Constructing the World's Largest Sticker Ball

Is there a current record for the World's Largest Sticker Ball? Now, there is, Saul the StickerBall. The first answer on the subject was "No," which we got from Guinness World Record when this idea came up at StickerGiant. What a perfect way to celebrate National Sticker Day, attempt a Guinness World Record for the Largest Sticker Ball. We print custom stickers and labels all day, no problem. This is where it all began. In talking to Guinness, we found out there was a minimum weight for the Largest Sticker Ball and that was 100 kilograms, or 220 pounds. Clearly, this was why it hadn't been set to this point in the history of awesome big things created. Not just anyone has enough stickers around to add up to that kind of weight. Guinness also covers their bases to make sure not just anything can get in their holy book of outrageous and fun records though. Guidelines to building a StickerBall:

• Record number, type, and size of stickers going on the ball
• It must remain circular
• Commercially available stickers
• No adhesives other than stickers can be used
• Must be a solid structure and not held up by anything but stickers
• Stickers can't be melted together
• Weight and measurements must be done by a qualified surveyor
• No time limit

So we checked off all these requirements, debriefed the StickerGiant Team, and set our own time limit of just under 3 months to finish the StickerBall by January 13th, 2016, the first annual National Sticker Day. Let's get this StickerBall rolling. Robb, Head of Production, took a few stickers and balled them up (See image above). The StickerBall was born. No, StickerBall can go without a name so after some discussion among the crew, Saul the StickerBall came to be. Saul clearly rhyming with StickerBall, Lucile was taken, and Saul Goodman has the same initials as StickerGiant. Within a week, we were cruising past 10 pounds. Feels good right? No way, calculations at this point had us falling way short. Initially, we were projecting to put on about 100,000 stickers to get to our record but this turned out to be quite a bit short. A couple days later, we were at 12 pounds and it seemed to be taking way too long. This is where team building came in at it's finest. A group of employees led by Todd, Press Operator, took Saul home for the weekend with boxes of sticker ammunition to really get construction going. Saul came back to us a lot bigger. Thirty-three pounds and now we are moving the needle a little bit. Throughout work weeks, we had a job to do, provide you with high quality custom stickers and labels, but lunch breaks and weekends took on a whole new meaning to the employees of StickerGiant. It was about Saul and doing something special. (Don't you dare have the negativity of thinking a huge ball of stickers isn't special). Things did not always go smooth. There were conflicts over Saul's schedule and where he would be over the weekend. However, every time he left, he came back a little heavier. Employees found new ways to lay out sheets of stickers and wrap them around the ball. Each pound he grew, it got a little easier. The snowball effect kicked in, the bigger he got the easier it was to build him. [caption id="attachment_15066" align="alignnone" width="440"] Constructing sheets of stickers to place on Saul the StickerBall.[/caption] We also formed a team building project around Saul. We grouped employees of three together to try and put on the most weight on the Largest StickerBall. This really spurred on competition and brought the whole company together in the pursuit of hitting the weight for the Guiness World Record. The other fun thing that came up around the sticker engineering of Saul was events. People were really interested in seeing what we were doing and participating. The Largest StickerBall hit the road, first to NewCo Boulder for their Happy Hour event and then a Happy Hour at Wibby Brewing. The goal at both these events was to get people involved and hopefully add a lot of stickers. We hit one of the two goals. People love it and putting a name tag sticker on the ball became a thing. However, a bunch of people putting one sticker at a time can't come close to a group of employees with a strategy and a giant box of stickers. [caption id="attachment_15067" align="alignnone" width="406"] Saul at Wibby Brewing. He has a glamour style.[/caption] Saul grew and grew, then we had to get him a new scale. Also, a way to transport him, then a new way to more easily transport him. It took two of us to lift him on the scale, and then the forklift had to help. It was a journey to get Saul to the weight we were aiming for. [caption id="attachment_15069" align="alignnone" width="397"] Outgrowing his first scale[/caption] One of the biggest challenges we faced with Saul was keeping him round. The ball of stickers had to stay circular to be qualified as a Guinness World Record. Initial thought on the task, no problem. Then he got to one hundred pounds and overnight, whatever side he was laying on would flatten out ever so slightly. Solution, roll him around for awhile. This became a repetitive task that we all did a few times a day. Saul also sometimes would lean up against something just for a few minutes and a crease would form across him and mess up his "roundness." We became very good at what we called sticker patches. To make, we would gauge the size needed and make a thick stack of stickers, one on top of the other, until we have a nice patch to slap on. Then he would get rolled again. The StickerGiant team are all now certified in what we call "Sticker Engineering" at this point in time. [caption id="attachment_15070" align="alignnone" width="399"] Star Wars came out and he loves his new scale[/caption] Building Saul was a lot of fun and we amplified that by coming up with some unique video opportunities. We had the wacky idea of getting huge inflatable bowling pins to take him out and use Saul as a bowling ball. So guess what? After a huge snow storm that is exactly what we did, Snow Bowling with Saul the Largest StickerBall. When New Year's Eve was rolling around, we knew the only real ball drop that mattered was doing one with Saul. He got the chrome sticker treatment all around and 10, 9, 8... Happy New Year.   Saul started to become a media super star after this. The videos were fun but they didn't really pull in that much attention. A press release later and slowly but surely Saul the StickerBall became a national figure through lots of TV appearances, great publications and videos out of this sticky creation. The culmination of press came the day before National Sticker Day on January 12th. Saul did a Tour of Downtown Denver. Starting at 9News in studio that morning with Corey Rose, the Colorado State Capitol Building, 16th Street Mall, Denver Pavilion and all the way to historic Union Station. Saul got to be seen and slapped with stickers by a lot of people. We started on November 3rd and on January 13th we officially weighed in Saul at Wibby Brewing with about a hundred people there to take it all in, a giant ball of stickers becoming a world record holder. Mayor Coombs of Longmont, Barb Clausen of Clausen & Associates, and Sam Knight of Green Mountain Surveying were our official witnesses and surveyor for the Guinness World Record attempt. Saul's final weight was 231.6 pounds and there were 171,466 stickers put on to hit this mark. Phew! That was some work. For Saul to officially become the World's Largest Sticker Ball, we had to follow these requirements:

• 2 Official Witnesses, unaffiliated with StickerGiant
• 1 Surveyor, an official land surveyor to conduct the weigh in and measurements
• The entire weigh in is video taped capturing the important information
• Submit evidence of pictures and videos, the more the better
• Wait... We are getting are last couple pieces of evidence together now and will have the pack shipped to Guinness by next week.

Waiting is just a formality for the record at this point as all required elements are in and being reviewed. It is safe to say, Saul is the World's Largest Sticker Ball. Saul's celebrity as the Largest StickerBall has grown, much further than we ever imagined. Saul has recently been featured on several local and national news affiliates, including the Denver Post, NBC Channel 9 Denver, ABC The Now, USA Today, Longmont Times Call, Boulder Daily Camera, WFMY Channel 2, Late Night with Seth Myers, among others. We hope you have had the pleasure of watching and hearing about Saul the Largest StickerBall. It was a crazy idea that quite literally, took on a life of it's own. Stay tuned for more photos and videos of this process and of course, the official announcement that Saul is now a Guinness World Record.