Aerobie Sonic Bounce: World’s Highest Bouncing Ball
Launch Date: Spring 2023
The goal of the project was to design the highest bouncing ball and I was the lead engineer. I worked with the designer to test different geometries, conducted costing estimates of the preliminary design to help marketing team advise target cost, worked with the manufacturing engineer in China on the foaming formula, and helped lead testing of the ball pre production to validate the highest bouncing claim.
Through this project, I learned the values of collaboration and the importance of parallel pathing ideas. I also learned the importance of ensuring product excellence to maintain the performance claim. The opportunity also allowed me to explore concept development, project management, and leading teams of cross functional backgrounds to project completion.
See below images for the geometry and colors the team aligned on, the product will launch online and in brick + mortar stores across the nation in early 2023.
Images courtesy of Spin Master.
Product Testing
This project was my first experience in developing a product with such a stringent performance claim. I, along with my team, would carry balls wherever we went daily for months to make sure the ball met the standards we aligned to at the start of development. In fact, I realized that the ball was failing a critical quality standard when I was bouncing the ball in McCarren Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn!
To help standardize testing, we designed a rig that had a catapult at the top to simulate a consistent throw. After we aligned on a geometry and foam formula per performance and cost, we tested multiple samples against all foam bouncing balls on the market to validate that the ball we designed is actually the highest bouncing ball. This is seen in the image on the right.
We received a design patent for the ball structure (Patent D1039086) in 2024.
