Wilson

Heritage

Wilson's history starts in Chicago in 1913, when the meatpacking firm Schwarzschild & Sulzberger set up the Ashland Manufacturing Company. In 1915 Thomas E. Wilson became president and the business took the name Thomas E. Wilson Company; it became the Wilson Sporting Goods Company in 1931.

Wilson built its name in American team sports. It became the official football supplier to the NFL in 1941 and supplied the game ball for the Basketball Association of America from 1946, and it returned as official game ball supplier for the NBA and WNBA in 2021.

Tennis became a core business after the Second World War, when Wilson signed Jack Kramer and developed a line of rackets bearing his signature. Later landmarks include the T2000 steel racket used by Jimmy Connors and the Pro Staff, used by Pete Sampras and, in later versions, Roger Federer.

Wilson tennis balls have been used at the US Open since 1979, at the Australian Open from 2006 and at Roland-Garros from 2020.

Ownership changed several times: Ling-Temco-Vought bought Wilson in 1967, PepsiCo owned it from 1970 and Westray Capital from 1985. In 1989 the company merged with Bogey Acquisitions Company, affiliated with Finland's Amer Sports. In 2019 an ANTA Sports-led consortium acquired Amer Sports, which floated on the New York Stock Exchange in February 2024.

Wilson's padel programme began on 21 February 2020, when it signed Argentine Fernando Belasteguín, ranked world No. 1 for 16 consecutive years, to its Advisory Staff. He debuted a blacked-out Wilson racket in March 2020, and the first Wilson x BELA collection was released in limited quantities later that year.

The Bela line developed over several generations. The Bela Pro v2 arrived in December 2022, with Elite, LT, Team and Junior v2 models in February 2023. The Bela v2.5 collection (Pro, Elite, LT) accompanied Belasteguín's final season in 2024, and he ended his professional career in December 2024 with a tribute at the Premier Padel Finals in Barcelona. The third-generation Bela Pro V3 followed for 2025.

In January 2024 Wilson signed a multi-season deal to become the official ball of Premier Padel, developing the Premier Padel and Premier Padel Speed balls with the tour and the International Padel Federation (FIP). Belasteguín helped test both balls.

After Belasteguín's retirement, Wilson rebuilt its playing roster. It signed Momo González in September 2025, with a round-shaped racket developed for him due in early 2026, and Javi Leal in January 2026, who plays the Bela Pro V3 under the Wilson 360 programme (rackets, clothing and footwear). In March 2026 Carrie Ask became President and CEO of Wilson.

In October 2026 the Wilson UK site lists seven padel racket families (Endure, Defy, Bela, Blade, Carbon Force, Accent and Optix), alongside padel balls, bags, shoes and accessories.