I’ve been obsessed with the aesthetic of sports for most of my life and have been obsessed with metal cans for about a year. These two interests clash brilliantly on the website with the misleading title VintageTennisBalls.com, which, despite its name, is not about vintage tennis balls. This is a vintage tennis ball cans.
If that’s a topic you’ve never thought about before, well, you and me. But the site manager, Brad McCall, thought of plot on this subject. In fact, he thought so much about tennis ball boxes that he developed its own numerical classification system for them – a sort of Dewey Decimal system for that specific packaging category.
McCall’s website, which he describes as “my personal project to bring order to all the different types of tennis boxes and containers I’ve discovered during my collecting spree,” includes examples of over 1,000 different tennis ball boxes (plus a few boxes and other containers), most of which come from his personal collection. Having recently discovered the site, I clicked on it and was blown away by both the quantity and quality of the can designs. Here are some particularly cool ones:
Good right? I didn’t even know these bigger 12 ball cans existed.
The nice thing about this, of course, is its niche specificity. Like all great collections, this one may not be broad, but it is very, very deep.
I emailed McCall and asked to interview him, but never heard back. Too bad, but his website speaks for him. Do yourself a favor and spend time with it — if you’re interested in tennis, sports design, graphics, packaging or collecting, it will almost certainly be time well spent.
One last note: I didn’t come across this website on my own: someone pointed me to this site. But I don’t remember who this person was, and I can’t find the email or DM he did it in. If that someone was you, Please let me know so that I can give you proper credit. THANKS!
Can of the day
I love the name “Oilzum” and how the “Z” is always slightly bigger/taller than the other letters. I’m not sure why the spokesperson character seems to be a burglar.
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I have some shopping to be settled this morning. Play nice while I’m gone, okay? THANKS. — Paul
