The story of Head

In 1939, Howard Head began working as a riveter for the aircraft manufacturer Glenn L. Martin Company before getting a job as an engineer.

Head worked at Martin during the war years, where he was notorious for his love of poker and partying. In 1946, while still employed by the company, his love of social activities led him to try skiing during a trip to Stowe, Vermont, an event that marked a turning point in his life.

Although he was embarrassed by his attempts on the slopes, he fell in love with the sport and was determined to improve his technique. Like many other beginners, he blamed his poor performance on the equipment. Unlike most other skiers, however, Head had the technical knowledge to back up his arguments. At the time, skis were long, heavy and cumbersome; they were also made of hickory wood, a material that easily lost its shape and caused an unstable ride.

Instead of simply devoting himself to mastering the traditional ski, Head boasted that he could use metal and aircraft engineering techniques to create a better, lighter, and more efficient ski.

Head bought a band saw for $250 and began designing and building skis in his spare time. His concept was not to simply build a metal ski, as others had tried and failed.

Rather, he was inspired by the metal sandwich construction of the aircraft industry, which was developed during World War II when chemists developed flexible, waterproof adhesives to bond aluminum and plywood.

In 1947, Head started his "Honeycomb" ski project. The name comes from the fact that he envisioned a ski made of two layers of aluminum bonded to plywood sidewalls that encased a core of honeycomb plastic.

In 1968, HEAD founded a tennis division within the company and one year later introduced the first metal tennis racket at the US Open.

In 1969, Howard Head sold his company to AMF and retired shortly thereafter.

From then on, he concentrated on his tennis game, which had barely improved even with a metal racket and numerous lessons. He then developed the first oversized metal tennis racket, revolutionizing a second sport.

Johan Eliasch, who was an avid skier and knew the HEAD brand well, took control of HEAD Sports in 1995. Eliasch acted quickly to continue HTM's track record of success. With a stronger focus on product lines, he directed the company's attention to three areas: winter sports, tennis and diving.

A fourth area, licensing, was added later. As a result of these changes, the company was able to make a profit for the first time in years in 1997. In 1997, HTM introduced the first tennis racket made of titanium and graphite, which was very popular. The company then developed the first computer-controlled tennis racket, called HEAD Intelligence, which used sensors to adjust the necessary power while suppressing about half of all vibrations, thus eliminating the cause of tennis elbow.

In skiing, the new hourglass-shaped skis, which are designed for sharp turns, also found a good market.