Today, Prince Sports filed for bankruptcy.
Prince Sports Inc., racket maker for such tennis legends as Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova, filed for bankruptcy protection as it struggles to compete with better-equipped rivals. Prince made its filing Tuesday after reaching a deal to be acquired by Authentic Brands Group LLC. The brand-development firm, which has licensing rights for Marilyn Monroe, recently bought Prince’s debt. – Wall Street Journal By DAVID BENOIT and STEPHANIE GLEASON – CLICK HERE
Prince Sports Inc. sought bankruptcy protection citing as much as $100 million each in assets and debts, and the maker of the first oversize tennis racket plans to change its business model to become more competitive. – Bloomberg – By Danielle Rossingh and Phil Milford – CLICK HERE
More on the Prince Brand and the bankruptcy filing from Steve Tignor (excerpt below) – CLICK HERE
We moved offices at Tennis magazine last week, and as I was clearing out mine, I came across an original Prince Graphite in a pile of racquets. A few of us took turns twirling it and giving it a few shadow swings. The old-style leather grip felt raw but good. There was nothing soft or overly comfortable about it; you knew you had a weapon in your hand. The plain, dark, green-and-gold cosmetic was simple and striking compared to many of the splashier and gaudier color combinations we see today. I was confident that I could take it out on the court and it would play as well as anything made in the last year. The Graphite, used by Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, and Gabriela Sabatini along with many thousands of hackers, was one of the classic mid-80s frames that set the template for what has been made ever since. For all of the various nano-technologies and atomically altered materials of the ensuing decades, it was hard to improve on what Prince created with the Graphite.
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