These Bluetooth speakers are made out of recycled championship tennis balls

tennis ball speaker
hearO

The best wireless speakers are portable, durable, and make your music sound great.

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Richard Moss, CEO of the design studio Rogue Projects, knows from his experience as a designer and tennis player that tennis balls satisfy the first two criteria. And since some 230,000 balls get wasted each year after the Grand Slam tennis tournaments, why not also try to satisfy the third?

That's why Moss created hearO, a portable speaker housed in a tennis ball. Take a look.

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Initially, hearO began as Moss' frustration that a quarter of a million tennis balls went to waste after the sport's biggest events: Wimbledon, the French Open, the US Open, and the Australian Open.

tennis ball speaker
hearO

So he took to the drawing board, spending three years developing the ideal design.

Today, Moss is trying to make hearO a reality through his Kickstarter campaign. As of this writing, he's raised $14,411 of his $53,576 goal, with 16 days remaining.

Moss says he wanted to design a speaker that was easy to use and looked great.

tennis ball speaker
hearO

The speaker uses just one button as its master control to connect to phones, tablets, and computers.

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The latest versions are in honor of Wimbledon Memorabilia Week.

tennis ball speaker
hearO

The company will be releasing speakers signed by tennis players Andy Murray, Ivan Llendl, Michael Chang and Lleyton Hewitt. 

They will be sold exclusively through Kickstarter.

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Each hearO comes with a charging cradle and storage canister. For about $7 more, you can customize your hearO with a specially colored ball or engraved canister.

tennis ball speaker
hearO

The ball also comes in lime green, red brick, choco brown, and dark brown. Of course, if you choose to keep it old-school, you can stay with the original yellow design.

No matter its color, each ball comes from a Grand Slam championship game.

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Ultimately, Moss hopes hearO can achieve a couple goals at once.

tennis ball speaker
hearO

As a designer, he wants to think beyond the typical autograph or framed photograph and create an entirely new category of tennis memorabilia.

But he also is thinking sustainably, hoping hearO will help cut down on the massive waste from discarded tennis balls.

"We hope that with each ball's story, hearO inspires, and that this ball gets its chance to live on," he says in the Kickstarter video.

tennis ball speaker
hearO

You can buy hearO for about $60 through Kickstarter. It comes with the cradle, micro USB cable, and, exclusive to early backers, a customized holding tin.

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