Omni-Wheel System
360° movement without the bulk - a fold-away pneumatic wheel system built through prototype iterations to solve a real handling problem on the field.
What needed to be solved.
Abel Sports manufacture portable soccer goals and had an existing wheel solution - flip-out wheels mounted to each side of the goal frame. On paper it worked, but in the field it was cumbersome. Moving the goal was awkward, manoeuvring it into position took effort, and the two-point setup meant the goal could only really travel in one direction at a time.
They wanted a four-wheel system that would allow true 360° movement - so a goal could be repositioned from any angle with minimal effort - but that folded completely away when not in use, keeping the goal stable during play. The wheels also needed to be large enough to roll across uneven turf without sinking in or tearing up the surface.
How we solved it.
Abel Sports came to us with a problem they'd been living with on the field. Their portable soccer goals had flip-out wheels on each side - functional in theory, but awkward in practice. Getting a goal from one end of a pitch to another meant fighting the wheel geometry, and fine positioning once you got there was slow and frustrating.
What they wanted was a four-wheel system that gave the goal true 360° movement - the ability to push or pull in any direction without fighting the wheels - but that folded completely out of the way during play so the goal sat solid and stable on the ground.
We started with our research phase, before moving onto sketches and CAD, developing several design concepts that approached the fold and latch mechanism differently. Each was assessed for ease of operation, structural load capacity, and how cleanly it packed away against the goal frame.
Prototypes were built for the most promising directions so we could test them in the real world rather than discussing them on screen. The latch in particular needed to be evaluated physically - the feel, the reliability over repeated cycles, how it behaved when a wheel took a side load, or how the goal balanced when moved. Several mechanisms were trialled before we landed on our final approach: a jockey wheel-style locking system, the same principle used on trailer jockey wheels. Simple to operate, positive engagement, and proven in comparable conditions.
Throughout all design directions, the wheel specification stayed consistent - large pneumatic tyres. A hard wheel concentrates load on the turf and can dig in or leave marks; a pneumatic tyre spreads the load and absorbs the variation in ground level you get on any outdoor playing surface. That choice was straightforward.
With the final design agreed on and prototypes signed off, the system moved into production. Components were cut, welded to drawing, inspected, and powder coated before batch delivery to Abel Sports.
Measurable outcomes.
Several design directions were developed and prototyped, each exploring a different approach to the fold and latch mechanism. Testing those prototypes back-to-back made the trade-offs clear, and we converged on a jockey wheel-style latch - operationally simple, mechanically reliable, and proven in comparable load conditions.
Large pneumatic wheels were specified throughout: the air-filled tyre distributes load across the turf and handles ground variation without the goal lurching or the wheel digging in. Once the final design was tested, evaluated, and signed off by the client, it went into batch production.
Long-term impact.
The brief looked simple on the surface, but the latch was where the real work was. It had to deploy quickly, hold firm under load, and be intuitive enough for anyone to operate without instruction. Working through physical prototypes before committing to production meant we could test the real feel of each mechanism - not just how it looked in CAD - and arrive at a design the client was confident in before a single production part was cut.
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