Yonex is a Japanese sports equipment manufacturing company. Yonex was founded by Minoru Yoneyama in 1946.
Yonex manufactures sports equipment and apparel for badminton, tennis, golf and running. Now Yonex products have spread to various countries in the world.
History
Minoru Yoneyama is a maker of wooden floats for fishing nets. His woodworking business is growing rapidly. But the presence of plastic buoys as a result of technological advances forced the company to go out of business.
In 1946, just after the end of World War II, he founded the Yoneyama Company, Ltd. Not wanting his past to repeat itself, he vows to never be behind on technology and is committed to continuing to innovate in future endeavours.
In 1957, Yoneyama Company expanded into badminton racket manufacturing as the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for the Sanbata racket brand. However, it only lasted four years as Sanbata went bankrupt in 1961.
At that time Yoneyama was faced with two choices: accept and no badminton or continue to develop his own brand. He chose the courage to continue.
Another problem befell Minoru Yoneyama. In 1963 Yoneyama Manufacturing Headquarters caught fire. Yoneyama didn’t give up. In the midst of this difficult situation, he founded Yoneyama Sports Co., Ltd to manufacture Yoneyama branded rackets.
Yoneyama only took three days to rebuild the factory. He also expanded his business to the United States and Europe. Today, Yonex products have spread to various parts of the world and become one of the leading players in the industry.
Important timelines
- 1965: Yoneyama Factory in Tokyo began making shuttlecocks.
- 1968: Yonex developed the world’s first T-Joint, which produced Japan’s first aluminium badminton racket.
- 1969: Yonex entered the Tennis industry by manufacturing the T-7000 aluminium racket.
- 1973: The “YY Yoneyama” logo was introduced.
- 1978: The first badminton racket weighing under 100 grams was introduced, under the name B-8500 and Carbonex 8.
- 1980: Yonex introduced Isometric, the iconic box-shaped racket technology.
- 1998: Yonex changed its logo to the current YY Yonex logo.