Basketball Design: The Patents of the First Basketball Hoop and Ball

As you watch your basketball sail towards the hoop, with its perfect contours and textured surface, you may ask yourself how this perfectly matched ball and hoop came to be. Who decided that the ball should look the way it does, and how did the basketball hoop transform from a simple basket into the netted target that sits on the backboards of thousands of courts across the world?

We know that we’ve asked these questions (not least because the elegant designs of the ball and hoop inspire our approach), so we’ve decided to explore how the first basketball hoops and basketballs came to be.

The Famous Peach Basket and Its Evolution Into Today’s Hoops

The story of the first basketball hoop starts in 1891 at the International YMCA Training School, now Springfield College. There, a college instructor named James Naismith was trying to come up with a game that he could use to distract (and channel the energies of) a group of restless students. Football season wasn’t going to start for a few months, so he devised a simple game that involved bouncing a ball toward a basket, which would serve as the goal players aimed for to score points.

Naismith came up with the somewhat inelegant, though no doubt effective, idea of attaching a peach basket to a railing. The game of basketball was born, though it would be several more years before the first “official” basketball hoops were patented.

Fast-forward to 1909, a man named Milton Reach (also from Springfield) filed Patent No. 922,630 for what he called a “Basket Ball Goal.” The patent didn’t have the backboard and net that are familiar to today’s players, though it did feature a specially-designed basketball hoop instead of a physical basket, as well as a clever spring-operated method for attaching it to a wall.

Further evolutions followed. Frack Albach’s 1919 patent for a basketball goal introduced a pair of support struts, setting the stage for the introduction of a backboard. In the same year, Philo Medart came up with his “back-stop,” to which players could attach their hoops. And 1930 saw the creation of a suspension system that could hold a hoop and backboard in the air. This innovation eventually gave way to the simpler and more stable pole in the modern professional basketball hoop.

Most of the pieces of the jigsaw were in place, with the first great hoop coming from a man named Alvie E. Sandeberg. The University City native came up with a “Basketball Goal” patent, a new basketball hoop that included loops, allowing players to easily hook and remove the nets. Take this combination of net innovation, support struts, rim height, and backboard material, and you have the ingredients for the modern basketball hoop.

Innovations continued into 1909 when the first glass backboard came out. In 1919 the first tempered glass backboard was introduced, its durability taking the danger out of the slam dunk. Today’s NBA backboards are made of tempered glass or plexiglass.

From Leather to Synthetic – The Development of the Basketball

The basketball system wouldn’t be complete without the perfect basketball. Afterall, a goal is of no use with nothing to shoot into it. When James Naismith invented the game, the basketball equipment was a heavy leather soccer ball, which had a decent enough bounce but wasn’t the most aerodynamic ball in the world.

Enter Spalding, which had already built its reputation by developing the first American football in 1887.

Spalding created the first “official” basketball in 1894, using a combination of the lacing it had developed for its American footballs and an air bladder designed to make the ball easier to throw. Yet, the company didn’t apply for or receive a patent for this design, leaving the door open for an inventor named George L. Pierce.

In 1929, Pierce filed a patent for a new ball that replaced the tapered leather panels used in Spalding’s version with something akin to the curved panels we see on modern balls. Lacing went out of the window, too, as Pierce’s patent used stitches to get rid of the bulky laces that could affect the flight of the ball and how it felt in the player’s hands.

Spalding took notice of these innovations, leading to Pierce spending about half a decade working for the company. It’s a testament to the effectiveness of Pierce’s 1929 patent that basketballs haven’t undergone any major structural changes in the years since. Most of the later patents filed for basketballs, such as Cheryl Sellers’ idea of using circles on the ball’s surface, are decorative rather than functional.

Footwear to Fire Players Up – How Basketball Shoes Have Changed

With the various patents for hoops coming together in 1930, coupled with Pierce’s 1929 patent for a basketball, all of the fundamental elements of basketball were in place.

From there, innovation in the game has been all about performance. And few things affect a player’s abilities on the court as much as the fabric and laces wrapped around their feet.

Before 1917, there was no official basketball shoe, meaning players tended to play with whatever they had on their feet. But 1917 brought with it Converse and their creation of the famous “All Star” – the world’s first dedicated basketball shoe. The shoe would become the standard from 1920 onward when Converse signed a deal with Chuck Taylor to make him the face of their new footwear. Taylor was an effective spokesman, even going so far as to sell the shoes while teaching kids how to play basketball.

The “All Star” design worked because it combined a canvas fabric with a rubber sole, eliminating the problem of skidding on the court. But further evolutions drastically affected future shoe construction. Puma introduced footwear with wider soles, giving players more traction and stability on the court, with Nike bringing leather and suede into the mix to replace the canvas that Converse used.

Innovation Lies at the Heart of Evolution

Charting the evolution of the three fundamental aspects of basketball (hoops, balls, and shoes) shows us that with each new idea comes the inspiration for innovations. Hoop Dream Studios’ goal is to build on classic designs, adding our own sense of wonder to the balls and hoops that make up our favorite game. If you’re interested in how we’re taking these fundamentals of basketball into a new artistic direction, contact us today to discuss your custom order.