Sherrin footballs are manufactured in Melbourne, Australia, from cowhide-lined, machine-stitched material, but other-sized models are often made in India or China using synthetic rubber.

[1] The first Australian rules football was invented by Sherrin himself in 1880, when he was given a misshapen rugby ball to fix.

The new-shaped ball was so quickly accepted that the National Football League of Australia eventually used the size and shape as standard.

After a 12-month-long investigation, The Saturday Age, a Melbourne newspaper, claimed that "two of Australia's best-known football brands, Sherrin and Canterbury, have operations in India that use banned child labour."

[7] A follow-up investigation by Fairfax Media in September 2013 revealed that another brand of rugby ball was being stitched using illegal child labour in Jalandhar, Punjab, for sale in Australia.