Anniversaries This Month

Etonic

Etonic was founded in 1876 in Brockton, Massachusetts by American shoemaker Charles A. Eaton as a small American athletic-footwear manufacturer specifically focused on producing technically-engineered tennis-and-golf shoes for the broader American athletic community. The brand has been one of the longest-continuously-operating American athletic-footwear brands — over 145 years of continuous operation — and one of the defining American-anchored tennis-shoe-and-golf-shoe brands.

Spalding

Spalding was founded in 1876 in Boston by baseball pitcher Albert Goodwill Spalding as a small American sporting-goods manufacturer specifically focused on producing baseballs, baseball-equipment, and broader American team-sports equipment. The brand became the official baseball supplier of the National League from 1876 to 1976 (a 100-year exclusive relationship) and the official basketball supplier of the NBA from 1983 to 2021 — making Spalding one of the longest-continuously-operating American sporting-goods brands and one of the defining global anchors of the American sporting-goods category.

66°North

Dior

Christian Dior opened his maison on Avenue Montaigne in Paris in December 1946 and presented the first 'New Look' collection on February 12, 1947 — wasp waists, full skirts, sloped shoulders, a deliberate return to lavish femininity after years of wartime austerity. The look reset Parisian couture overnight and Dior himself became, within months, the most-discussed designer in the world. He died of a heart attack in October 1957 at 52, having dressed an entire decade.

Yonex

Yonex was founded in 1946 in Niigata, Japan by Minoru Yoneyama as a small Japanese sporting-goods manufacturer specifically focused on producing technically-engineered badminton-and-tennis racquets for the broader Japanese sporting community. The brand has been one of the longest-continuously-operating Japanese sporting-goods brands — over 79 years of continuous operation — and is widely considered the global standard for professional badminton-racquet construction. Yonex has been the official racquet supplier to numerous Olympic gold-medalist badminton players including Lin Dan, Chen Long, Akane Yamaguchi, and Viktor Axelsen.

Bottega Veneta

Bottega Veneta was founded in 1966 in Vicenza, Italy by Michele Taddei and Renzo Zengiaro, originally as a high-end leather goods workshop specialising in a distinctive woven leather technique called intrecciato — born of necessity (the local sewing machines couldn't handle thick hides, so leather was cut into thin strips and woven by hand). The brand's tagline for decades — 'When your own initials are enough' — captured a quiet anti-logo philosophy.

K-Swiss

K-Swiss was founded in 1966 in Los Angeles by Swiss brothers Art and Earnest Brunner as a small American tennis-footwear manufacturer specifically focused on producing technically-engineered all-leather tennis shoes for the broader American tennis-and-athletic community. The brand introduced the iconic K-Swiss Classic leather tennis shoe in 1966 — widely credited as the first all-leather tennis shoe in the American market — which became the brand's defining product and the cultural-icon foundation for the broader 'leather-tennis-shoe-as-streetwear' category that emerged in the 1980s-1990s.

Rabanne

Sergio Tacchini

Sergio Tacchini was founded in 1966 in Paris-Aibel, Italy by Italian tennis champion Sergio Tacchini, who retired from professional tennis to launch the brand specifically focused on producing technically-engineered tennis-and-track apparel for the Italian and international competitive tennis community. The brand became one of the defining Italian-anchored sportswear brands of the 1970s-1980s, with the iconic Sergio Tacchini sponsorship of John McEnroe (1980-1986 — the defining 'McEnroe-tracksuit' moment that anchored the brand's broader cultural visibility), Jimmy Connors, Pat Cash, and the broader 1980s-tennis-elite roster.

The North Face

The North Face was founded in 1966 by Doug Tompkins and Susie Tompkins (later Susie Buell) as a small mountaineering retail store in San Francisco's North Beach neighbourhood. The name comes from the mountaineering observation that the north face of a peak in the northern hemisphere is the coldest and most technically demanding. Within a decade the brand was producing its own tents, packs, sleeping bags, and outerwear, and was supplying the kind of serious expeditions — Everest, K2, Patagonia — that demanded gear that wouldn't fail at altitude.

Vans

Vans was founded in March 1966 by Paul Van Doren, his brother Jim Van Doren, Gordy Lee, and Serge D'Elia in Anaheim, California as the Van Doren Rubber Company. The factory floor was open to the public — customers could walk in, hand the workers a swatch of canvas, and have a custom pair of deck shoes made on the spot. The first day, twelve people bought shoes; this direct-to-consumer manufacturing model defined the brand for its first decade.

Beams

BEAMS was founded in 1976 in Harajuku, Tokyo by Etsuzo Shitara as a tiny 16-square-meter store selling American university merchandise and casual clothing — UCLA t-shirts, Champion sweats, Levi's jeans. The thesis, in retrospect, was simple but radical: Japanese consumers had developed an authentic taste for American campus dress, and they deserved a shop curated by people who took the source culture seriously rather than the mass-market 'American style' shops of the era.