Tim Jahnigen isn't an engineer and he doesn't have a fancy business degree — but that hasn't stopped him from bringing an invention to market that's changing the lives of millions of children around the globe.
The OneWorld Futbol, the soccer ball he invented, is playing a fundamental part of the solution to long-term social development in struggling regions — because it lasts.
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More than just a means to recreate or a route to college, sport is an essential part of human development that teaches indispensable lessons about teamwork, conflict resolution and tolerance, and helps heal unthinkable traumas.
But all across the globe, where the healing power of play is most needed, children live in the harshest conditions, from refugee camps to remote rural villages, where traditional balls don't last. In these places, plastic bags, rope, inflated condoms and all manner of trash serve as soccer balls.
That's where Jahnigen comes in. The ball he envisioned, made of injection-molded, closed-cell foam, similar to the material used to make Crocs shoes, is virtually indestructible, can't be deflated, doesn't get waterlogged and is made to survive. It's "as durable as the spirits of the kids who need it," he said in a YouTube video announcing Chevrolet as the company's founding sponsor.
The idea came to Jahnigen while watching a documentary on children living in war zones, but he didn't have the cash on hand to fund the R&D needed to turn inspiration into reality. As a lyricist and member of the music business, however, he had worked with Sting and, when Jahnigen told the superstar about the idea, he said he would fund the research.
Though no one knew exactly how to make that particular foam form a sphere, because no one had ever done it, there was "something about the concept that motivated everybody in the process," Jahnigen said in an interview with Mashable. And with that, a process that can take years and millions of dollars — and still fail — took less than a year and a fraction of initial projections, he said.
Now, according to the company, an estimated 21 million children have the opportunity to play with over 700,000 indestructible soccer balls in over 160 countries. Jahnigen and Cofounder Lisa Tarver have turned the simple idea into a B Corporation with a buy one, give one model: Buy a OneWorld Futbol for $39.95 and they send one to a "community in need through organizations working in ... refugee camps, war zones, disaster areas and inner cities." Or, if you don't need a ball, send one directly to a company partner for $25.

 Image of Cape Town, South Africa: OneWorld Futbol
Since it was founded in 2010, "Retail sales have increased more than 400 percent," Arnold Ambiel, chief operating officer, said in a press release. In November, the company unveiled a partnership with Toms Shoes as a part of that company's online marketplace for social entrepreneurs and became an L.A. Galaxy community partner. This week, it announced the opening of a European distribution center to expand operations and serve a "growing base of customers in Europe, Africa and throughout the Middle East,” Ambiel said, which should help balls arrive at kids' feet "much sooner."
As the effects of his invention ripple outward, Jahnigen has advice for other inventors mulling over an idea they want to realize: Tell your story, share your ideas ("it always take a team"), and "fail a lot."
Non-profit Coaches Across Continents uses the ball and the game to "tackle real social issues," according to its founder and global strategist, Nick Gates. "When done correctly," he told Mashable, sport is a means by which child soldiers are integrated back into their communities in Uganda or where girls in northern Kenya who've suffered genital mutilation, kidnapping and rape, find a sense of empowerment.
"By using, in our case, soccer and sport for social impact, we're able to give the young women in that region a voice and a choice where ... they're now educating the men in the society about the different rights of women," Gates said.
And the OneWorld Futbol goes with Gates everywhere. It's "more or less my best friend" that has traveled with him 110,000 miles, he calculated.
Doc Lawson, a former professional soccer defender, is CEO of Donami Sport, a sport-for-development nonprofit he founded in Liberia. He too emphasized the importance of a sustainable, durable ball in a developing nation rebuilding after a devastating, 14-year civil war. It's a place where Lawson was burning through "15 to 20 balls a day" to run his programs — "Grass is a luxury we don't have."
That all changed with the OneWorld Futbol. "It's our G.I. Joe ball," Lawson said in an interview with Mashable. "That's a hero right there."
Oakland International High School sits on a narrow, nondescript street in West Oakland, where Ben Guicciardi runs the Soccer Without Borders program. His players, like all the school's students, are recently arrived immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers from countries like Eritrea, Iraq, Colombia and Myanmar. They don't have a soccer field, or any kind of field — they run drills with the OneWorld Futbol on the concrete yard out back.
The kids speak varying levels of English and can find academics challenging. Playing the game, though, they're nimble and confident.
"This is very much a family," Guicciardi said, where the goal is to "tell every kid something positive about what they're doing every day." Twice he offered his own shoes to players who didn't have the proper attire, apologizing to the one who accepted for not offering them earlier.
Once practice was over, and the kids had doled out "positivity points" to those who had shown good sportsmanship, and they brought it in for a final chant ("One, two, three, together!"), a young man from Congo, who's been in the States for three years, explained what he likes about soccer. "Even if you have a problem with somebody, it's unity," he said. "You're not playing for you, you're playing for your team. You got to not play as eleven people but as one person, as one mind. It's a friendship sport."
Then he added, invoking the sport's current icon, "I hope one day I can be like Messi."
With this family and an indestructible soccer ball — he may well yet.

Thumbnail image in Winneba, Ghana: OneWorld Futbol/Semester at Sea