DUNLOP, A BRAND WITH OVER 100 YEARS OF GLOBAL HISTORY, HAS CREATED MANY MEMORABLE LANDMARKS. HERE ARE JUST A FEW OF THEM.
2009
Dunlop Safety Footwear is launched, a revolutionary new range of protective boots and shoes that draws on the Dunlop heritage of design, innovation and winning performance.
2000
The longest conveyor belt system is supplied to a mine in Selby, Yorkshire. Over 25 km long it carries 3,200 tonnes of coal per hour at a speed of 18 mph. The belt is made by Dunlop.
1988
Steffi Graf wins tennis’s Grand Slam (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open) and Olympic gold, using Dunlop’s 200G racket.
1981
Tennis’s bad boy, John McEnroe wins his first Wimbledon championship, beating Bjorn Borg, using a Dunlop Maxply racket.
1973
Dunlop launches the Denovo, the first tyre that can continue to be used safely after a puncture.
1964
Donald Campbell breaks the world land speed record in 'Bluebird' CN7, achieving 403 mph (649 kph) at the dry salt Lake Eyre, Australia. The wheels and tyres he used, built by Dunlop, were specially designed and crucial to his success.
1963
Jim Clark, driving a Lotus with Dunlop tyres, won the Formula One World Championship.
1960
The first anti-skid braking system for cars appeared in the 1960 Jensen FF. It was a Dunlop system, using the Maxaret technology the company developed for aircraft braking systems.
1952
Dunlop introduces the world to disc brakes, used on Jaguar entries in the 1952 Mille Miglia, then on the C-Type that won the Le Mans in 1953. Dunlop disc brakes are fitted as standard to the Jaguar D-Type and Austin-Healey 100S in 1954.
1939-1945
Dunlop goes to war, producing decoy tanks and artillery pieces in rubber, barrage balloons, tank wheels, six million pairs of rubber boots and Winston Churchill’s war room mattress.
1930
Dunlop develops tennis shoes. By the mid-1930, the Dunlop Green Flash is the dominant shoe for players of all levels. It is still available today.
1929
Dunlop introduces its first tennis racket, which in 1932 leads to the Maxply, which is the dominant racket for the next 50 years.
Dunlopillo is perfected, a latex foam used in pillows, mattresses and upholstery. Today, foam mattresses account for about 40% of the total UK mattress market.
1924
A Bentley, tyres by Dunlop, wins the Le Mans 24 hour race. This partnership also wins in 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930.
1916
Fort Dunlop. Dunlop iconic tyre factory opened in Erdington, a suburb of Birmingham. It employed over 3000 people under one roof and at the time was the world’s biggest factory building.
1909
Dunlop begins producing golf balls. That year Dunlop balls win five of the UK’s leading amateur and professional tournaments.
1887
Dunlop’s son, suffering when riding a solid-tyred tricycle across the bumps and ruts of local roads, inspired Dunlop to wrap the trike’s wheels in thin rubber sheets, glue them together, and inflate them with a football pump - creating the first commercially viable pneumatic tyre.
1840
John Boyd Dunlop, born into a Scottish farming family. Trained as veterinary surgeon he moved to Northern Ireland and established a veterinary practise there.