wanted to share my experience replacing the bladder and laces on a Wilson football
tl;dr - I had a flat football that wouldn’t hold air anymore. Instead of buying a new one for $120 I replaced the bladder and laces for a total of $15.
I had quite a hard time trying to find a replacement bladder and laces because apparently they don’t sell them online anymore. You could get some on eBay for a small premium, but I came across a YouTube comment (I searched high and low...) that said you could send a check for $5 and the model of your ball to Wilson and they would send you a repair kit. I emailed Wilson about it and they confirmed. They even said you could send your ball to them and they’d do everything for you and send your ball back for $20. This option would require more postage, so I opted to get the bladder and lace kit. I’ll admit I was slightly annoyed by not having the option to do this whole transaction online, but I chalked that up to my need for instant gratification (thanks Amazon) and accepted the snail mail requirement.
Process: Send $5 check made payable to Wilson Sporting Goods
Address: Wilson Sporting Goods Attn: Repair Services 217 N. Liberty St. Ada, OH 45810
It took about 4 weeks to receive the kit (2 weeks to process the check, 2 weeks to ship). Note this was smack dab in the middle of the COVID holiday shipping rush, so future processing may take less time.
I followed a very thorough YouTube tutorial (linked below) on how to replace the bladder and relace the ball. It’s very straight forward and took me about an hour to take apart the old laces and bladder and install the new parts.
After watching once before receiving the kit, I purchased/found the following tools that the guy used to make the relacing MUCH easier: - [Lacing Awl - $4](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001N9S6OY] - Locking Tweezers/Forceps - $6 - Razor blade (already had) - Leather conditioner (had some boot wax/conditioner laying around)
Couple notes on the whole process: - the bladder appears too small when you first inflate it. It needs a few hours to expand fully. I had originally installed it in the football carcass and then inflated and it was way too small for the ball it seemed. I put it down in frustration only to come back and pump it up a little more to it near-full size. So don’t fret, it will expand! - The nose of the ball will not fully inflate for a while, but like the rest it will eventually get there. - Follow the tutorial exactly, it can easily get confusing on where to start the awl to get the lace in the proper position - Use some leather conditioner on your ball. Chances are the ball has seen some shit (probably literally) and needs a good cleaning and reconditioning. If you don’t think it needs it, do it anyway, the ball feels great afterwards.
Longer-term, a lacing tool is what a use for repairs like this.