This 3D-Printed Tennis Ball Will Never Save the Planet-Here’s Why

Hello everyone, let’s talk about a design project that thinks it’s here to save the world, but might instead just be another neon-colored distraction bouncing around the eco-conscious echo chamber. Enter “POINT” – a 3D-printed tennis ball designed by Noé Chouraqui, a Central Saint Martins graduate who apparently woke up one morning and realized the apocalypse wasn’t going to arrive by nuclear war, AI overlords, or a Steam sale gone horribly wrong, but rather by-you guessed it-tennis balls. Yes, forget oil spills, forget fracking, our modern doom lies at the feet of Wimbledon.

The Apocalypse in Fuzzy Yellow Form

Here’s the “shocking” statistic we’re served with: 300 million tennis balls are manufactured every year, and they take about 400 years to decompose. That’s right, every time some amateur whacks one over the fence and into some poor pensioner’s rose bush, nature dies a little more. Forget carbon emissions, it’s that fluorescent sphere that’s apparently the harbinger of mother earth’s demise. And yet, amusingly, 90% of those balls will end up in a landfill after just a few weeks of sweaty Sunday match play. Sustainable? Hardly. Ridiculous? Absolutely.

POINT: The Eco Messiah or More Tech Worship?

Now onto the so-called revolution: POINT. A tennis ball made entirely with High Resilience PLA, a fancy starch-based plastic that makes you feel virtuous when your 3D printer spits it out like plastic spaghetti. Industrial compostable, low carbon footprint, saves the world, blah blah. Instead of the hollow rubber and felt combo we’ve known, this delightfully gimmicky sphere exists entirely as a single-component construction. One material, they say, to fix the whole recycling nightmare. Oh joy, I’m sure this will end up alongside all the other miracle inventions collecting dust in tech museums next to Segways and solar-powered backpacks.

Design Nostalgia – Because God Forbid It Looks Different

To Chouraqui’s credit, he did grasp the one eternal truth about sports equipment: you can innovate till the cows come home, but unless it looks the part, nobody’s touching it. That’s why POINT keeps all the familiar yellow visuals and seam lines. Because apparently pro athletes are like NPCs coded to recognize only one skin texture. If the tennis ball looked any different, it might as well be a dodgeball, right? So there it is, neon-greenish, rubber-felt aesthetic preserved-good to know we saved the planet without upsetting anyone’s marketing brochure.

Testing, Testing… Please Approve My Revolution

Of course, a product can’t just strut down the catwalk of eco-conscious awards without its big stamp of credibility. So Chouraqui got Jamie Capel Davies, the International Tennis Federation’s Head of Science and Technical, to test the thing. The result? The ball behaves just like a regular one. Which is both good and hilariously ironic, because you reinvented the wheel (ball?) with 3D-printing mumbo jumbo and the end result… is basically the same as before. Congratulations, you’ve played yourself.

Changing the Rules of the Game?

Now we’re at the part where the ITF is reviewing the data and bravely considering rule changes. Which, in sports bureaucrat lingo, means: “we’ll put this in a drawer and forget about it until the next green PR stunt makes us look bad.” Professional tennis runs on tradition heavier than World of Warcraft runs on grind. You can’t just waltz in with your 3D-printed eco-ball and expect Federer’s ghost to approve.

The Doctor’s Prescription

As a doctor, I’m obliged to point out the irony: humanity is choking on microplastics the way most gamers choke on energy drinks, yet here we are applauding the fact that we’ve turned corn starch into bouncy landfill fodder. Think of it as prescribing aspirin to a patient who’s in need of major surgery. Sure, they’ll feel better, but the tumor’s still growing. POINT isn’t saving us, it’s performing cosmetic surgery while the planet’s patient file reads critical condition.

The Gamer’s Analogy

This whole project feels like one of those indie game developers who pitches a revolutionary “new idea” that turns out to just be Pong with more shadows and shaders. Yes, technically innovative, visually familiar, functionally pointless. If environmentalism were a Steam game, this would be Early Access with “mixed reviews,” complete with players complaining about the performance not being quite there, but hey-it runs on potato hardware, I mean, compost heaps. Great.

Final Thoughts

So, what do we have here? A 3D-printed corn starch tennis ball that bounces just like the ones killing the planet. A product that pats itself on the eco-friendly back while remaining, ultimately, a sliver of improvement masquerading as salvation. To be blunt, it looks good on a designer’s résumé and might win them a TED Talk gig, but as an outright sustainable revolution? Color me unconvinced. The environmental disaster of tennis balls is real, but this, frankly, feels like treating the flames of a house fire with a water pistol. Classy water pistol, neon-colored, even compostable, but still a water pistol.

My verdict? Interesting concept, worthwhile experiment, but ultimately a flashy gimmick in a sector that thrives on gimmicks. It’s not the cure, it’s a bandage, and much like most modern tech solutions, it oversells itself while underdelivering. Good idea, mediocre execution, and likely doomed to disappear after the initial buzz dies out.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is entirely my opinion.

Article source: 3D-Printed Tennis Ball With The Strength & Bounce Of A Regular Ball Could Change The Sport Forever