
Spalding developed its first basketball in 1894 based on the design of a baseball, and is currently a leading producer. The company was supplier to the league from 1983 to 2020 Products Ī Spalding NBA official basketball. 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. Spalding became a division of the Russell Corporation in 2003. Wheels bearing the Spalding name are known to have been manufactured through to at least 1986. It was one of these wheels, the Message II, purportedly described by the company as like a " steam locomotive piston" which won awards from publications such as Motorfan Magazine as the best spoke type wheel and reader's overall choice.
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Since 1977 the official ball has been made by Rawlings.įrom 1981, in a partnership with the Toyo Rubber Company of Japan, Spalding designed a series of aftermarket automotive wheels known as the "Message" series. 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. 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. įrom the early 1930s through the mid-1940s, Spalding produced the official game pucks for the National Hockey League. Spalding, as a subcontractor to Sprague Electric Co., also produced parts for the "toothpick" capacitors that were used with the VT proximity fuse. ĭuring World War II, the company joined five other firms to form the New England Small Arms Corporation for manufacture of M1918 Browning Automatic Rifles. During 1916, Spalding was selling a wide variety of sports-related items, such as clothing (athletic shirts, belts, pads, sports hats, sports jackets, sports jerseys, sports pants, sports shoes, and swimming suits), bar bells, fencing blades and foils, golf clubs, guy robes, measuring tapes, pulleys and weights, rowing machines, track equipment (discus, hurdles, hammers, javelins, poles for vaulting, shot puts, and stop watches), and whistles. īy 1900, Spalding was selling dumb bells, Indian clubs, and punch bags (boxing). 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.

Production of bicycles continued at the Chicopee plant through the latter part of the 19th century, but in 1899 A.G.

Spalding & Bros., Chicago, New York & Philadelphia and sold for $1.50 in 1896.
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The Spalding "League Ball" was adopted by the National League and used by the league since 1880 as well as the American Association of Professional Base Ball Clubs for the seasons of 1892–1896.

Spalding chose Chicopee because it was the home of the Overman Wheel Company since he acted as their distributor in the Western USA, and Overman contracted with Lamb to make wheels for its lower-end products. 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. It used this purchase to consolidate its skate manufactory from Newark and its gymnasium goods manufactory from Philadelphia to the Chicopee plant. Spalding & Brothers purchased the Lamb Knitting Machine Company located in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts and renamed it the Lamb Manufacturing Company. Reach, both rival sporting goods companies. In 1892, Spalding acquired Wright & Ditson and A. The company standardized early baseballs and developed the modern baseball bat with the bulge at its apex. The company was founded in 1876 when Albert Spalding was a pitcher and manager of a baseball team in Chicago, the Chicago White Stockings. Albert Spalding, founder of the company, in 1910
