The simple answer is that Head ... which revolutionised ski manufacture within 5 years of the Second World War ... sponsor the new hero of British (Scottish in this instance) sport. The logo often puzzles those who can't relate it to a ski tip - its origin - because it's printed across the strings of a tennis racquet.
What is Head? Having personally grown up with ski equipment since 1959 ... through the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s ... I first saw the distinctly up-market (and very popular) 'black Head' skis of the 1960s across the Alps. But Head skis originally went into production in 1950. The product of an American invention - the aeronautical engineer Howard Head's lamination of metal to wood to produce a 'sandwich construction' ski - preceded the use of fibreglass from the early 1960s.
The 'Head Standard' was an iconic ski of the 1960s, and was phenomenally successful in its home market. See 'History' ...
Head became a tennis racquet manufacturer in the late 1960s. A few years later it became the first ski brand (way ahead of its competitors) to make skis, boots and bindings - the Head Air boot (which had an air pump to inflate an internal bladder to tighten the fit) and the Head plate binding (useful in the late era of leather boots to improve safety by isolating the boot surfaces from the release mechanism). Despite Head's leadership in producing the 'full flush' of ski, boot and binding, both the Head boot and Head binding ultimately went out of production. Competing brands developed superior fitting methods, and the standardised DIN/ISO sole of plastic boots eliminated the need for a plate.
The only Head skis I recall owning were a pair of 'Head Hot' (or Hot Head as we knew them on the Scottish slopes) in 1974-5. That was the initial era of mass-popularity freestyle skis, made in 'compact' lengths of 160cm to 180cm, with ballet skis shorter still at around 150cm. Inevitably, as ski makers have adopted industry-wide standards and materials ... over the past 40 years ... the pioneers of metal, fibreglass and carbonfibre skis have lost their exclusivity. Who can revolutionise skis - or tennis racquets - these days?
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Mon 8-07-13 8:26; edited 3 times in total
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
An earlier Wimbledon winner with his Head racquet - Arthur Ashe, mens champion, 1975 (defeated Jimmy Connors)
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
This is pretty amusing ... from 4 years ago (he appears to have had a relationship with Head since his mid-teens) ... wait for it ...
Wearing a Fred Perry shirt at that time (not any more).
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Not uncommon for ski manufacturers to also make tennis racquets: Volkl, Fischer and Kneissl all do so as well, probably others out there too with the same branding plus groups such as Amer who own separate ski and tennis brands.
I think Head may have been the first. This Wikipedia page about Howard Head has further info. about his sale of the company in 1969, just as the Head racquets were emerging, and ultimately going into competition with Prince oversized racquets.
Photo right: Howard Head with Bill Cosby, in 1981. By then he was in competition with the company he'd founded and sold.
[NB. That's been corrected: the man on the right was wrongly stated to be Arthur Ashe]
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
