Sporting Goods and Fitness Equipment
Pakistan’s sports goods enjoy world-wide recognition mainly because of the care that goes into their designing, manufacturing, selection and usage of proper raw materials. The basic raw materials required for the production of sports goods, are leather, wood, glue, nylon guts, PVC/rubber and treatment chemicals and colors.
Sports/fitness equipment, apparel and accessories are a large and important export component from Pakistan. Apart from specific customer requirements, this product category presents different levels of potential non-compliance whose resulting hazards are subject of very specific international and regional legislation. Complying with regulatory requirements is crucial, and we ensure that these prerequisites are followed. The main focus during inspection of Sports goods and equipment are:
- General inspection requirements related to quantities, outer packaging and marking are the common requirement of all Sports goods inspection.
- Ensure product compliance with regulatory requirements.
- Quality, safety and performance checks of products benefit from external resources to ensure the full safety and quality of bulky sports training equipment.
- Ensuring that raw materials used have been properly sourced, treated/seasoned in compliance with minimum product usage requirements and specific customer instructions.
- Check of Product branding in specified colors and durability of these markings are an integral part of quality assurance.
- Other product specific tests depending on the item such as footballs.
Football Inspection Case Study
For Footballs, under Law 2 of the Laws of the Game, all balls used in international matches organised by FIFA or the confederations have to bear either a FIFA quality mark (FIFA QUALITY PRO or FIFA QUALITY) or the “IMS – International Match Standard” mark.
These logos indicate that a ball has been tested and found to be in compliance with specific technical requirements, different for each logo and additional to the minimum specifications stipulated in Law 2.
The FIFA Quality Programme for Footballs focuses on the ball – the very heart of the game. Only balls that have passed a rigorous testing procedure are awarded one of the prestigious FIFA quality labels.
A typical football inspection would at least have the following checkpoints;
- Size, in accordance with order
- Air leak check
- Workmanship
- Finish
- Logo design & placement
- Printing quality
- Color(s)
- Seams
- Stains/dirt
- Material
- Shape after inflation
On the other hand Cricket bats are all about wood. Most preferred wood for cricket bats is willow, mainly because it is very tough and shock-resistant, while also being light in weight. However, the best wood selection may not make the grade if it has not been properly cut, seasoned and treated.
Since natural substances are mainly used in the manufacture of sports consumables, standardization of quality is a challenge which entails high level of raw material selection and intense scrutiny at every stage.
Clients served
| Martin Ariel | State of Football | Dan Post Boots |
| Gopher Sports | Universal Sports | Eric Jay Inc |
| AWG Mode GMBH | Select Sports | ThreeSixty Sourcing |
| Trading Corporation of Pakistan | SMA Hong Kong | Wembley Sports |
Apart from the above, we have carried out numerous pre-shipment inspection assignments of sports goods for clients in USA, South America, UK, EU and Hong Kong.