Nasdaq: JOUT (Class A) Russell 2000 Component |
Johnson Outdoors Inc. (Nasdaq : JOUT) produces outdoor recreational products such as watercraft, diving equipment, camping gear, and outdoor clothing. It has operations in 24 locations worldwide, employs 1,400 people and reports sales of more than $315 million. Helen Johnson-Leipold, one of Samuel Curtis Johnson, Jr.'s four children, has run the company since 1999. [1]
The company, previously known as Johnson Wax Associates, grew out of diversification and acquisition efforts by S. C. Johnson & Son during the 1970s. It became a profitable, self-sustaining outdoor equipment business known as Johnson Camping, Inc., later renamed Johnson Worldwide Associates (JWA).
From 1980, JWA imported Swedish-made compasses manufactured by Silva Production AB (Silva Group) for sale in North America. In 1996, a decision by Silva Production AB of the Silva Group parent to begin marketing its Swedish-made Silva brand compasses via a new distribution network in North America with Brunton, Inc. led to litigation the following year between JWA, which owned the North American Silva distribution network, and Silva Production AB, the Swedish manufacturer. [2] As of 2008, JWA (now known as Johnson Outdoors, Inc.) was sourcing most of its Silva brand compasses from PT Uwatec Batam, an Indonesia-based wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson Outdoors, Inc. [3] The discontinued Silva 424 Wrist Sighting Compass was made for Johnson Outdoors by Suunto Oy of Finland, while the Silva Lensatic 360 compass is made in Taiwan. JO ceased all distribution of Silva brand magnetic compasses in 2018.
In 2018, JO sold its North America rights to the Silva brand to Silva of Sweden AB.
Healthways was a firm founded by Dick Klein which made scuba gear. [4] It went bankrupt in 1963; its successor company is Scubapro.
It was one of the five original USA diving gear makers: U.S. Divers, Healthways, Voit, Dacor, Swimaster.
Healthways is notable in that it was the first manufacturer to use "scuba" as a word rather than an acronym. Their twin-hose regulator line was called the "Scuba"; hence, one of their later models, the Scuba Pro, eventually became the name of the reorganized company. [4] (Healthways' single-hose regulators were dubbed the "Scubair" line.)
Scubapro was founded in the United States in 1963 by Gustav Dalla Valle, the Beuchat representative in United States, and Dick Bonin to manufacture scuba gear. Scubapro merged with dive computer manufacturer Uwatec in 1997 and became part of Johnson Outdoors. The company, now known as "Scubapro Uwatec", currently manufactures diving regulators, buoyancy compensators, dive computers, masks, fins, snorkels, wetsuits and drysuits, as well as scuba accessories. [5]
SeemannSub, also known as Subgear, was acquired by Scubapro in 2007. [6]
Uwatec was founded in Switzerland in 1984 as a manufacturer of scuba gear. In 1987, it introduced the Aladin PRO, establishing a reputation for making diving computers; however, multiple lawsuits accusing Uwatec (and later Johnson Outdoors) of a seven-year cover-up of a potentially lethal dive-computer bug tainted that reputation. [7] [8] Uwatec merged with Scubapro in 1997, becoming part of Johnson Outdoors. [9]
Subgear is the rebranded name of Seemann Sub, a diving brand active in Germany since 1979. [10]
Since November 2012, Johnson Outdoors has owned Jetboil, a company that produces lightweight gas fueled portable stoves. [11] [12]
Johnson Outdoors acquired Eureka! Tent Company in 1973.
Johnson Outdoors acquired Old Town Canoe from S. C. Johnson & Son in 2004; the latter acquired Old Town Canoe in 1974.
Ocean Kayak was founded by Tim Niemier in 1988 to sell polyethylene sit-on-top kayaks. Johnson Outdoors acquired the company in 1997. [13]
Aqua-Lung was the first open-circuit, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus to achieve worldwide popularity and commercial success. This class of equipment is now commonly referred to as a twin-hose diving regulator, or demand valve. The Aqua-Lung was invented in France during the winter of 1942–1943 by two Frenchmen: engineer Émile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau, who was a Naval Lieutenant. It allowed Cousteau and Gagnan to film and explore underwater more easily.
A dive computer, personal decompression computer or decompression meter is a device used by an underwater diver to measure the elapsed time and depth during a dive and use this data to calculate and display an ascent profile which, according to the programmed decompression algorithm, will give a low risk of decompression sickness. A secondary function is to record the dive profile, warn the diver when certain events occur, and provide useful information about the environment.
A diving regulator or underwater diving regulator is a pressure regulator that controls the pressure of breathing gas for underwater diving. The most commonly recognised application is to reduce pressurized breathing gas to ambient pressure and deliver it to the diver, but there are also other types of gas pressure regulator used for diving applications. The gas may be air or one of a variety of specially blended breathing gases. The gas may be supplied from a scuba cylinder carried by the diver, in which case it is called a scuba regulator, or via a hose from a compressor or high-pressure storage cylinders at the surface in surface-supplied diving. A gas pressure regulator has one or more valves in series which reduce pressure from the source, and use the downstream pressure as feedback to control the delivered pressure, or the upstream pressure as feedback to prevent excessive flow rates, lowering the pressure at each stage.
Snap-on Incorporated is an American designer, manufacturer, and marketer of high-end tools and equipment for professional use in the transportation industry including the automotive, heavy duty, equipment, marine, aviation, and railroad industries. Headquartered in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Snap-on also distributes lower-end tools under the brand name Blue-Point. Their primary competitors include Matco, Mac Tools, and Cornwell Tools.
Nemrod was a Catalan company dedicated to the development and manufacture of diving and scuba equipment. It was founded in 1945 and ceased operations in 1999.
Canoe diving and Kayak diving are recreational diving where the divers paddle to a diving site in a canoe or kayak carrying all their gear in or on the boat to the place they want to dive. Canoe or kayak diving gives the diver independence from dive boat operators, while allowing dives at sites which are too far to comfortably swim, but are sufficiently sheltered.
Silva Sweden AB is an outdoors products company that sells handheld compasses and other navigational equipment including GPS tools, mapping software, aircraft altimeters, and marine navigation tools. Silva's founders - Gunnar Tillander, Alvar Kjellström, Arvid Kjellström, and Björn Kjellström - invented the hugely popular orienteering baseplate or protractor compass used around the world for outdoors navigation.
Brunton International LLC is a manufacturer of navigation tools. Their product line includes recreational compasses, navigational equipment, and geology and survey instruments. They are located in Riverton, Wyoming.
Oceanic is an American manufacturer of scuba gear. It was founded by Bob Hollis in 1972 and is based in San Leandro, California, United States. Its products include dive computers, rebreathers and a novel diving mask incorporating a heads-up-display of information.
Björn Kjellström, originally from Sweden, was a ski orienteering champion in Sweden and co-founder of the compass manufacturing company Silva Sweden AB which produced the Silva compass. More than 25 million Silva compasses have been sold since the founding of the company.
Aqualung Group is a manufacturer of self-contained breathing apparatus and other diving equipment. It produced the Aqua-Lung line of regulators, including the CG45 (1945) and the Mistral (1955). From its founding in 1946 until 2016, the company was a division of Air Liquide. The company was sold to Montagu Private Equity in 2016, and subsequently acquired by Barings LLC in 2023.
Beuchat International, better known as Beuchat, is a company that designs, manufactures and markets underwater equipment. It was established in 1934 in Marseille, France, by Georges Beuchat, who descended from a Swiss watchmaking family.
Tim Niemier is a designer of watercraft, currently focusing on kayaks and stand up paddleboards. Niemier is credited with introducing the sit-on-top (SOT) kayak design. “I sort of introduced those,” Niemier said of the sit-on-top design. “I didn't really invent it.”
Bret Clifton Gilliam was an American pioneering technical diver. He was most famous as co-founder of the certification agency Technical Diving International along with Mitch Skaggs, and as the one time holder of the world record for deep diving on air. He is also one of diving's most popular writers. Gilliam is the author or coauthor of 72 books, over 1500 feature magazine articles, and over 100 magazine cover photos. In his diving career he has logged over 19,000 dives since 1959.
Mares is a manufacturer of scuba equipment. Founded in 1949 by Ludovico Mares in Rapallo, Italy, the company initially made diving masks and spearguns. It has since expanded to become one of the largest scuba manufacturers, having merged with US manufacturer Dacor.
Jetboil is an American manufacturer of lightweight gas-fueled portable stoves used primarily for backpacking.