In 1991 Forward Sports was established by Mr. Khawaja Masood Akhtar, a civil engineer who had been working in the football manufacturing industry for some years and whose passion for the game led him to lead his new sweatshop.
The first years of Forward Sports of 50 employees proved to be difficult in the intense and competitive market. However, Masood worked his way out starting from 1000 balls per month and finally won his trust over world biggest giant in the market "adidas" in 1994.
Till 2003 most of the production processes involved in producing hand-stitched balls were manual. Understanding that, Masood strategized his business approach by implementing "Lean Manufacturing?" principles that helped him reducing waste through this labor-intensive business and won 'Best Lean Manufacturing System' award from adidas.
The year 2004 proved to be revolutionary for Masood as he mechanized most of his football manufacturing processes in this year. Different machines were developed with the help of local and foreign consultants including automatic lamination machine, more than 200 pieces per stroke cutting machines and seven automatic multicolor printing machines.
In 2007, Forward achieved another technological milestone. With yearlong efforts Forward successfully developed the thermal bonding technology to produce 32 panel thermal bonded footballs locally.
In 2008, Forward successfully set up a new assembly line for thermal bonded footballs and took it to the level of mass production. In 2008, Forward started to receive meager orders of thermal bonded Official Match balls from adidas.
Gradually, Forward mechanized its football (hand stitched) manufacturing processes and as a result in 2008, Forward enhanced its capacity to 700,000 hand stitched balls per month and became the world's largest hand stitched football producer.
But in 2009, Forward took quantum leap and won the orders for official match balls of UEFA Champions League 2010 in Spain. Throughout 2008 and up till 2015; Forward Sports continued to produce Official Match and competition level thermal bonded footballs for adidas...
In 2014, Forward won the contract to produce official match ball for the world cup 2014.
Right now forward is manufacturing three types of Soccer balls (Hand Stitched, Thermal Bonded, and Machine Stitched) with a combine capacity of 750,000 balls per month that made Forward Sports won The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), "Best Export Performance Award" from 2008 to 2016.
2017 - Airless Mini Ball - After years of R&D, Forward Sports introduced the world's first-ever Airless Mini Soccer Ball.
2018 - Forward Produced the Official Match Ball Telstar for the World Cup 2018.
2021 - Introduce Laminated Ball and start production of LFB Balls.
2022 - Forward Produced the Official Match Ball Al-RIHLA for the World Cup 2022.
Forward Sports has set standards in manufacturing industry by delivering quality products with shorter lead-time. All these innovations and continuous modification made it possible for Forward Sports to be a unique manufacturer in international market. Soccer balls, Beach Balls, Hand balls, Medicine balls, Indoor balls, Sports bags, Shin guard, Goal Keeping Gloves are few of the products of that Forward has introduced in recent years.
The company employees about 4000 people making it one of the largest employer in the area and it is the only company that employs women too. Thus providing rare opportunities for women in rural areas. There are currently around 600 women working on the assembly lines.
Forward Sports has achieved a lot due to its commitment and passion. We have the simple goal; achieve highest levels of quality by discovering new horizons of technology.