Fisk - killed by the depression, bought by US Rubber - Uniroyal, which was bought up by Michelin around 1990
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisk_Tire_Company
Kelly Springfield was started in 1884, sold in 1935 to Goodyear, which dissolved the entity of Kelly Springfield around 1990.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Springfield_Tire_Company
Lee Tire and Rubber lasted from 1909 to 1987, bought by Kelly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Tire_and_Rubber_Company
Firestone opened for business in 1900, sold out to Bridgestone in 1988. Fyi, they made helmet liners in WW2, and surface to surface missiles in the early 50s. Firestone bought Dayton Tires in 1961, Dayton Tire division from the Dayco Corporation. Dayco later sued both Firestone and Goodyear, alleging that the two companies conspired to monopolize the tire industry in the United States.
in 1979 Firestone was on the precipice of complete collapse having not acknowledged the good days were over, and that making radials on the machines used to make bias ply was the cause of 9 million bad tires, and the 70s were killing them. In 1974 they shut down the racing tire department to cut the 8 million dollars annual loss to 500,000. Phoenix drag slicks were Firestones competition to Goodyear slicks
In late 1979, Firestone brought in the ex-head of Zenith Electronics to save the hemorrhaging company from total collapse. It was more than a billion dollars in debt at the time, and losing $250 million a year. Things that were a waste of money, like the Firestone Country Club, were cut.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestone_Tire_and_Rubber_Company
General Tire expanded and diversified into cold war era military subcontracting, until it was forced to sell what by now was no longer their core functions, and sold the tire division to German tire manufacturer Continental
https://www.generaltire-tyres.com/car/news/2015-02-18-100-years
BF Goodrich was a subsidy of Goodrich, and was sold to Michelin in 1990. BFGoodrich was the first American tire manufacturer to make radial tires. It made tires for the Winton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BFGoodrich
Goodyear was founded in 1898, and in 1999 Goodyear announced a $1-billion global alliance with Japan's Sumitomo Rubber Industries, which has rights to the Dunlop tire brand.
https://corporate.goodyear.com/en-US/about/history.html
Cooper tires was formed around 1920, grew constantly and bought Avon in 1997, then Mickey Thompson in 2003, and bought into a partnership with Mexican tire manufacturer Corporación de Occidente SA de CV to get a part of the market in Mexico
Cooper owns Avon, Dean, Eldorado, Mastercraft, Mentor Starfire, Definity, Roadmaster, Mickey Thompson, Dick Cepek, Chengshan, Austone, Fortune, Hercules and Ironman.
http://coopertire.com/About/History.aspx
Kokomo tires was mostly bikes and motorcycles, however, they may also have made the 1st pneumatic tire... anyway, they were in business from 1895 until the great depression
https://bikersinc.org/articles/KokomoRubberCompany
http://www.kokomotribune.com/news/local_news/city-of-innovation-inventing-the-pneumatic-tire/article_18e3c165-15e1-5a1a-bd11-9f27ff3d27bf.html
Hoosier tires was nearly the last independent tie maker and if I'd made this post two years ago, they would have been the last big American tire maker... but they sold out to Continental for 140 million 2 years ago. 4 years after the founder died, his wife sold the company, she died 2 years later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoosier_Racing_Tire
If you're thinking, what about Coker? Yeah, that was just sold yesterday to it's president and CEO, Wade Kawasaki, and his investment bank partner... so, I don't think it qualifies as being an independent company anymore. Corky and his family are keeping Honest Charlie Speed Shop, for now, I expect that will only be around as long as Corky is.
https://www.moderntiredealer.com/news/732092/the-coker-group-has-new-owners
Bandag, famous because of a racing semi truck, was started by converting a sauerkraut factory to recapping tires... and sold out to Bridgestone in 2007
https://www.bandag.com/en-us/bandag-60-years
So, the only major tire company that I can think of that remains American, non multinaitonal corporation, is M and H.
M and H racing slicks were the first of the modern racing slicks, though they probably sold more dirt track tires. Harry Rifchin started the company, and were the real competition that Firestone and Goodyear had to beat on the drags strip. When the son, Marvin Rifchin decided to sell, he went to a light truck offroad tire company, Interco Tire Corp about 150 miles from New Orleans
https://www.intercotire.com/mh_legend
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/business-history-review/article/structural-change-and-competition-in-the-united-states-tire-industry-19201937/9F72A61A22FF742E5CD16FE906F2F639
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tire_companies
Todays header picture with the 4 wheelers driving in the stream pisses me off ! All the trails and they are driving where the fish and many other living things live. Assholes !
ReplyDeleteI agree, I've often wondered how much oil, grease, etc is getting into the streams, rivers, and so on when they drive through the water. Then I thought, but aren't we humans destroying the planet everywhere you look anyway? We're polluting the air constantly, every time you turn on a car. We use tar based asphalt to pave roads, and that's quite a nasty substance. We humans are the worst thing to ever happen to the planet, and we pollute all the time. All our garbage is thrown in landfills. All out tires are left to slowly fall apart, over a couple hundred years, and then the petrochemicals will seep into the ground water. We suck... that's the truth. Our boats, ships, etc toss their trash and sewage into the oceans.
DeleteThanks for looking up all the tire info.
ReplyDeleteReally, M&H "a major American tire company"? I thought they only made racing tires.
ReplyDeleteI consider them, Mickey Thompson, and a couple other companies that didn't make commuter tires, major tire companies
DeleteGates Rubber used to make tires, but dropped them sometime in the sixties or seventies. Of course, the company is still going strong in making belts and hoses.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I saw a Gates Tire sign hanging on the wall in the Victorville Cracker Barrel just this week.
Wow, I never heard of Gates making tires! Thanks!
DeleteCooper Tire is still an American company, and it is publicly traded. The merger with the Mexican company was to sell Cooper tires into Mexico. This website - Utires.com - calls Goodyear and Cooper the "only two genuine American brands".
ReplyDeletehttps://www.utires.com/articles/tires-made-usa-american-foreign-brands/
I see I misread that... yes, it looks like Cooper is the last of the big American tire companies... wow, they sure have bought up the other tire companies, and made big investments overseas!
DeleteThanks!
Goodyear seems to have merged with Japan's Sumitomo Rubber Industries, or am I also misreading that?
DeleteI can't find anything definite about Goodyear. Cooper is located about 40 miles from my home, so I hear more about them. I'm surprised by how many tire companies there were in Ohio back in the 1920's.
ReplyDeletethere seems to be a supply system that pops into place when someone really does well in an industry, and suddenly other companies doing exactly the same product become your neighbor, Milwaukee with motorcycles and beer, Detroit with cars, Kalamazoo with cereal companies, Nashville record companies, Los Angeles movie studios, Las Vegas casinos, Seattle coffee, and Akron and Milltown with tire companies. It's shocking to see how many will go head to head with the top dog, in his own back yard, or front porch, just to get the scraps.
Delete