SOCCKET: The Energy-Harnessing Soccer Ball

What is the SOCCKET?

The SOCCKET is a durable, energy-harnessing soccer ball. Using Uncharted Play’s patent pending technology, the pendulum-like mechanism inside the SOCCKET captures the kinetic energy generated during normal play, and stores it in the ball for later use as an off-grid power source. Just 30 minutes of play can power a simple LED lamp for 3 hours.

About one ounce heavier than a standard soccer ball, the SOCCKET is constructed from a custom water-resistant EVA foam that is both durable and soft to the touch. Designed and assembled in the USA, the SOCCKET is currently being piloted in select resource-poor areas of North America and South America.

Ball Specifications:

• 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

What It's For

Since we first prototyped the SOCCKET we have been fortunate to receive overwhelming demand and interest from people who want to use them for many purposes. 

We've given SOCCKETs to families living without light.

We've worked with teachers to use SOCCKETs to teach about energy, poverty, and entrepreneurship.

And we've had a lot of fun just using them ourselves!

How it works

As you play with the SOCCKET, a small pendulum inside the ball harnesses the kinetic energy of movement by turning a generator connected to a rechargeable battery. Simply plug the included LED lamp into the ball, and you have light!

Production Status

We’ve spent more than a full year building prototypes, conducting pilot programs, listening to feedback, and improving the SOCCKET thanks to support from corporate sponsors.

We’ve explored dozens of designs, materials, and manufacturing facilities and processes, and we finally have a version of the SOCCKET that we’re happy with.

We’ve identified and are working with several domestic vendors for most of our components, along with a few from overseas.

Our current assembly process is very manual labor intensive, which limits our output to a few hundred per week. We’d really like to scale up to thousands per week to meet demand and reach as many people we can, so we are turning to Kickstarter to help us get to the next level.

What We Need

We’ve been able to solidify our assembly process over the course of our numerous iterations, but due to the amount of manual labor, it is costly and time-intensive. In order to scale up, we need to hire more people, purchase more tools and equipment, automate parts of the assembly process, and expand our manufacturing facility. Doing this will enable us to reach more people with the SOCCKET while still being able to perform our manufacturing in the USA. 

In order to accomplish our goal of making SOCCKETs available for everyone, we need your help with two things:

• Contribute to our project (every little bit helps!) 
• Spread the word! The more people who we get the word out to the more likely we are to succeed.

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