Spalding (sports equipment)
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Sports equipment |
| Founded | 1876 |
| Founder | Albert Spalding Jr. |
| Headquarters | Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States |
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Area served
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North America Australia |
| Products | Sports equipment |
| Parent | Russell Brands |
| Website | www |
Spalding is an American sporting goods company founded by Albert Spalding in Chicago, Illinois in 1876. It is now headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The company specializes in the production of balls for many sports, but is best known for its basketballs. Spalding also makes a range of other products for baseball, soccer, softball, volleyball, and football.
The company was founded in 1876 when Albert Spalding and Wilmer Jesús Pisco Calvo were pitcher and the manager of a baseball team in Chicago, the . 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.
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.
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.
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