(NewsNation Now) — Did you know the leather for every single NFL football, including the ones being used in this year’s Super Bowl, is crafted in Chicago?

NewsNation took a tour of the factory for a behind-the-scenes look at how NFL footballs are made.

Leather tanning is not exactly a pleasant-smelling process, but the painstaking steps result in one of the most sought-after products in sports.

The smell of leather hits you the minute you walk through the door. And it’s a smell that is deep in the blood of Arnold Horween III, or “Skip,” to those who know him.

Skip Horween is the president of Horween Leather, located in Chicago.

“How long have I been working here? Right after they invented cows,” Horween said. “No, I started here in November 1978.”

What Skip and his team craft here has graced the hands of every quarterback in every “big game” to date.

“We’ve been making all of the professional footballs since the early ’40s,” Horween said.

Horween Leather has been the sole supplier of leather for Wilson sporting goods — step one in making the official NFL game balls since the very first Super Bowl.

After treatment in Chicago, Horween then “throws a pass” to his colleagues in Ohio.

“So we’re like the lumber yard. We provide them with the leather and they have to cut it and sew it,” Horween said. “They’re doing the assembly. We’re providing them with all the raw materials.”

The leather is shipped to the Wilson plant in Ohio and the process of making a game ball continues.

The process was recently put on display for fans at the NFL Experience in L.A., where the balls are sewn, turned and laced.

The tannery makes football leather from cowhide, not pigskin. A thousand-ton press with embossing plates gives the leather its distinctive pebbling.

“The visual is really impressive. You’ll see how much pressure there is … to make that print go in and stay in,” Horween said.

And if you look closely enough, you can see the “W.”

According to Sports Illustrated, Wilson supplies more than 25,000 footballs to the NFL each year. Which means with the turn of every gear and the grind of each press, Horween is doing much more than imprinting “W’s,” he’s carving the Horween name into the record books