Head (company)

Last updated
Head Sport GmbH
Company type Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung
Industry Sports equipment
Founded1950;74 years ago (1950) in Baltimore, Maryland
Founder Howard Head
Headquarters,
Key people
Howard Head (founder)
Johan Eliasch (CEO)
Products Sportswear, equipment, footwear
BrandsHead
Indigo
Mares
Penn
SSI
Tyrolia
Zoggs [1]
RevenueIncrease2.svg $375.4 million (2014) [2]
Decrease2.svg $2.8 million (2014) [2]
Number of employees
2,499 (2014) [2]
Parent Head Austria GmbH
Head N.V. [3] (formerly)
Subsidiaries Penn
Mares
Website head.com

Head Sport GmbH is an American-Austrian manufacturing company headquartered in Kennelbach. It owns the American tennis racket brand Head. Head GmbH is a group that includes several previously independent companies, including the original "Head Ski Company" (founded in the United States in 1950); Tyrolia, an Austrian ski-equipment manufacturer; and Mares, an Italian manufacturer of diving equipment. [3]

Contents

Head currently produces a wide range of products for skiing, snowboarding, swimming, tennis and other racket sports. Head Ski Company produced one of the first successful metal-wood composite downhill skis, the Head Standard, and one of the first oversized metal tennis rackets. [4]

History

Head Sport GmbH was founded in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, in 1950 by aeronautical engineer Howard Head, after he took a ski trip and was surprised to find his skis were made of wood in an era when metals and plastics were replacing wood in many product designs. Head worked at the Glenn L. Martin Company where they used a form of aluminum and plastic laminate to build the fuselages of aircraft, and he felt the same material would make an ideal ski. After two years of continually breaking prototypes, by the winter of 1950 they had a design that was durable enough to use and turning significantly easier.

The Head Standard rapidly grew in sales through the 1950s, until it and other Head designs were capturing over 50% of the US market during the 1960s, making them the leading ski manufacturer in the U.S. and the UK. Head resisted the change to fiberglass construction. In 1967, Howard Head hired Harold Seigle as company president and became the Chairman of the Board and CEO. In 1969 Head sold the company to the AMF, and took up tennis. He later bought a controlling interest in Prince Sports.

Head products
Head racquets - Marat Safin.jpg
Tennis racket used by Marat Safin
Novak Djokovic Wimbledon 2017.jpg
Novak Djokovic used a Head racquet in Wimbledon 2017

In the late 1960s, a tennis division was created when Howard Head figured out a way of strengthening the tennis racket by introducing the aluminium frame. The idea became a success and was first introduced in the 1969 US Open. After Howard Head's departure, one of the tennis players that Head sponsored, Arthur Ashe, won Wimbledon, defeating favored Jimmy Connors in 1975. Also during the 1970s, Head acquired a diving manufacturer, Mares, and a ski binding company, Tyrolia. While under AMF ownership, Head manufactured tennis racquets in Boulder, Colorado, and Kennelbach, Austria. Also in 1969, Head signed Olympic champion ski racer Jean-Claude Killy to endorse a new metal and fiberglass ski, the Killy 800. Head subsequently developed a product line of Killy skis.

In 1985, Minneapolis-based Minstar Inc. acquired Head through hostile takeover of AMF. [5] Two years later, Head started making athletic footwear and introduced the "Radial Tennis Shoes". The following year, Head opened a new plant in Australia to produce more tennis rackets. In 1989, management bought out Head, Tyrolia, and Mares, to form HTM. The takeover was backed by private equity firm Freeman Spogli & Co. In 1993, HTM was sold to tobacco conglomerate Austria Tabak. Johan Eliasch, the current chairman, took over the company in 1995, which in 2014 was a Netherlands Antilles corporation. [6]

Head also licenses its brand to makers of clothing apparel (including shoes), accessories, bicycles, skates, watches, balls, fitness Equipment, and drinks. [7] [8] [9]

Head proved to be successful in 2012, with three Major winners during the year: Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open, Maria Sharapova at the French Open and Andy Murray at the US Open. [10]

In 2019, it was reported that Head purchased ASE assets. [11] ASE is the owner of Fuji Bikes, Breezer Bikes, SE Bikes, Kestrel Bikes, Tuesday Bikes, PHAT Bikes, Oval, Performance Bicycle Stores and Nashbar. On January 22, 2019, it was reported that Head Sports backed out of the deal to buy ASE. [12]

Graphene

Head started integrating graphene into their rackets in 2013. [13]

Sponsorships

A Pickleball paddle made by Head. Headpickleballracket.jpg
A Pickleball paddle made by Head.

Some of the athletes sponsored by Head are:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Racket (sports equipment)</span> Sports equipment

A racket or racquet is an item of sporting equipment used to strike a ball or shuttlecock back-and-forth in games such as tennis, badminton, squash, racquetball and padel. The typical basic structure of a racket consists of a widened distal end known as the head, an elongated handle known as the grip, and a reinforced connection between the head and handle known as the throat or heart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Super-G</span> Racing discipline of alpine skiing

Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event during the 1983 season and was added to the official schedule of the World Championships in 1987 and the Winter Olympics in 1988.

American Machine and Foundry was one of the United States' largest recreational equipment companies, with diversified products as disparate as garden equipment, atomic reactors, and yachts.

Howard Head was an American aeronautical engineer who is credited with the invention of the first commercially successful aluminum laminate skis and the oversized tennis racket. Head founded the ski -making firm, Head, in 1950. Later, he became chairman of Prince Manufacturing Inc. The U.S. patents for the laminate skis and oversized tennis racket are in the name of Howard Head. He graduated from Harvard College in 1936.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aksel Lund Svindal</span> Norwegian alpine skier (born 1982)

Aksel Lund Svindal is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer. Born in Lørenskog in Akershus county, Svindal is a two-time overall World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist in super-G at the 2010 Winter Olympics and in downhill at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and a five-time World Champion in downhill, giant slalom, and super combined. With his victory in the downhill in 2013, Svindal became the first male alpine racer to win titles in four consecutive world championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kjetil Jansrud</span> Norwegian alpine skier

Kjetil Jansrud is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic champion. He competed in all alpine disciplines apart from slalom, and his best event was the giant slalom where he has six World Cup podiums and an Olympic silver medal. Since 2012, he had concentrated on the speed events, where all but two of his World Cup victories had come. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, he won the super-G and placed third in the downhill. At the World Championships in 2019 at Åre, Jansrud won gold in the downhill. Kjetil is the current host of popular tv reality show “Alt for Norge”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georg Streitberger</span> Austrian alpine skier

Georg Streitberger is a retired World Cup alpine ski racer from Austria. Born in Zell am See, Salzburg, he specialized in the speed events and won three World Cup races, two in super G and one in downhill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominik Paris</span> Italian alpine skier

Dominik Paris is an Italian alpine ski racer, who specializes in speed events of super-G and downhill. He was the world champion in super-G, as the gold medalist in 2019 at Åre, Sweden.

The Head Standard was Howard Head's first successful ski design, and arguably the first modern downhill ski. The Standard used composite construction, with a plywood core sandwiched between aluminum outer skins, steel edges tapering into the core, and a hard plastic base, sidewalls and topsheet. The only major changes in ski materials since the Standard are the use of fibreglass structural layers in place of the aluminum layers, and substitution of expanded plastic foam for the wooden core.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthias Mayer</span> Austrian alpine skier

Matthias Mayer is an Austrian retired World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic champion.

The men's super-G competition at the 2013 World Championships was held on Wednesday, 6 February. It was the first men's race of the championships; 82 athletes from 32 countries competed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alpine skiing at the 2014 Winter Olympics – Men's super-G</span>

The men's super-G competition of the Sochi 2014 Olympics was held at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort, near Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, on Sunday, 16 February.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alpine Rockfest</span> Annual sports and music event in Andalo, Italy

The Alpine Rockfest is an annual event held at Paganella Ski Resort (Andalo) in the Italian Dolomites. The Alpine Rockfest is a televised sports-entertainment event featuring a rock music concert combined with an exhibition ski race consisting of Olympic & World Cup Ski Stars who are invited to compete for the largest cash prize in ski racing. The festival is organized by former head coach of the U.S. Ski Team men’s alpine team Phil McNichol & Italian entrepreneur Marco Dallapiccola, and first took place in 2009.

From August 19, 2013 to March 23, 2014, the following skiing events took place at various locations around the world.

From August 22, 2012 to March 27, 2013, the following skiing events took place at various locations around the world.

The men's downhill competition of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics was held on Thursday, 15 February, at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre in PyeongChang. Scheduled for Sunday, 11 February, winds in excess of 50 km/h (31 mph) forced officials to postpone the race four days.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Men's overall</span> Alpine ski discipline year standings

The men's overall competition in the 2016 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 44 events in 5 disciplines: downhill (DH), Super-G (SG), giant slalom (GS), slalom (SL), and Alpine combined (AC). The newly introduced Parallel giant slalom event at Alta Badia, Italy—which was included in the giant slalom season standings—was a relatively short Giant slalom course that pitted the men against one another in a modified bracket-reduction format from a field of thirty-two qualifying skiers, eventually whittled down to just four final-round racers in a "large final" and a "small final".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Men's super-G</span> Alpine ski discipline year standings

The men's super-G competition in the 2016 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved eight events, including the finals in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

References

  1. "Sports – HEAD". www.head.com. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  2. 1 2 3 "Annual Report 2014" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-04-03. Retrieved 2015-10-26.
  3. 1 2 "Head N.V. History" . Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  4. "Howard Head: Ski and Racquet Revolutionary" . Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  5. Daniels, Lee A. (15 June 1985). "AMF Agrees to Offer By Jacobs of $24 a Share". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
  6. "Annual Report 2014" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-04-03. Retrieved 2015-10-26.
  7. "About". Archived from the original on 2015-05-06. Retrieved 2010-10-18.
  8. "HEAD Story". headbikeusa.com. 2022. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  9. "HEAD Bikes". headbikeusa.com. 2022. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  10. "Tennis". Archived from the original on 2014-12-14. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
  11. Head Sport agrees to buy most ASE assets for $22M by Steve Frothingham on Bycicle Retailer, January 17, 2019,
  12. "ASE explains why it rejected the largest bid for its assets". Bicycle Retailer and Industry News. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  13. "Head Racquet Technology". Tennis Express. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  14. fisalpine.com - April–2011
  15. "Lara Gut - Professional Skier from Switzerland".
  16. Kjetil Jansrud - https://www.aftenposten.no/norge/i/kRLMQ/Jansrud-ogsa-med-Head-ski
  17. skiracing.com - May–2010
  18. "PINTURAULT Alexis - Athlete Information".
  19. "Cyprien Richard rejoint Head" [Cyprien Richard joins Head]. Le Dauphiné libéré (in French). 8 June 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  20. Aksel Lund Svindal - http://msn.tv2sporten.no/ovrig/lund-svindal-bytter-skimerke-faar-gullkantet-avtale-3182196.html Archived 2010-04-16 at the Wayback Machine