sporting goods is the official manufacturer of the National Football League football, Franklin does have a partnership with the NFL to produce branded NFL gear for a casual consumer audience.