U.S. Rubber Company
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Manufacturing |
| Founded | 1892 |
| Headquarters | Greenville, South Carolina, Naugatuck, Connecticut, USA |
| Products | Tires, Footwear |
| Parent | Michelin (1990–present) |
| Website | www |
The United States Rubber Company (Uniroyal) is an American manufacturer of tires and other synthetic rubber-related products, as well as variety of items for military use, such as ammunition, explosives and operations and maintenance activities (O&MA) at the government-owned contractor-operated facilities. It was founded in Naugatuck, Connecticut, in 1892. It was one of the original 12 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and became Uniroyal, Inc., as part of creating a unified brand for its products and subsidiaries in 1961. In 1990, Uniroyal was acquired by French tire maker Michelin and ceased to exist as a separate business. Today around 1,000 workers in the U.S. remain employed by Michelin to make its Uniroyal brand products. Company's long-lived advertisement slogan was "United States Tires are Good Tires."
One of Uniroyal's best known tires is the Tiger Paw introduced in the 1960s and included as original equipment for that decade's muscle cars such as the Pontiac GTO, which itself was promoted as The Tiger during its early years. Today, Uniroyal still uses the Tiger Paw brand name in its tire line.
By 1892, there were many rubber manufacturing companies in Naugatuck, Connecticut, as well as elsewhere in Connecticut. Nine companies consolidated their operations in Naugatuck to become the United States Rubber Company. It should be noted that one of the nine, Goodyear's India Rubber Glove Mfg. Co. (named Litchfield Rubber Co. until 1847) – which manufactured rubber gloves for telegraph linemen – was the only company in which Charles Goodyear, inventor of the rubber vulcanization process, is known to have owned stock.
From 1892 to 1913, the rubber footwear divisions of U.S. Rubber manufactured their products under 30 different brand names, including the Wales-Goodyear Shoe Co. The company consolidated these footwear brands under one name, Keds, in 1916, and were mass-marketed as the first flexible rubber-sole with canvas-top "sneakers" in 1917.
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Wikipedia