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Tribune News Service

Jon-Paul Wheatley creates intricately designed footballs that sell for hundreds of US dollars. And instead of them being untouchable collector’s items, he wants to see his customers go outside and enjoy kicking the balls around in the mud.
“I hate the idea of making balls to sit on the shelf,” the UK native says.
What started as Wheatley’s Covid-19 quarantine hobby quickly turned into a passion and a high-end football business based in St. Louis, in the US state of Missouri.
Wheatley co-founded his company, 12 Pentagons, after the 60-second football-making videos he filmed during the pandemic went viral on TikTok. His page, @jonpaulsballs, documents him designing and constructing funky footballs from scratch.

The clips have racked up millions of views and caught the attention of organisations such as Adidas and Fifa.
Initially, Wheatley said he had no intention of selling anything, but commenters kept asking him when they could buy his creations, like his black, goth-like “Spike Ball” and one he made out of 96 Tetris shapes.
His videos have featured a ball made from recycled Nike Air Force 1s and one designed to look like a watermelon.
Although the footballs Wheatley creates in his videos are not for sale, he says he will continue to invent new designs and post videos about the process.
Many of the ideas and concepts he experiments with come from comments on the videos, he says. Wheatley calls TikTok his research and development lab.
“Every video is a pitch for a new ball,” he says. “We can quantify the success of a potential ball with comments and views.”












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A post shared by Jon-Paul Wheatley (@jonpaulsballs)



Wheatley founded 12 Pentagons with his wife, Allison Diaz Wheatley, in 2023 with a US$75,000 grant and personal savings. The couple met in 2021.
“I never really thought it would be viable,” says Wheatley about selling footballs. “But it got to the point where I started to wonder what it would take, so I got the ball rolling, no pun intended.”
First, he needed to find a manufacturer that could recreate the quality of his own hand-stitched work at a somewhat reasonable price point, he says. One US-based manufacturer told him it would cost about US$1,100 to make such a ball.
In contrast, a mass-produced football can be found for as low as US$13 on the website of Dick’s Sporting Goods.
“I wanted it to be at least as good as the ones I made in the videos,” says Wheatley, whose background is in product development. Each ball he has made by hand took one to two weeks to construct, and he wanted that same care to go into the 12 Pentagons products.
Wheatley eventually settled on a manufacturer in Sialkot, Pakistan, which produces most of the world’s footballs. The first product release from 12 Pentagons, in June, was called the Original 92, a ball made out of 92 panels: 12 pentagons and 80 hexagons.

The Original 92s were crafted out of Italian leather and hand-sewn together. Wheatley calls them the most expensive football on the market, save some from high-end designers like Louis Vuitton. The Original 92 ball retailed at US$275 and sold out in hours.
Despite the price tag, Wheatley says he hopes people go out and kick the footballs around. He says the best part of starting 12 Pentagons has been seeing videos and photos of people across the globe playing with his creations.
“I think some people view them as similar to limited-edition sneaker drops. They buy them to be collected,” Wheatley says. “That’s not how we plan to market them. They’re a cool thing to play with. Maybe they can occasionally grab it off the shelf and kick it around.”
The millions of views his TikTok videos have attracted gave Diaz Wheatley the confidence to leave her job in sales and marketing at a local business to work at 12 Pentagons full time. The pair, both transplants to St. Louis, plan to remain in the area, thanks to the low cost of living and the city’s rich football history.
“It was crazy to see his craft skyrocket,” Diaz Wheatley says.












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A post shared by Jon-Paul Wheatley (@jonpaulsballs)



The pair were pretty confident their product would sell, she says, but, like anything, there are never any guarantees.
“It was an interesting kind of dance because it’s been intangible for so long – seeing the [TikTok] numbers go up,” she says. “But is it something one thousand people would spend their hard-earned money on?”
On the day the Original 92 ball went on sale, Wheatley became so nervous he made himself sick. He was at the hospital when Diaz Wheatley called him in tears to share the news: their inventory of 1,000 balls sold out in under five hours.
Eventually, Wheatley wants 12 Pentagons to regularly release a new football design every couple of months and establish some that are always in stock. He wants them to range in price and performance, so there is something for every consumer.
The company plans to release a second round of 1,000 soccer balls in November. These will be more expensive than the Original 92, because the new design has double the number of panels.
“The response just blew us away,” Wheatley says. “It was absolutely crazy.”


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The Original 92, handmade  using Italian leather, was the first football sold by 12 Pentagons. Photo: Instagram/jonpaulsballs

The Original 92, handmade  using Italian leather, was the first football sold by 12 Pentagons, after co-founder Jon-Paul Wheatley’s videos of him making footballs went viral on TikTok. Photo: Instagram/jonpaulsballs

Jon-Paul Wheatley has made a number of one-off footballs, but has only sold the Original 92 so far. Photo: Instagram/12pentagons

A close-up of an Original 92. Photo: Instagram/jonpaulsballs

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After videos of him making leather footballs by hand went viral on TikTok, Jon-Paul Wheatley realised it was wise to start selling them


After videos of him making leather footballs by hand went viral on TikTok, Jon-Paul Wheatley realised it was wise to start selling them.


TikTok

Social media

Viral TikTok handmade leather footballs are ‘cool to play with’. First costs almost US$300

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}After videos of him making leather footballs by hand went viral on TikTok, Jon-Paul Wheatley realised it was wise to start selling them

After videos of him making leather footballs by hand went viral on TikTok, Jon-Paul Wheatley realised it was wise to start selling them