Every Tire Brand Owned By Goodyear – Jalopnik

As against different empires that started on the heels of spiritual, familial, or geographic conflicts, Goodyear’s was basically sparked accidentally. In 1839, inventor and chemist Charles Goodyear was experimenting with a combination of pure rubber and sulfur when he did one thing all too human — he spilled his concoction on a sizzling range. Though he was possible anticipating some form of deathly chemical catastrophe, the outcome was a versatile, but resistant compound — some may say “rubbery.” He had simply inadvertently invented the method we now know as rubber vulcanization, one of the vital essential discoveries within the improvement of vehicle tires.

Though it would not come into being till round 60 years after Goodyear’s discovery, the model has little question lived as much as that “empire” label ever since. Its merchandise have been sprayed in celebratory champagne from Indianapolis to Le Mans, helped hundreds of thousands journey over the earth’s roadways, and naturally, it has that cool blimp. Truly, it is the Coca-Cola of tire firms.

And similar to that tasty soda, Goodyear’s company palms have touched nearly each nook and cranny of its respective international trade. Curious in case your favourite tire is below the Goodyear umbrella? Well, this is each single model they at the moment personal.

In late nineteenth century Belfast, Ireland, John Boyd Dunlop watched his son experience his tricycle over cobblestone streets, moderately uncomfortably, and determined it might be good for him to have a functioning backbone when he grew up (we’re assuming). After fixing a couple of skinny rubber sleeves to the tricycle’s wheels and filling them with air, Dunlop’s DIY answer turned the primary air-cushioning system on this planet. Eventually, he would patent this concept, earlier than opening his first manufacturing facility in Dublin.

The enterprise rapidly grew, establishing one other plant in Japan, and from there, exploding into different ventures. Dunlop was a pioneering firm by way of the wider-set tires we see at present, and all through the twentieth century, its rubber turned dominant in Formula 1, Rally, and Le Mans, the place it has gained 34 occasions in complete — a file that has but to be been damaged at present.

Today, although it is a title model, Dunlop is a reasonably accessible premium tire choice, with its SP Sport sequence tire being a strong and inexpensive fanatic alternative for efficiency rubber. As far as possession goes, this one’s a bit difficult. In May 2025, Goodyear bought all of its Dunlop branding to Sumitomo Rubber Industries, retaining solely the rights to promote Dunlop bike tires in particular markets. However, Goodyear nonetheless has Dunlop listed amongst its group of manufacturers, so clearly the manufacturers are nonetheless affiliated with one another.

Cooper is not only a dusty outdated tire firm for boomers and their muscle vehicles. In reality, it was nearly as large of a conglomerate as Goodyear itself, being the proprietor of manufacturers like Mickey Thompson, Dick Cepek, Mastercraft tires, Starfire, Avon tires, and Dean. However, after Cooper was acquired by Goodyear in 2021 for $2.8 billion, all of them fell below the identical umbrella.

Cooper was based in 1914 by brothers-in-law John F. Schaefer and Claude E. Hart after they bought two small tire-related companies in Akron, Ohio. After a couple of many years of enterprise, the Cooper title debuted, impressed by one in all their firm administrators, Ira J. Cooper. The center of the twentieth century was extremely formative for the model, because the transfer from bias-ply to radial tires was starting to take form in America by the Seventies. The interval earlier than and after this shift cemented Cooper as a power of innovation and improvement with merchandise just like the polyester and fiberglass-corded 70 Series tires from the Sixties, and the long-lasting Cooper Cobra Radial G/T efficiency tire from the mid-Eighties.

Despite Cooper’s at the moment large scale of operations, they are not sellouts. For most of its historical past, Cooper bought and distributed solely by way of unbiased mother and pop retailers — another reason why of us nonetheless swear by the model’s merchandise after greater than 100 years. As an added bonus, that is additionally one of many few firms that also make tires in America. 

Numerous model names are linked to people who based or impressed them, however none are fairly as blood-bonded as Mickey Thompson. Thompson’s contributions to hotrodding are incalculable, and since it might take a complete library to encapsulate his accomplishments, listed below are a couple of notables: Designing and constructing the primary slingshot-style dragster within the early Fifties, breaking the land velocity file at Bonneville in 1960 at 406.6 mph (he additionally reclaimed many velocity information beforehand held by the Nazis), profitable the 1968 NHRA Spring Nationals within the Funny Car class, profitable the Baja 1000 at age 54, and posthumously being inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2009.

Though specifics aren’t obtainable, he apparently as soon as did an IQ check that reportedly categorized him as almost a genius. Unsurprising, contemplating he bought his begin in enterprise making his personal prototype velocity components, testing them at races, after which promoting them in the event that they labored effectively sufficient. His firm turned a mainstay in drag and circuit racing tradition nearly instantly, and it continues to construct high-quality, purpose-built road and strip tires at present.

Devastatingly, Thompson was murdered in 1988 alongside his spouse Trudy over a enterprise battle, the orchestrators of which would not be convicted till 2007. We select to imagine he’d be proud to see his life’s work owned by Cooper, and by proxy, Goodyear.

It will not be as recognizable as Cooper or Mickey Thompson, however Mastercraft Tires really predates all of them. Founded in 1909, this model is among the many oldest on this planet, and bought its begin in none apart from the rubber capital of America, Ohio — the identical place the place Cooper and Goodyear started. Early on, Mastercraft (known as Falls on the time) was within the thick of the Ford Model A reputation, which, as one might think about, was a demanding enterprise (the Model A was one of the vital in style vehicles in America within the late Twenties and early Nineteen Thirties).

Consequently, Mastercraft’s operations caught the attention of companies trying to develop, and guess who they bought in mattress with? Surprise, it is Cooper Tires, child. The Falls model title was dropped within the Nineteen Nineties and changed with the “Mastercraft” moniker we check with it at present. Just like Mickey Thompson, Mastercraft was not directly purchased by Goodyear in its large 2021 acquisition of Cooper Tires.

In 2025, Mastercraft is aware of precisely what it’s. It’s evident that working individuals are on the core of the model’s demographic, focusing solely on tires made for powerful climate and lengthy commutes that demand sturdy rubber. It would not even promote a summer season tire — solely all-season and winter merchandise.

Mastercraft’s long-standing observe file is spectacular, however Kelley had already been within the tire enterprise for 15 years when it first confirmed up in Ohio. In reality, Kelley is the only oldest American-made tire model in existence, and celebrated its one hundred and thirtieth anniversary in 2024. Founder Edwin Kelley is rightfully credited with beginning this firm, although its fast rise in success and eventual save from Great Depression floundering could possibly be attributed to his enterprise associate, Arthur Grant.

Grant was behind one of the vital technologically superior carriage tire designs ever drafted, the blueprints of which ended up being not only a level of pleasure for Kelley’s model, but additionally a leveraging device. Many different rubber and tire firms tried to emulate Grant’s tire, however alas, nothing is kind of like the unique. Dozens of those producers threw within the towel and bought the rights to construct Grant’s patented know-how. The most notable amongst them? Goodyear.

Fast ahead about 30 years, and Kelley was in bother. During the Great Depression, the enterprise shed greater than half of its gross sales in simply 5 years. Fortunately, in its last sink-or-swim second, a person named Edmund Burke got here in and reorganized, earlier than finally promoting the corporate to Goodyear in ’35. Since then, Kelley has been a trusty alternative within the conglomerate’s mid-tier phase, that includes largely all-season and all-terrain rubber with distinctive tread patterns and revolutionary know-how within the street noise and effectivity division.

Roadmaster existed in an extremely quiet nook of Cooper Tires’ holdings for years earlier than it bought known as as much as the large leagues, so to talk. Its title had been seldom utilized in any of Cooper’s public merchandise, although Department of Transportation registries affirm its existence as a functioning subsidiary below Cooper previous to its rebrand in 2007.

That very yr marked a transition that might see Cooper part out its personal transport tires, handing the reins of business truck tires over to Roadmaster, which might dedicate its total model to the phase. Safe to say, Roadmaster hit the bottom operating. Immediately, it debuted 4 new long-haul tires, and by 2010, it was an early adopter of the federal government’s SmartWay program, which laid out particular targets for transport tires to lower rolling resistance and enhance gas effectivity.

In the next years, Roadmaster has grown considerably, to the purpose the place they provide industrial tires for almost any software you can consider, together with use by totally different sorts of semi-truck, inter-regional supply, bus and public transportation, and different mixed-service automobiles. Now, except you are a trucker, it is possible you’ve got by no means interacted with a single Roadmaster product, however should you’ve ordered one thing on-line, purchased an merchandise from the grocery retailer, or bought actually any bodily product that must be transported, odds are a Roadmaster tire has been concerned a couple of occasions.

We’ve all been momentary connoisseurs of low-cost tires in some unspecified time in the future, and there is a good likelihood you got here throughout Starfire throughout your search. The model itself would not deliver a ton of historical past with it, however as a result of it was conceptualized as a Cooper Tire subsidiary from the beginning, one may say it inherited the data and historical past of its mum or dad.

Starfire was launched by Cooper in 1994, and at its core, it operates as a price range model delivering a spread of all-season tires for passenger automobiles. The affordability of its tires is a large pull for Starfire, however with the character of decrease prices comes barely much less strong warranties on most of its merchandise (about 50,000 miles). Still, Starfire is not pushing a conflicting picture. It has a selected market, low costs, and respectable high quality for the worth.

On one other be aware, it is in all probability time to say that Starfire is one in all 5 Goodyear manufacturers which might be solely bought within the Americas (the others embrace Roadmaster, Mastercraft, Kelley, and Mickey Thompson). Goodyear, Cooper, and Dunlop are the company’s solely international tire manufacturers, and those we’ve got but to cowl make up Goodyear’s EMEA-only market (Europe, Middle East, Africa).

Researching Sava makes you’re feeling like Sherlock Holmes. This Slovenian model is fascinating in a number of methods, however none greater than its seemingly nonexistent merchandise. Its web site advertises a couple of tires on the house web page, however really discovering them is one other story. If you need a Sava tire, worldwide third-party web sites may be the very best avenue, however that is in addition to the purpose, and solely the tip of the iceberg.

Sava sprouted from an organization known as Atlanta again in 1920, and produced tires and different rubber merchandise all through the rest of the twentieth century. In 1998, Goodyear bought a majority stake in Sava’s tire and rubber manufacturing, and by 2004, it might find yourself buying the remaining portion of the Sava firm. In 2011, Sava was absolutely built-in into Goodyear Dunlop’s Europe group.

Why put a lot effort into this Eastern European tire maker? Well, what Goodyear was actually after was its powerhouse of a manufacturing facility. The Kranj plant, named after the Slovenian city the place it is situated, was the pearl in Sava’s oyster, producing greater than 130 million tires from the Fifties to the 2020s, and receiving over $300 million in improvement funding from Goodyear, which then spent a further $107 million in a 2018 growth. By now, it is evident that the sport plan was all the time about maximizing Goodyear’s European manufacturing.

Germany has a temperate local weather and like many locations within the U.S., it experiences extremes on both facet of the seasonal spectrum. That’s one of many foremost explanation why Fulda is so darn good at designing tires. Founded in 1900 and named after the city through which it resided, Fulda started by making merchandise for carriages. It wasn’t till 1906 that it entered the motorcar tire enterprise, and as soon as the primary World War got here to a detailed, it ditched technical rubber merchandise for good.

Fulda entered new markets like clockwork; it appeared with each decade, the model would ship in style options for a brand new want, whether or not that was cushioning tires for bicycles within the Twenties, clean luxurious automotive tires within the Nineteen Thirties, mud and snow-optimized merchandise within the Fifties, or passenger automotive tires within the ’60s. It was purchased by Goodyear in 1966, but it surely did not cease transferring ahead, as by the Seventies they’d one of the vital in style low-profile, high-performance tires available on the market.

Perhaps most spectacular, although, is Fulda’s contributions to the European tire grading/labeling system. It labored side-by-side with the union to develop the A by way of E labels that determine ranges of moist grip, rolling resistance, and different components — all of that are featured on each single European tire at present. Fun reality: Fulda was the corporate that commissioned the one-off Maybach Exelero in 2003 as a testing train for its tires.

Debica was based in 1937 and opened its first plant in 1939 within the Polish city of the identical title. If that seems like dangerous timing to you, you would be proper. Almost instantly following the beginning of enterprise operations, the Second World War put the lid on it, halting manufacturing and improvement for a number of years earlier than Debica might try to regain its momentum. But regain it, it did. 

Over the following a number of many years, Debica’s manufacturing facility advanced to facilitate its automotive, van, and truck tire operations, finally changing into one of the vital trendy and superior tire vegetation not simply in Europe, however the whole world. In 1996, Debica had carried out sufficient to garner the eye of Goodyear’s empire, and shortly, it had a brand new majority proprietor. The stake Goodyear purchased was price $55 million within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, and over the following decade, it might make investments greater than 3 times that a lot into Debica’s plant and operations ($170 million by 2005).

At its now bustling plant, Debica produces not simply its personal tires, but additionally Goodyear, Fulda, and Dunlop merchandise as effectively. Over the final 10 years or so, Debica has expanded its scope to provide high-performance tires for the aforementioned manufacturers it serves on the plant, and has been the OEM tire for a number of producers, together with Ford, Volkswagen, Renault, Opel, and Peugeot.

Along the Avon River close to Bristol, England in 1885, J.C. Mugnussen and E.G. Browne bought a small, withering textile mill, and rapidly bought it operating once more, this time, as a rubber operation. It began with bicycle tires and rubber components for rail vehicles, however since then, Avon has carried out nearly every little thing below the solar – and we imply ‘every little thing.’.

Avon constructed rubber merchandise and gun-towing vehicle tires for the army effort within the United Kingdom throughout WWI, and manufactured hundreds of thousands of gasoline masks throughout WWII whereas concurrently changing into Rolls-Royce’s OEM tire producer. It additionally made golf balls, soccer balls, and the world’s first stitchless tennis ball. Though it wasn’t happy with typical sports activities for very lengthy, as within the late Fifties and early Sixties, it might produce the profitable tire for each bike driver’s championship six years in a row.

When two wheels weren’t sufficient, Avon set its sights on 4 wheels, and subsequently carried Carroll Shelby to his 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans victory with Aston Martin utilizing Avon tires. And in some way, it nonetheless wasn’t carried out. Avon continued by way of the twentieth century with much more ventures, dabbling in medical provides and even physique armor for the protection sector. Finally, in 1997, Cooper Tires bought the tire facet of Avon’s enterprise, and now finds itself as Goodyear’s foremost bike tire model.

Don’t fear, we did not overlook the king. Charles Goodyear (the man who spilled his stuff on a range) might have his title on the constructing, however he was solely the inspiration for the corporate. Its true founders had been brothers Frank and Charlie Seiberling, who purchased two factories in Akron, Ohio in 1898. Some of the corporate’s first merchandise had been poker chips, horseshoe pads, and naturally, rubber tires.

In a brief couple of many years, Goodyear would start specializing in vehicle merchandise, create the primary tubeless tire, and turn into the most important tire enterprise on Earth. Around the identical time, circa 1929, Goodyear launched the primary of its iconic blimps, one in all which was christened by Amelia Earhart herself.

Now, everyone seems to be aware of the motorsport prowess Goodyear has garnered at world-class sequence like Le Mans, IndyCar, and Nascar, however you will not be as acquainted with its area program. Yep, Goodyear designed, developed, and manufactured every little thing from steerage programs to satellites (and even an inflatable airplane) to help throughout the area race years. It even created the very first computerized search engine in historical past. The relaxation? Well, that is every little thing you’ve got learn up till now. It’s acquired 11 different large manufacturers and continues to be a driving power within the tire trade, all the time flying below its iconic winged foot of Mercury.