When Did Basketballs Start to Be Mass Produced?
The basketball did not start being mass-produced until the late 1930s when companies like Spalding and Rawlings mechanized the manufacturing process. Until then, each basketball was handmade, usually with leather, limiting how many could be made and sold.
Yet demand grew quickly after Naismith invented the game, prompting factories to start pumping out basketballs in the industrial age.