Wilson’s first product was spun from cow intestines off a Chicago killing floor.
A slaughterhouse needed somewhere to send its guts, so in 1913 it spun up a subsidiary that twisted cattle membrane into tennis strings, violin strings, and surgical sutures. Footballs and gloves came later. The name on every ball is that of Thomas E. Wilson, a meatpacking executive New York bankers brought in to run the business in 1915.
Wilson on Brandseum