Product Developments: Sweet Scenes from the Panini America Printing Facility

Most of the time, my ADD is nothing more than a focus-siphoning scourge that prevents me from spending more than, say, five minutes on any one particular task before something shiny distracts me. But on some days, I find ADD to be a most exquisite dance partner. Today was one of those days.

I ventured to the fabled Panini America printing facility this morning with designs on documenting the hand-collation process for 2012 National Treasures Football and, if the stars aligned properly, catching the QC routine for 2012 Playbook Football. But a funny thing happened on the way to that goal.

Everything began according to schedule, with me capturing as many images as humanly possible as Ben Ecklar and Carlos Torrez collated National Treasures into its respective production loops in advance of next week’s packout. While they were doing that, I made my way to the production floor to see what other National Treasures gems I could photograph. I snapped more than 220 pictures in all, most of which we’ll share here on The Knight’s Lance in the coming days, and some of which we share right now in the gallery that follows.

But just as I was about to depart back to Panini America HQ, I made one quick pass by the various production lines to see what was running — and that’s when the cursed ADD became a bona fide blessing. Everywhere I looked, there was something to shoot. 2013 Triple Play Baseball on one line, 2012 Playbook Football on another. At my feet, pallets of 2012-13 Select Basketball.

It turned into a serendipitous field-trip finale, not to mention a fascinating, behind-the-scenes peek into four different products across three sports. You can check it out for yourself in the gallery below. Oh, and stay tuned: We’ll have tons more to preview on Select, Playbook, Triple Play and National Treasures in the coming days.

Enjoy.