Football

As a big fan of sports, I must say football (which is called soccer in Australia, to avoid any confusion) is definitely the most famous sport ever. That's why I have chosen the football (ball) to be one of the best consumer product around. 
The first vulcanized rubber soccer ball (picture) in history was designed by Charles Goodyear. It was not until the 1980's that totally synthetic balls were produced and nowadays developments in soccer ball are still continuing. Many companies have recently come out with new high tech materials and designs for soccer balls. The latest Adidas Jabulani ball (picture), specially designed for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, claims to have better aerodynamics, rebound, less water absorption and loss of pressure.
Whats makes the football such a great product, apart form all its technical specifications, is that such a simple product can provide so much fun, help develop friendships as it's a team game, doesn't require any equipment or much skills to play with it and is accessible to anyone from any age group or anywhere in the world.

Dwayne.