Jas. D. Easton, Inc., operating as Easton Archery, is an American

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a Bow and arrow, bow to shooting, shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting ...

equipment company that has existed since 1953. The company was started by James Douglas "Doug" Easton (1907–1972), who had made bows and arrows since 1922, and who in 1932 opened Easton's Archery Shop in Los Angeles. After the creation of the manufacturing company in 1953, Easton grew to become the world's leading archery business and pioneered the use of aluminum in sporting goods. In 1960, Doug's son James L. Easton (1935–2023) joined the business. During the 1960s, the company branched out into ski poles and baseball bats, and in 1969 produced the thermal shroud for the seismometer used in the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...

moon landing. After Doug's death in 1972, Jim became president. In 1985, Easton formed a subsidiary company, Easton Sports, to engage in the team sports industry. Jas. D. Easton remained the owner of Easton Sports until 2006, when the latter was purchased by

Fenway Partners Fenway Partners is an American private equity firm that makes leveraged buyout and growth capital investments in transportation logistics, consumer products, and manufacturing companies in the middle market. In 2002 Fenway acquired the molding e ...

for $400 million. The independent, family owned archery division consists of two companies,

Hoyt Archery Hoyt Archery is an American manufacturer of recurve and compound bows located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Most notable for their competition recurve bows, which are featured prominently in the Olympics; every gold medalist in individual archery at the ...

, Inc. and Easton Technical Products, both located in

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt ...

, USA. The two companies employ approximately 800 people in the manufacture of compound bows, recurve bows, and arrows. Easton arrows have been used to win every

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

title in archery since the restoration of archery to the Olympic program in 1972. Easton Technical Products is also a supplier to the military, medical and outdoor sports industries for high-strength

carbon fiber Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers ( Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon comp ...

and

aluminum alloy An aluminium alloy ( UK/IUPAC) or aluminum alloy ( NA; see spelling differences) is an alloy in which aluminium (Al) is the predominant metal. The typical alloying elements are copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon, tin, nickel and zinc. There ...

tubing. Hoyt and Easton are run as independent divisions of Jas. D. Easton, Inc. Greg Easton is the third generation President of Jas. D. Easton.

History

In 1985, Jas. D. Easton acquired the Curley-Bates Co. and renamed it Easton Sports. The new company manufactured team sports equipment and grew to become a major hockey and baseball company. Easton Sports merged with

-owned Riddell Bell in 2006 to form Easton-Bell, later known as BRG Sports. Jim Easton was named chair of the company, which included the Riddell,

Bell A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...

, and Giro brands. The archery business remained separate. All other Easton brands were divested by BRG in 2014. *Easton Diamond (baseball and softball) is now owned by

Rawlings Rawlings may refer to: *Rawlings (company), a U.S. sports equipment company *Rawlings, Maryland, an unincorporated community in Allegany County, Maryland *Rawlings (surname) Rawlings is an English-language surname. Notable people with the name in ...

. *Easton Hockey is now owned by Peak Achievement Athletics, parent of

Bauer Hockey Bauer Hockey LLC is an American manufacturer of ice hockey equipment, fitness and recreational skates and apparel. Bauer produces helmets, gloves, sticks, skates, shin guards, pants, shoulder pads, elbow pads, hockey jocks and compression under ...

. *Easton Cycling is now owned by Fox Factory.

References

Archery organizations Manufacturing companies based in Salt Lake City Family-owned companies of the United States {{US-manufacturing-company-stub