Head/Penn

In 1968, HEAD launched a tennis division at the company and a year later introduced the first metal tennis racket at the U.S. Open.

In 1969 Howard Head sold his company to AMF and retired shortly afterwards.

In retirement, he focused on his tennis game, which had shown little improvement even with a metal racket and numerous lessons. He went on to develop the first oversized metal tennis racket, and revolutionizing a second sport.

After Howard Head’s departure, one of the tennis players that HEAD sponsored, Arthur Ashe, won Wimbledon, defeating favoured Jimmy Connors in 1975

Johan Eliasch who is an avid skier and was well aware of the HEAD brand, gained control of the HEAD Sports in 1995. Mr. Eliasch moved quickly to revitalize the fortunes of HTM. With the product lines more focused, he directed the company’s attention into three areas: winter sports, tennis, and scuba diving.

A fourth division, licensing, was subsequently added. As a result of these changes, in 1997 the company was able to post its first profit in years. In 1997, HTM introduced the first tennis racket made of titanium and graphite, which proved highly popular. It then developed the first computerized tennis racket, named HEAD Intelligence, which employed sensors to adjust the necessary power and in the process suppress about half of all vibrations, thus eliminating the cause of tennis elbow.