Spalding, one of the largest manufacturers of sports equipment, was established in 1876 in Chicago by Albert Goodwill Spalding, who was the professional baseball player for Boston Red Socks. After the end of his active sports career, he managed to successfully combine his great knowledge of baseball with a head for business and thus Spalding has quickly become one of the leaders in the branch. It begun with the ball for baseball and soon followed the gloves. A decade later followed the first ball for American football, made of high quality leather. In 1891, when Dr. James Naismith invented basketball, the first players had to use the soccer ball, until the first Spalding ball for basketball was introduced three years later. Not long afterwards, this ball was written down in the rules of the game as the official ball of this newly invented sport.