Wilson Sporting Goods — BrandWiki

Wilson Sporting Goods

Overview

Wilson Sporting Goods Company

former name	Ashland Manufacturing Company (1913–31)
type	Private (1913–67) Subsidiary (1967–present)
fate	Acquired by Ling-Temco-Vought in 1967, then other owners
industry	Sports equipment
foundation	1913
founder	Thomas E. Wilson
location city	Chicago, Illinois
location country	U.S.
products	Balls, rackets, shuttlecocks, uniforms, apparel
num employees	1,600‡R1R‡
parent	Amer Sports
subsid	* DeMarini * EvoShield * Louisville Slugger
brands	Wilson Staff
net income	$930 million (2010)
homepage	wilson.com

The Wilson Sporting Goods Company is an American sports equipment manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois. Wilson makes equipment for many sports, among them baseball, badminton, American football, basketball, fastpitch softball, golf, racquetball, soccer, squash, tennis, pickleball, and volleyball.

The company has been an independent subsidiary of multinational retailer Amer Sports since 1989.[2][3]

History

The company traces its roots to the "Schwarzschild & Sulzberger" meatpacking company (later changed to "Sulzberger & Son's") based in New York, that operated meat packing slaughterhouses.[4]

Products

Wilson manufactures and commercializes a variety of products for several sports. The following chart contains all the product lines by the company.[13]

Notes

Louisville Slugger

The Louisville Slugger brand baseball bat has been manufactured since 1884, and has been very popular in professional baseball for many decades. The bat was endorsed by Honus Wagner in 1905 (likely the first endorsement of a product by an American professional athlete),[14] and was used by Babe Ruth along with many other baseball stars through history.

The Louisville Slugger brand was controlled and manufactured by Hillerich & Bradsby from 1884 until 2015, when the brand was bought by Wilson.[15][16] The brand complements Wilson's existing DeMarini subsidiary which also produces bats. Hillerich & Bradsby remains an independent business and continues to manufacture bats as an exclusive supplier for Wilson. The company also operates Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, an attraction in downtown Louisville, Kentucky which showcases the story of Louisville Slugger baseball bats in baseball and in American history.

P72 baseball bat

The P72 model Louisville Slugger bat was created in 1954 (while the brand was still under the ownership of Hillerich & Bradsby) for career minor leaguer Les Pinkham,[17] and became one of baseball's most popular bats. Baseball Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr. and Robin Yount are among the players who used the P72 over the years. New York Yankee star Derek Jeter used the P72 for every at bat in his 20 MLB seasons, with over 12,500 plate appearances and 3,749 P72 models ordered.

On September 25, 2014, in honor of Jeter's impending retirement, the P72 designation was retired, and the bat was renamed the DJ2 (Jeter wore #2).[18] Descendants of Les Pinkam will still be allowed to get the bat with its P72 designation. In addition to retiring the P72 model number, Louisville Slugger also promised to give the final 72 P72 bats produced to Jeter to raise funds for his Turn 2 Foundation.

P72 baseball bat

The P72 model Louisville Slugger bat was created in 1954 (while the brand was still under the ownership of Hillerich & Bradsby) for career minor leaguer Les Pinkham,[17] and became one of baseball's most popular bats. Baseball Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr. and Robin Yount are among the players who used the P72 over the years. New York Yankee star Derek Jeter used the P72 for every at bat in his 20 MLB seasons, with over 12,500 plate appearances and 3,749 P72 models ordered.

On September 25, 2014, in honor of Jeter's impending retirement, the P72 designation was retired, and the bat was renamed the DJ2 (Jeter wore #2).[18] Descendants of Les Pinkam will still be allowed to get the bat with its P72 designation. In addition to retiring the P72 model number, Louisville Slugger also promised to give the final 72 P72 bats produced to Jeter to raise funds for his Turn 2 Foundation.

Sponsorships

American football

Wilson has been the official game ball supplier of the NFL and CFL since 1941 and 1995, respectively,[19] and the now defunct UFL and AAF. The Duke is the official game ball of the NFL and is composed of 4 panels cut from a cowhide supplied by the Horween Leather Company. Each panel is color matched to ensure that the football has a consistent color. The ball is then stamped with decals before being sewed together. After sewing the ball is then turned by hand right side out before being laced and inspected. In addition, the GST model is used at the Highschool and College levels of play.

Baseball

Wilson makes a variety of baseball gloves for several different patterns. Wilson has three main series of baseball gloves, the A2K, the A2000, and the A1000, as well as many other models for younger children. The A2K is made from Wilson's Pro Stock Select leather, which is made from triple sorting their famous pro stock leather. A stock A2K (Pro Stock select leather) retails for US$399. The A2000, made from Wilson's Pro Stock leather, is the oldest glove series Wilson offers. The A2000 retails for US$299. The A1000 is made from Wilson's top-shelf leather and retails US$149. Some of Wilson's most famous patterns include the datdude, 1786, Dp15, 1787, 1776, 1788, 1799, 2800, M1, 1791 Pudge, and many others.

Basketball

Wilson has been the official ball supplier for many FIBA competitions,[20] the NBA, the WNBA, the NCAA basketball championship tournaments,[21] the CEBL, the BAL, and many others.

In May 2024, Caitlin Clark signed a multiyear contract with Wilson, the official basketball supplier for WNBA at the time.[22] Clark was designated a brand ambassador for the company and creative director for her basketball collections scheduled to be released throughout 2024.[23] Clark was the first athlete to create and release a signature Wilson basketball collection since Michael Jordan released his with the company in the 1980s and was the first-ever female athlete to have a signature collection with Wilson.[22]

Golf

Wilson Staff is the golf division of Wilson Sporting Goods. The company designs and manufactures a full range of golf equipment, accessories and clothing using the Wilson Staff, ProStaff and Ultra brands.

Many of the world's top professional golfers have used Wilson equipment including Nick Faldo, Arnold Palmer and Ben Crenshaw; the latter two of whom used Wilson 8802 putters. Crenshaw's even received the moniker Little Ben due to his proficiency with it. Current Wilson Staff players include British Open and PGA Championship champion Pádraig Harrington.

Soccer

Wilson has been the official ball supplier for NCAA soccer.[25]

Tennis

Wilson is a major manufacturer of tennis rackets. The original kevlar Pro Staff model racket, known for its use by Pete Sampras, was heavy (more than 350g strung) and small-headed (85 sq. in.); Roger Federer also used the same racket model. In 2015, he used the Pro Staff RF97 Autograph model that is heavy (340 g/12 oz unstrung) and larger (97 sq. in.). Jim Courier and Stefan Edberg also used the Pro Staff Original, Edberg later switching to the Pro Staff Classic in 1991, which was the same racket (85 sq. in. with slightly rounded frame edges) but with different paint work. In late 2009, Wilson unveiled their latest line of rackets, codenamed 20x, which they would later rename BLX. This line directly replaces their previous K-Factor series with all new technologies.[26] Also, many pros use custom-made rackets that perform differently from the mass-produced versions, as highlighted in a 2013 class-action lawsuit which address the complaint detailing that "Wilson Sporting Goods falsely claimed that Federer used its Six.One Tour BLX racket when he won the 2010 Stockholm Open and Wilson’s Pro Staff Six.One 90 racket when he won a Grand Slam event."[27]

Models of Wilson's tennis balls

Aside from tennis rackets, the Wilson sporting goods company also makes tennis balls (including the official balls of the US Open and starting in 2020, the French Open major championships), shoes, balls, strings, clothes, and racquet bags.[28]

Volleyball

Wilson is the official ball supplier of the AVP. In 2021, Wilson developed a brand partnership with Crossnet.