Russell Athletic History

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The Company Description of Its Time

Russell Athletic - the Russell Manufacturing Company - was founded in 1902 by Benjamin Russell in Alexander City, Alabama, and its legacy claim is one of the strongest in American apparel: the invention of the sweatshirt, and outfitting great athletes for generations. The historical record mill produced women's undershirts and children's undergarments at a beginning capacity of 150 garments daily. By the 1910s Russell Manufacturing was an established business; by 1925 long underwear, sweaters, athletic shirts and women's bloomers had joined the line. The turn toward teams came in 1932, when Russell acquired Southern Manufacturing Company and with it access to athletic team apparel - the beginning of the Russell Athletic division's cutting and sewing operations - and in 1938 the company began making woven athletic garments, including basketball, baseball and football pants and jackets.

The Baseball Contract and the Berkshire Purchase

In 1992 Russell Athletic signed a five-year contract as the exclusive producer and marketer of athletic uniforms for most Major League Baseball teams, with the exclusive right to manufacture and market replicas of major league uniforms, T-shirts and shorts; the deal was extended to 1999, and Russell continued supplying some teams through the end of the 2004 season, when Majestic Athletic became the exclusive uniform supplier. On April 17, 2006, Berkshire Hathaway agreed to purchase 100 per cent of Russell Corporation, completing the acquisition in August 2006; Russell's brands joined Fruit of the Loom, Inc. in the Berkshire Hathaway family, where Russell Athletic remains today - a brand of Fruit of the Loom, making performance wear and everyday athletic classics, still trading on the sweatshirt legacy and on more than a century of supplying America's athletes and teams at high school, college and professional levels.

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