Prince Sports
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Prince Global Sports, LLC is an American sporting goods manufacturing company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1970, Prince's range of products includes rackets, footwear, apparel, tennis balls, pickleball paddles, stringing machines, hats and bags.
History
The company was founded in 1970 by Robert Hirt McClure (1893–1991) of Princeton, New Jersey (the origin of the company's name) as a manufacturer of tennis-ball machines, and soon after, rackets. Howard Head, founder of the Head sporting goods company, took tennis lessons following his retirement and used a Prince tennis ball machine, but was frustrated by his slow improvement. Head joined the Prince company in the early 1970s and developed the company's signature oversized tennis racket.[1] Although the Prince Classic aluminum racket was the first oversized racquet to be patented, the Bentley Fortissimo preceded the patent by two years, causing Germany to invalidate the patent.
During those years, the company was owned by a variety of different firms, including the Benetton Group of Italy,[2] Lincolnshire Management, Inc. (which acquired Prince from Benetton in 2003) and Nautic Partners LLC.[3]
In July 2012, Authentic Brands Group acquired the Prince brand name from Nautic Partners in a procedure that included a voluntary petition for Chapter 11 reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Prince Sports' portfolio of brands included Prince (tennis, squash and badminton), Ektelon (racquetball) and Viking (platform/paddle tennis). Its tennis unit recorded $59 million in sales in 2011. Authentic Brands owned the intellectual property rights for the estates of Marilyn Monroe and Bob Marley, among other celebrities.[4][3]
By September 2012, the Waitt Company agreed to a 40-year license to operate the Prince brand. Prince Global Sports now operates as a subsidiary of Athletic Brands Holding Company, which is majority-owned by the Waitt Company. The company's portfolio of brands also includes Ektelon, Viking and Battle.
After recovering from bankruptcy, in March 2014, Prince announced that it would move its headquarters from Bordentown, New Jersey to Atlanta. Prince's CEO Mike Ballardie stated that Atlanta had a thriving tennis community with more people playing tennis than any other American city, which made it a great base for the company. Atlanta also boasted the largest city tennis league in the world, with more than 80,000 members of the Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association.[5]
Sponsorships
Tennis
Men
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Women
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Retired players
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- Template:Flagicon Guillermo Coria
- Template:Flagicon David Nalbandian
- Template:Flagicon Gabriela Sabatini
- Template:Flagicon Pat Cash
- Template:Flagicon Pat Rafter
- Template:Flagicon Peng Shuai
- Template:Flagicon Jana Novotná
- Template:Flagicon Albert Costa
- Template:Flagicon David Ferrer
- Template:Flagicon Juan Carlos Ferrero
- Template:Flagicon María José Martínez Sánchez
- Template:Flagicon Marion Bartoli
- Template:Flagicon Oliver Golding
- Template:Flagicon Ai Sugiyama
- Template:Flagicon Annika Beck
- Template:Flagicon Alex Bogomolov Jr.
- Template:Flagicon Nikolay Davydenko
- Template:Flagicon Maria Sharapova
- Template:Flagicon Jelena Janković
- Template:Flagicon Daniela Hantuchová
- Template:Flagicon Johan Brunström
- Template:Flagicon Kent Carlsson
- Template:Flagicon Andre Agassi
- Template:Flagicon Bob Bryan
- Template:Flagicon Mike Bryan
- Template:Flagicon Jennifer Capriati
- Template:Flagicon John Isner
- Template:Flagicon Michael Chang
- Template:Flagicon Kathy Rinaldi
- Template:Flagicon Pam Shriver
Squash
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- Template:Flagicon Ramy Ashour
- Template:Flagicon Camille Serme
- Template:Flagicon Emily Whitlock
- Template:Flagicon Rebecca Chiu
- Template:Flagicon Delia Arnold
- Template:Flagicon Peter Nicol
- Template:Flagicon John White
- Template:Flagicon David Evans
- Template:Flagicon Cassie Jackman
- Template:Flagicon Julien Bonetat
References
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- ↑ Prince Sports Group, Inc. History on Funding Universe
- ↑ Chesebrough-Ponds on Funding Universe
- ↑ a b Prince Sports to be Sold to Authentic Brands Group in Bankruptcy Proceedings by Thomas J. Ryan, May 4, 2012
- ↑ Our business (timeline) on ABG website
- ↑ Prince Tennis Moves Corporate Headquarters From New Jersey To Atlanta by Darren Heitner on Forbes, 27 Feb 2014
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External links
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Template:Authentic Brands Group Template:Sports equipment brands