Spalding (company)
Spalding is an American sports equipment manufacturing company founded by Albert Spalding in Chicago, Illinois, in 1876. It is now headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Spalding currently focuses on basketball, mainly producing balls but also commercialising hoops, rims, nets and ball pump needles. Softballs are commercialised through its subsidiary Dudley Sports.
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Subsidiary | |
Industry | Sports equipment |
Founded | 1876 |
Founder | Albert Spalding |
Headquarters | , |
Area served | North America Australia |
Products | Basketballs |
Parent | Fruit of the Loom |
Subsidiaries | Dudley |
Website | spalding.com |
In the past, Spalding manufactured balls for other sports, such as American football, baseball, soccer, and volleyball.
History
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The company was founded in 1876 when Albert Spalding was a pitcher and manager of a baseball team in Chicago, the Chicago White Stockings. The company standardized early baseballs and developed the modern baseball bat with the bulge at its apex. In 1892, Spalding acquired Wright & Ditson and A. J. Reach, both rival sporting goods companies.[1]
In 1893, A.G. Spalding & Brothers purchased the Lamb Knitting Machine Company located in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts and renamed it the Lamb Manufacturing Company. It used this purchase to consolidate its skate manufactory from Newark and its gymnasium goods manufactory from Philadelphia to the Chicopee plant. Lamb, primarily engaged in manufacturing knitting machines, rifles, and egg-beaters, had been fulfilling a contract since 1890 to produce the Credenda bicycle wheel for Spalding. Spalding chose Chicopee because it was the home of the Overman Wheel Company, Spalding acted as their distributor in the Western USA, and Overman contracted with Lamb to make wheels for its lower-end products.[2]
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The Spalding "League Ball" was adopted by the National League and American Association of Professional Base Ball Clubs for the seasons of 1892–1896 and used by the National League since 1880. It was manufactured by A. G. Spalding & Bros., Chicago, New York & Philadelphia and sold for $1.50 in 1896.[3]
Production of bicycles continued at the Chicopee plant through the latter part of the 19th century, but in 1899 A.G. Ben Spalding sold its bicycle division to a massive trust called the American Bicycle Company which controlled 65% of the bicycle business in the US.[4]
During World War II, the company joined five other firms to form the New England Small Arms Corporation for manufacture of M1918 Browning Automatic Rifles.[5]
Spalding produced the well-known "Spaldeen" high-bounce rubber ball, said to be a re-use of defective tennis ball cores, that was sold to city children from 1949. In baseball, Spalding manufactured the official ball of the major leagues through the 1976 season, using the Reach brand on American League balls and the Spalding trademark on National League balls. Since 1977 the official ball has been made by Rawlings.
Spalding became a division of the Russell Corporation in 2003.[6] However, that deal did not encompass Spalding's golf operations, which included the Top-Flite, Ben Hogan and Strata brands, which were eventually bought by Callaway later the same year.[7]
Horween Leather Company supplies leather to Spalding for indoor Arena Football League footballs.[8]
Products
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Spalding developed its first basketball in 1894[9] based on the design of a baseball, and is currently a leading producer. Since 1983, it has been the official ball supplier to the National Basketball Association (NBA) up until the 2019-20 season. The company also provided the official ball of the Arena Football League, an indoor American football league until its 2019 shutdown. The company was also one of the first to use high-profile athletes to endorse its products when tennis player Pancho Gonzales was signed to an exclusive endorsement contract in 1951.
In 2006, Spalding and the NBA announced that they would create a new NBA Official Game Ball for the 2006-07 NBA season, with interlocking segments and made with a synthetic material instead of leather.[10] However, many NBA players complained that the new composite ball became extremely slick after use, wouldn't bounce as high and bounced awkwardly off the rim and backboard and cut their fingers. As a result, the NBA reverted to the old leather balls (with the old eight-panel pattern) on January 1, 2007.[11]
Sponsorships
Spalding is the official ball provider of the following leagues and associations, as well as it has deals with exclusive agreements with some prominent athletes:[12][13]
American football
Arena Football League (AFL) China Arena Football League (CAFL)
Basketball
Leagues & Associations
CEBL Liga Nacional de Basketball (LNB) EuroLeague EuroCup Ligue Nationale de Basket (LNB) Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) Greek Basket League (HEBA) Kosovo Basketball Superleague Mongolian National Association (MNBA) Energa Basket Liga (EBL) NBA G League WNBA ABA NCAA NJCAA
National teams
Club teams
Antwerp Giants Club Deportivo Universidad Católica Svendborg Rabbits Olympique Antibes ETB Essen Oettinger Rockets ratiopharm Ulm Telekom Baskets Bonn [19] Falco KC Szolnoki Olaj KK PMS Torino Trento Pallacanestro Varese Basket Femminile Le Mura Lucca SAN-EN NeoPhoenix Budućnost Basket Zielona Góra Turów Zgorzelec Asesoft Ploiești Joventut Badalona CB Gran Canaria Baloncesto Málaga Real Betis Energía Plus
Boules
Other teams
Harlem Globetrotters (until they Split to Baden)
Volleyball
Milano Saugella Monza Wealth Planet Perugia Volley Sandbox Volleyball
Testimonials
See also
- Robert Hathaway, chief of the firm's London branch who became ruler of Sark
References
- "Business: Spalding". Time. time.com. February 18, 1929. Retrieved May 23, 2011.
- Springfield Republican, October 10, 1893, p. 6
- Spalding's 1896 Official Bicycle Guide, Volume 4, No. 45, page 85, published December, 1895 by American Sports Publishing Co., 241 Broadway, New York. (See advertisement below) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1896_Spalding_League_Baseball_Advertisement.jpg
- Springfield Republican, September 3, 2008, written by Stephen Jendrysik
- Bruce N. Canfield (March 2008). American Rifleman. pp. 35–36. Missing or empty
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(help) - "Russell Is Buying Most Of Spalding Sporting Goods Unit". New York Times. NYTimes.com. April 18, 2003. Retrieved May 23, 2011.
- "Callaway Golf Beats Out Adidas To Buy Top-Flite". New York Times. NYTimes.com. September 5, 2003. Retrieved May 23, 2011.
- Horween Leather Company. encyclopedia.com. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
- "History of the Basketball". nba.com. June 28, 2006. Retrieved May 23, 2011.
- Sandomir, Richard (June 29, 2006). "N.B.A. Is Getting a Grip on a New Synthetic Game Ball". New York Times. NYTimes.com. Retrieved May 23, 2011.
- Robbins, Liz (December 12, 2006). "N.B.A. Says New Ball Is Not Worth the Pain". New York Times. NYTimes.com. Retrieved May 23, 2011.
- Spalding partnerships, 1 April 2017
- Spalding 2017 online catalog
- FIBA EuroBasket 2017, FIBA.com, Retrieved 16 May 2017.
- #AfroBasket - Day 8: Cape Verde v Republic of Congo (highlights), Youtube video, Retrieved 6 August 2016.
- Georgia | EuroBasket 2015 – PHOTO GALLERY Archived October 23, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, eurobasket2015.org, Retrieved 22 October 2015.
- Hungary | FIBA EuroBasket 2017, FIBA.com, Retrieved 22 March 2017.
- Uruguay - FIBA Americup 2017, FIBA.com, Retrieved 31 August 2017.
- Team 15/16 Telekom Baskets Bonn Archived October 4, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, telekom-baskets-bonn.de, Retrieved 30 September 2015.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spalding (company). |
- Official website
- Papers of Edwin L. Parker, former president of A.G. Spalding & Co., Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library