Dunlop Sport (Australia) was the local

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

of the international

sports equipment Sports equipment, sporting equipment, also called sporting goods, are the tools, materials, apparel, and gear used to compete in a sport and varies depending on the sport. The equipment ranges from balls, nets, and protective gear like helmets. ...

company

Dunlop Sport Dunlop Sport is a British sports equipment manufacturing company established in 1910 that focuses on racquet sports, more specifically tennis, squash, padel and badminton. Products by Dunlop Sport include rackets, strings, balls, shuttlecocks, ...

. Focused on the

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

markets, Dunlop Australia products included tennis and squash racquets, tennis balls, squash balls,

golf club A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Wood (golf), Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; iron (golf), irons, the most versatile class ...

s and golf balls.Dunlop products and sports
on Dunlop Sport Australia (archived, 4 March 2008) The company also manufactured athletic shoes through the "Dunlop Footwear" division. Some of its most renowned shoes were the

Volley Volley or Volly may refer to: People * Volly De Faut (1904–1973), American jazz reed player * Paul Volley (born 1971), English rugby union player Sports * Volley (association football), an air-borne strike in association football *In some rack ...

and the KT-26.Dunlop Footwear
(archived, 9 Abr 2013)

History

In 1924, the Dunlop Rubber Company of Australasia started making sandshoes in its factories in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, to complement their

gum boots The Wellington boot was originally a type of leather boot adapted from Hessian boots, a style of military riding boot. They were worn and popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. The "Wellington" boot became a staple of pr ...

that the company had been producing since 1915. By 1932, Dunlop was manufacturing 2 million pairs a year. In 1939 the company introduced the

shoes, designed by tennis player Adrian Quist, who convinced Dunlop to make tennis shoe with the same sole pattern he had seen while touring on North America. Players who wore the ''Volley'' included

Ken Rosewall Kenneth Robert Rosewall (born 2 November 1934) is an Australian former world top-ranking amateur and professional tennis player. He won a record 23 Majors in singles, including eight Grand Slam singles titles and, before the Open Era, a record ...

, Lew Hoad,

Frank Sedgman Francis "Frank" Arthur Sedgman (born 29 October 1927) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. Over the course of a three-decade career, Sedgman won five Grand Slam singles tournaments as an amateur as well as 22 Grand Slam doubles ...

Neal Fraser Neal (Neil) is a given masculine name and surname of Gaelic and Irish origin. The name is an Anglicisation of the Irish Niall which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "hono ...

, John Bromwich,

Evonne Goolagong-Cawley Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley (née Goolagong; born 31 July 1951) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. Goolagong was one of the world's leading players in the 1970s and early 1980s. At the age of 19, she won the French Open sing ...

, Margaret Court, among others.History
on Dunlop Footwear (archived, 8 August 2015) By 1957 Dunlop footwear employed over 1,000 people. In 1965, Dunlop Rubber Co. established "Dunlop Footwear", a division to specifically design and manufacture shoes. Dunlop Australia acquired many other shoe businesses, including some in the US. As a result, the company introduced the KT-26

running shoe Sneakers (also called trainers, athletic shoes, tennis shoes, gym shoes, kicks, sport shoes, flats, running shoes, or runners) are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but which are now also widely used fo ...

, which originated as the Osaga KT-26 in the US and was then sold mainly in Australia and Papua New Guinea. In 2004, Dunlop Sports Australia became a division of

Pacific Brands Pacific Brands was an Australian consumer products company. On Tuesday, 28 June 2016, the company suspended trading on the ASX in order to be acquired by Hanesbrands. Corporate changes/details were to be announced thereafter. This acquisiti ...

.Sports Direct – Brands & relationships
on Sports Direct International (archived, 26 February 2009) In November 2014, Pacific Brands sold its Dunlop Sport (Australia) and Slazenger brands to International Brand Management & Licensing (IBML), a division of

Sports Direct International Frasers Group plc (formerly known as Sports Direct International plc) is a British retail, sport and intellectual property group, named after its ownership of the department store chain House of Fraser. The company is best known for trading pre ...

, a PLC of the United Kingdom, which had already operated the Dunlop and Slazenger brands in every other market except Australia and New Zealand since 2004. Pacific Brands moved its Volley and other shoe brands to its subsidiary, Brand Collective Pty Ltd, which was sold to private equity firm

Anchorage Capital Partners Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

in November 2014. In 2016, Sports Direct International sold Dunlop Sport International including Dunlop Sport (Australia) to

SRI Sports is a global tire and rubber company based in Japan. It is part of the Sumitomo Group. The company makes a wide range of rubber based products, including automobile tires, golf balls and tennis balls. Sumitomo brands include Dunlop Tyres (in c ...

, part of Sumitomo Rubber Industries.

References

{{Sports equipment brands Shoe brands Golf equipment manufacturers Tennis equipment manufacturers Sporting goods brands Cycle manufacturers of Australia Shoe companies of Australia 1924 establishments in Australia Sporting goods manufacturers of Australia Australian subsidiaries of foreign companies