Bear Archery is a manufacturer and marketer of bows and archery equipment located in

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

, owned by Escalade Sports.

History

The company was founded in 1933 as the Bear Products Company in Detroit by

Fred Bear Fred Bear (March 5, 1902 – April 27, 1988) was an American bow hunter and manufacturer. Although he did not start bow hunting until he was 29 and did not master the skill for many years, he is widely regarded as a pioneer in the bow hunting c ...

and Charles Piper. The initial focus was on silk-screening and advertising support work for automotive companies. In 1938 Fred Bear hired Nels Grumley, a woodworker and

bowyer A bowyer is a master-craftsman who makes bows. Though this was once a widespread profession, the importance of bowyers and of bows was diminished by the introduction of gunpowder weaponry. However, the trade has survived and many bowyers conti ...

, and the company expanded to offer hand-made bows. Fred Bear sold the advertising side of the Bear Products Company in 1940. The archery business was named Bear Archery. In 1947 the company moved to a new facility in

Grayling, Michigan Grayling ( ') is a city and the county seat of Crawford County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the only incorporated community in Crawford County. The population was 1,884 at the 2010 census. The city is surrounded by Grayling Charter Town ...

. The Grayling plant focused on making and marketing

recurve bow In archery, a recurve bow is one of the main shapes a bow can take, with limbs that curve away from the archer when unstrung. A recurve bow stores more energy and delivers energy more efficiently than the equivalent straight-limbed bow, giving a ...

s and

longbow A longbow (known as warbow in its time, in contrast to a hunting bow) is a type of tall bow that makes a fairly long draw possible. A longbow is not significantly recurved. Its limbs are relatively narrow and are circular or D-shaped in cross ...

s in a growing archery market. Bow manufacturing changed from hand-made bows to mass production using fiberglass and other modern materials. Fred Bear sold the company to Victor Comptometer in 1968, but remained the president of Bear Archery. Bear Archery was not one of the first

compound bow In modern archery, a compound bow is a bow that uses a levering system, usually of cables and pulleys, to bend the limbs. In general, compound bows are widely used in target practice and hunting. The pulley/cam system grants the user a mechan ...

manufacturers, but eventually found success with early models like the Whitetail Hunter. Bear Archery moved manufacturing from Michigan to Gainesville, Florida in 1978. Over the next three decades Bear Archery changed hands in a series of mergers, acquisitions, and spin-offs from Victor Comptometer to Walter Kidde & Co, Hanson PLC, U.S. Industries, Fenway Partners and the North American Archery Group. In 2003 Escalade Sports acquired the North American Archery Group and currently does business as Bear Archery Inc.

History

References

External links

Further reading