The Pride Golf Tee Story
It all started in Tampa, Florida, in 1930...
...when the father and son team of Fletcher and Gene Pride founded the Pride Manufacturing Company for the purpose of manufacturing wooden mouthpieces for Hav-a-Tampa Jewel Cigars. The patented cigar tip was a huge success. The Pride family continued to operate the Tampa, Florida facility until 1956, when a decision was made to move the operation to Guilford, Maine, to be closer to the source of raw materials. Soon after its move to Maine, the company began producing golf tees as its second product, and Pride Golf Tee Company was born.
Today, Pride Golf Tee is the world’s largest manufacturer of wooden golf tees, thanks to a state-of-the-art technology that enables the company to produce billions of tees per year. However, despite more than 70 years of dedication to the quality of the wooden golf tee, Pride has continually faced opposition from plastic versions as well as mass molded wood imitations. Some even claim to be biodegradable. Unfortunately, these competitive products have fallen far short of the quality and performance benefits of the Pride Golf Tee.
To compliment its world dominant golf tee business, in January of 2003, Pride Manufacturing, LLC announced the acquisition of Softspikes, Inc., and its sister company Trisport, Ltd. of England. This acquisition essentially formed the world’s premier golf accessories company, as Pride and Softspikes were the world’s leading golf tee and golf cleat companies, respectively.
Today, the new entity goes by the name of PrideSports and encompasses the Pride Golf Tee®, Softspikes® and Fast-Twist® Insert System brand, and is the world leader in the design and manufacturer of cleats, spikes and receptacles for the entire golf industry. Headquartered in Brentwood, TN with offices across America, Europe and Asia, PrideSports provides traction elements and retention systems to athletic footwear manufacturers around the globe as well providing its CHAMP® and Softspikes® branded products to retail channels worldwide - maintaining a preeminent position within golf, soccer, baseball, football and other sports. In addition, the company provides a full line of golf accessories and is the largest producer and distributor of golf tees in the world, with brands including Pride Golf Tee®, Pride Professional Tee System® (PTS) and Zarma Fly Tee®.