Johnson Outdoors

Johnson Outdoors Inc. (NASDAQ: JOUT) produces outdoor recreational products such as watercraft, diving equipment, compasses and navigational products, and outdoor clothing.

The company is a component of Johnson Family Enterprises, previously known as Johnson Wax Associates, and grew out of diversification and acquisition efforts by S.C. Johnson during the 1970s. It became a profitable, self-sustaining outdoor equipment business known as Johnson Camping, Inc., later renamed Johnson Worldwide Associates (JWA).

The company acquired the Silva Company USA operations in 1973, followed by Silva Ltd. Canada in 1985. 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.

In 1998, JWA and Silva Production AB reached a settlement whereby JWA retained the exclusive right to sell compasses under the Silva brand in North America, made for JWA by other manufacturers. Silva Production AB retained the right to manufacture and sell compasses under its Silva trademark outside the United States and Canada. JWA also retained the rights to some product names such as Explorer, Polaris, Ranger, 1, 2, 3 and others commonly recognized in the U.S. and Canadian markets and popularized during the time Silva Production AB was manufacturing Silva-brand compasses for JWA. Silva Production AB was allowed to state on Nexus packaging and in the Nexus catalog that Nexus compasses are made by Silva Production AB, but did not retain the right to advertise this fact. 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. 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.

Healthways was a firm founded by Dick Klein which made scuba gear. It went bankrupt in 1963; its successor company is Scubapro. It was one of the five original American diving gear makers: U.S. Divers, Healthways, Voit, Dacor, Swimaster. Healthways was notable as the first manufacturer to use "scuba" as a word rather than an acronym; their twin-hose scuba regulator line was called the "Scuba"; hence, one of their later models, the Scuba Pro, eventually became the name of the company when it was reorganized as Scubapro. (Healthways's single-hose regulators were dubbed the "Scubair" line.)

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