This guest blog comes from Alan, General Manager at Bala Sports. A recent addition to the Bala team, Alan has been busy writing blogs, building the Bala website, and – perhaps most importantly – learning how to inflate fair trade footballs! He loves being out on the road meeting BAFTS members and swapping ideas. Here, he shares what a crash course in “ball basics” taught him about knowledge, retail, and fair trade.
I have been working at Bala long enough to have realised one thing… I don’t know much about balls.
One of my earliest musical memories is “Fitba’ Crazy” — the story of Jock McGraw, who falls in love with ‘fitba’ and loses his teeth, almost his wife and nearly his life in pursuit of his passion. There have been times when, robbed o’ the wee bit sense I had, I’ve felt similarly driven to ‘clean mad’ extremes. I’ve played with torn ligaments and knocked myself out on a goalpost. I could almost add an extra verse to the song.
But as obsessed as I’ve always been by the game, I have never really contemplated the ball.
They say one of the first rules of retail is know your product, so over the last couple of months I’ve been on a crash course in ball basics. I’ve been brushing up on bladders, delving into dimpling and studying sphericity. It’s been a deep dive.
And in talking to our amazing BAFTS retail partners, I have realised that knowing it ourselves isn’t enough. If we want to help retailers sell fair trade balls – with the benefits that brings for their makers in Pakistan – we need to share that knowledge.
That’s why Bala has recently launched our new Retail page.
It’s designed to make our products easier to understand technically, ethically and practically, so retailers can talk with confidence to customers, schools, universities and communities about what makes a fair trade sports ball different – and the impact choosing one can have.
You’ll find a Retail Partner Pack covering the essentials of stocking and selling Bala, alongside a growing collection of videos for you and resources for your shop: images, posters, shelf cards, colouring sheets and more. They’re customisable and free to download.
Much of this has been developed through conversations with our retailers who already champion Bala. So if there’s something that would help you that isn’t there, tell us… we’ll make it!
But there’s a bigger idea behind the page too.
We believe sport makes fairness easier to understand because it lets us see what fairness actually does. It gives people shared rules, responsibilities and boundaries – and asks everyone to take part on terms that make the activity meaningful.
That gives us a simple way into much bigger questions about fairness in trade, work and everyday life.
Fair trade can sometimes feel abstract, particularly to children.
But throw them a ball and start the game. ‘You have the ball and I want it. What am I prepared to do to get it?’
Fair play starts with the ball. Fair trade grows from it.
Explore the new Retail page for yourself: www.balasport.co.uk/pages/retail