72: Wool-less Tennis Balls & The Multiple Problems of Wool at Sheeps.Tennis

Danny Rosenthal from Sheeps discusses his company’s efforts to make tennis balls vegan and sustainable, and why it’s important.

Danny Rosenthal is a passionate tennis player, an animal welfare supporter and a 27-year vegan.  In 2018, he discovered that most tennis balls contain wool and many tennis sneakers (even those without leather) contain animal products. He became distressed that while deriving immense pleasure from the sport he was also contributing to the harm of animals. Thus was born Sheeps. Find out more about Sheeps’ mission, as well as where to find vegan tennis gear at https://www.sheeps.tennis. 

Original post: https://www.sheeps.tennis/blog/the-reality-of-wool 

Make Tennis Vegan Petition: https://www.change.org/p/ask-ceos-of-wilson-penn-babolat-and-dunlop-to-make-vegan-tennis-balls 

Vegan Tennis Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vegantennis 

Vegan Tennis LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12550563/ 

Original Article:

 VEGANISM IS RISING IN MULTIPLE FORMS 

Next Call:  Wool-less Tennis Balls

By: Danny Rosenthal, Sheeps

There’s been an awakening, and there’s a movement afoot.

I’ve come to believe, for the first time since I became aware of the repercussions of consuming animal products, that veganism is no longer a niche and, rather, that it’s becoming mainstream.

Recent research indicates that as much as 6% of the U.S. population or nearly 20 million people identify as vegan, representing a dramatic increase over the last several years. And the vegan population is similarly growing in countries including Germany, the UK, Australia and Israel.

As a longtime vegan residing in NYC, the alteration to the landscape via a vegan lens is dramatic. As a young adult in the early 1990s, there was barely a vegetarian restaurant in my midst and there are now well more than 100 strictly vegan restaurants in the city and dozens more loudly promote the availability of vegan options. Also, certified-vegan products now abound in Whole Foods and health food stores. Beyond Meat is fast becoming a highly potent multi-national corporation, Impossible Burgers are sold at Burger King, KFC has introduced vegan chicken, Ben and Jerry’s offers 12 types of vegan non-dairy desserts and Taco Bell and Starbucks are offering vegan products. The seminal vegan brand Myoko’s has been sued (unsuccessfully) by a dairy industry representative for making use of terms like “dairy” and “butter” and up to 40% of milk purchased presently is dairy-free.  Not surprisingly, then, reports about the viability of the milk industry have recently been prominent.

More nascent, though, is the understanding that animal products are frequently utilized in non-food products, and more recent are business initiatives to address this matter. Vegan shoes have been embraced by Stella McCartney, Doc Martens and Adidas, Volvo has introduced vegan interiors, and multiple versions of vegan leather and suede are on the marketplace.

And then there’s my personal preoccupation: tennis balls.

A couple years ago, I realized that most tennis balls contain wool.  I’d known that sheep-shearing is an unnecessary and harmful act, causing profound pain to sheep and culminating in their slaughter. So, I became distressed that while deriving immense joy from the sport in which I’m enthralled, I’m a participant in this practice.

I set out to learn about the production of tennis balls and discovered that at least a few versions from popular brands inadvertently substitute synthetic materials for wool. I founded the company Sheeps for the short-term purposes of raising awareness about the plight of sheep and publicizing existing vegan tennis products and for the mid-term goal of independently producing vegan tennis balls.

The effort to produce balls, while still in progress, has been more complicated and time-consuming than I anticipat