Burley-Sekem

Last updated

Burley-Sekem
Company type Private
Industry Sports equipment
Founded1985;39 years ago (1985) (merger)
Founder Joe Burley
Headquarters Perth, Australia
Products Australian footballs, cricket balls, sportswear
Website sekem.com.au

Burley-Sekem Pty Ltd is an Australian sports equipment manufacturing company. It was formed in 1985 from the merger of "Burley Sports Pty Ltd" (an Australian footballs and cricket balls manufacturer, established in 1907), and "Sekem Pty Ltd." (a sportswear and school uniform manufacturer founded in 1923). The company has since merged with Kookaburra Sport. [1]

Contents

The company produces equipment and goods for clubs and teams of diverse sports, such as Australian rules football, rugby, cricket and soccer, having also endorsed several major leagues.

History

Burley

The "Burley Football Company" was started in 1906 by carpenter and former tanner's apprentice, Joe Burley, who was requested to make a ball that "kept its shape" for the Western Australian Football Association (WAFA). Previously, rugby balls had been used for the sport, but these were easily worn and prone to changing shape from a prolate spheroid to a sphere by the completion of matches. [2] Burley's ball was first tried in a WAFA game between East Fremantle and West Perth in June 1906, and gained popularity amongst players, leading to it being exclusively used by the WAFL from 1921, a practice which continues to this day. The ball was introduced to the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) in the 1920s, and is the official ball. [3] Along with the Sherrin, the Burley football was declared the official football of the Australian National Football Council (ANFC). The Burley was also used in interstate and carnival matches featuring Western Australia. [4]

Sekem

Sekem commenced operations in 1923 as a sock manufacturing business. The business survived the Great Depression and the Second World War, expanding into sportswear, swimwear and school uniforms, become Australia's largest manufacturer of school uniforms by the 1970s. [5]

Products

Burley-Sekem is best known for its manufacture of Burley footballs, which are used and endorsed by the West Australian Football League. [6] In Western Australia, particularly, the ball is considered almost ubiquitous. [7]

Burley-Sekem is responsible for the production of licensed AFL, NRL, WAFL, Wallabies, All Blacks, Super Rugby, Socceroos and A-League sports clothing, [8] and also produces Dukes Cricket Balls and Burley Indoor Cricket Balls. [9] [10]

In November 2020, the Fremantle Football Club announced that Burley-Sekem would supply their playing guernseys and other apparel for the 2021 AFL season and onwards. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Australian Football League</span> Australian football league

The West Australian Football League is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, in Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from April to September, with the top five teams playing off in a finals series, culminating in a Grand Final. The league also runs reserves, colts (under-19) and women's competitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cricket ball</span> Ball used to play cricket

A cricket ball is a hard, solid ball used to play cricket. A cricket ball consists of a cork core wound with string then a leather cover stitched on, and manufacture is regulated by cricket law at first-class level. The trajectory of a cricket ball when bowled, through movement in the air, and off the ground, is influenced by the action of the bowler and the condition of the ball and the pitch, while working on the cricket ball to obtain optimal condition is a key role of the fielding side. The principal method through which the batter scores runs is by hitting the ball, with the bat, into a position where it would be safe to take a run, or by directing the ball through or over the boundary. Cricket balls are harder and heavier than baseballs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian rules football in Western Australia</span>

In Western Australia (WA), Australian rules football is the most popular sport. There are 29 regional club competitions, the highest profile of which is the semi-professional West Australian Football League. It is governed by the West Australian Football Commission (WAFC). It has 108,154 adult players and 46,187 children, the highest participation rate per capita (8.5%) in Australia, second most players of any jurisdiction, accounts for around a fifth of all players nationally and is growing faster than any other state. It is the third most participated team sport after soccer and basketball.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kookaburra Sport</span> Australian sports equipment company

Kookaburra Sport Pty Ltd is an Australian sports equipment and apparel company based in Melbourne, Australia. The company was founded in 1890 and specialises in manufacturing various equipment used for Australian rules football, cricket, and field hockey. The company is named after the Australian bird Kookaburra. The company manufactures the white ball used in all One-day international matches and the red ball used in Test cricket in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe.

Mitre Sports International Ltd., mostly known as Mitre, is an English sports equipment manufacturer based in Wakefield. Mitre is mainly focused on association football but also providing equipment for other sports. Having founded in 1817 in Huddersfield, the company is one of the oldest of its type in the world. Mitre is currently a subsidiary of the British family–owned Pentland Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rushton Park</span> Australian rules football ground in Western Australia

Rushton Park is an Australian rules football ground located in Mandurah, Western Australia. Having been in use as a football ground since the early 1960s, the ground is currently used as a home ground by three clubs: the Peel Thunder, competing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL), the Mandurah Mustangs, competing in the Peel Football League (PFL), and the Peel Thunderbirds, competing in the West Australian Women's Football League (WAWFL). Rushton Park is the only regularly-used ground in the WAFL that falls outside the Perth metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Fremantle Oval</span> Australian football ground in East Fremantle

East Fremantle Oval is an Australian rules football ground located in East Fremantle, Western Australia. The ground was opened in 1906, and underwent a large redevelopment in 1953. It current serves as the home ground of the East Fremantle Football Club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). East Fremantle Oval has a capacity of around 20,000 people, but has hosted in excess of this number previously, with a record crowd of 21,317 for a match between East Fremantle and South Fremantle in the 1979 season.

Steeden Sports is an Australian sports equipment manufacturing company, mainly focused on rugby league. The company is mostly known for its rugby league footballs. Steeden was established in Queensland in 1958, when twins Eric and Raymond Steeden opened a factory in Brisbane, Australia, producing leather cricket balls, rugby league balls and boxing bags. The company moved to New South Wales in the 1960s, and was acquired by British sporting goods corporation Grays International in 1995.

O'Neills Irish International Sports Company Ltd. is an Irish sporting goods manufacturer established in 1918. It is the largest manufacturer of sportswear in Ireland, with production plants located in Dublin and Strabane.

John Cameron Sheedy was an Australian rules footballer and coach. He played for East Fremantle and East Perth in the Western Australian National Football League (WANFL) and South Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Sheedy is considered one of the greatest ever footballers from Western Australia, being the first player from that state to play 300 games in elite Australian rules football, and was a member of both the Australian Football Hall of Fame and the West Australian Football Halls of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William "Nipper" Truscott</span> Australian rules footballer

William John "Nipper" Truscott Jr. was an Australian sportsman. He played over 300 games of Australian rules football for Mines Rovers in the Goldfields Football League (GFL) and East Fremantle in the West Australian Football League, and represented Western Australia at football, cricket and lawn bowls. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FBT (company)</span> Thai sports equipment company

Football Thai Factory Sporting Goods Co, Ltd., also known as FBT, is a Thai sports equipment company that has the biggest sports store in Asia which is the FBT sport complex and also has over 300 stores nationwide. FBT exports to over 40 countries worldwide. In 2009 it had over 2,800 employees and an annual turnover of over US$50 million.

Australian rules football has been played in the Goldfields region of Western Australia since the late 1890s, when the Western Australian gold rush brought an influx of immigrants from Victoria and South Australia, bringing the sport with them.

The West Australian State Premiership was an Australian rules football match contested intermittently between 1902 and 1924 between the premiers of the Western Australian Football Association / West Australian Football League and the Goldfields Football Association / Goldfields Football League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Names of Australian rules football</span>

The sport of Australian rules football has been called by a number of different names throughout its history. Since 1905, with the formation of the Australasian Football Council, the game has been called "Australian football". The name has been codified by the AFL Commission, as the game's name in the "Laws of Australian football". Historically, the sport has been referred to as "Victorian rules", the "Victorian game", "Australasian rules", the "Australian game" and "Australian national football", "national football", the "bouncing game" and, derisively, "aerial ping pong" as well as several other names. Today, the common names for the sport are "Australian Football" and "Australian rules football" and it is referred to as "football", "footy", "Aussie rules" or sometimes as "AFL".

Alfred Augustine Moffat was an Australian sportsman and sports administrator. He played first-class cricket for Western Australia and Australian rules football for several clubs in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). After retiring from playing, he served as president of the WAFL from 1920 to 1932, and was also president of the Australian Football Council (AFC) from 1924 to 1929.

Walter Watts was an Australian sportsman, best known as the oldest player to have played a senior game in the West Australian Football League (WAFL).

Skins, stylized SKINS, is an Australian manufacturing company founded in 1996 that designs and produces compression garment for athletes and sports enthusiasts. After filing for bankruptcy in 2019, the company was acquired by Hong Kong–based holding Symphony, which owns rights over the "Skins" brand.

The 2012 WAFL season was the 128th season of the West Australian Football League and its various incarnations. The season opened on 17 March, with Subiaco hosting West Perth at Leederville Oval, and concluded with the 2012 WAFL Grand Final, in which Claremont defeated East Fremantle by 26 points. The 2012 Sandover Medal was won by Kane Mitchell of Claremont, while the leading goalkicker was South Fremantle's Ben Saunders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Cricket Balls Ltd</span> British sports equipment company

British Cricket Balls Limited is a British sports equipment and apparel company, specialising in cricket equipment. The company manufactures the Dukes brand of cricket balls used for playing Test cricket in United Kingdom, the West Indies and Ireland. The company was founded in 1760 by the Dukes family. The company is currently owned by Indian businessman Dilip Jajodia, who acquired it in 1987.

References

  1. ↑ "BOOST FOR AUSTRALIAN SPORTING GOODS INDUSTRY WITH KOOKABURRA SPORT AND BURLEY-SEKEM TO MERGE". Kookaburra Sport. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  2. ↑ "ROMANCE OF A FOOTBALL." – Western Mail . Published Thursday, 8 August 1946. Retrieved from Trove, 29 September 2011.
  3. ↑ "Burley". Burley Sekem. 2008. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  4. ↑ THE "BURLEY" BALL – Western Mail . Published Thursday, 16 March 1939. Retrieved from Trove, 29 September 2011.
  5. ↑ Sekem – sekem.com.au. Retrieved 29 September 2011.
  6. ↑ "Burley Sekem Tradition Continues in WA Footy". West Australian Football Commission. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
  7. ↑ "A SUCCESSFUL W.A. INDUSTRY" – The Sunday Times . Published Saturday, 19 July 1908. Retrieved from Trove, 29 September 2011.
  8. ↑ Index Archived 22 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine – sekem.com.au. Retrieved 29 September 2011.
  9. ↑ Dukes Cricket Balls Archived 22 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine – sekem.com.au. Retrieved 29 September 2011.
  10. ↑ Burley Indoor Cricket Balls – sekem.com.au. Retrieved 29 September 2011.
  11. ↑ "Looking good in local! Freo unite with Burley Sekem". www.fremantlefc.com.au. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.