Soccket: The Energy-Harnessing LED Lamp Soccer Ball for Resource-Poor Communities

The concept of Designing for the Other 90% has been coming up more frequently in recent years…especially with the ease of putting your product out there and funding through crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter. However the challenge for raising these funds has usually been centered around creating a product that will not only be effective for those needing aid, but also a product that is just as relevant or has a place in ‘the 10%’ world as well (ie TOMS Shoes). Perhaps the SOCCKET is one of those rare design projects that’s able to walk that fine line.

Uncharted play is a team of 8 people (plus our wonderful interns) from various disciplines who seek to fulfill a mission to create fun products and services that address real world issues and bring joy to the masses.
-Unchartered Play, SOCCKET Inventors

The SOCCKET harnesses energy through using a pendulum-like mechanism inside the ball that captures and stores kinetic energy generated during normal play. With just 30 minutes of play, the ball can generate an estimated 3 hours worth of light for it’s included LED lamp.

With soccer (or football, futball, etc depending on where you are) being the most popular sport in the world, this is perhaps one of the most versatile and accessible design directions towards approaching the underlying problem of bringing energy to resource-poor communities. Additionally, while the ball is slightly heavier and different than what would be seen on a Premier League pitch, it’s important to consider that the ball itself is quite a few steps up from what a lot of these communities use as existing, makeshift soccer balls…so it could be considered a two birds, one stone scenario as well.

Ball Specs:

• -6 watt output – capable of powering our lamp for more than 72 hours
• -Weighs 17oz – only one ounce more than normal soccer ball
• -Airless
• -Deflation-proof
• -Water resistant shell
• -Assembled in the United States

With nearly half of their fundraising goal of $75,000 in the bucket and almost a month left of fundraising, it’s looking like Unchartered Play is on their way to pulling it off. By contributing, you are helping to hire more people, purchase the tooling, and automate parts of the assembly process.

Head on over to Kickstarter to help them out?

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