Gola (manufacturer)
Gola is a British manufacturer of sports equipment, which mainly manufactures shoes. The model Harrier gained prominence, especially in Europe. The company was founded in 1905 and is one of the oldest sporting goods companies in Britain.
History
The company was founded on 22 May 1905 in Leicester, England. In the early years, primarily manufactured boots and men's shoes, but also rugby and soccer shoes, which were advertised in 1930 with the slogan Gola Means Goals. During the Second World War boots were made for the British forces in the first place. After 1945, Gola returned to a business with soccer shoes and prepared a number of English clubs from. In the 1970s, Alfred Ramsey could be won over to the company's board. Furthermore, different models for the sports tennis, cricket, athletics and rugby have been developed. Due to difficult economic times in the 1980s it gradually changed the market orientation and began the production of lifestyle models for the masses. Since this did not bring the desired success with it, the company was sold to the Jacobson Group, which began to reissue older models and Gola so to miss a retro image, which is underpinned with the Gola Classic Line since 2000.
Known models
In 1968 the model Harrier was introduced, initially served as a sports shoe for volleyball, badminton or squash before it was worn as a fashion cult shoe on the road. In addition to various models of track suits the shoe Chase achieved some popularity especially in continental Europe.
Miscellaneous
For the final of the FA Cup in 1965 played the team of FC Liverpool soccer shoes from Gola, even though they had just completed an equipment contract with Adidas. Order to avoid any legal problems, the shoes were painted with the three characteristic stripes. The Liverpool FC won 2-1 after extra time against Leeds United.
Gola coined since 1968 the term coach for all offered sports shoes, then the word came in 1977 with this meaning in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Gola sponsored from 1984 to 1986, the English Football Conference, which also bore the name Gola League at that time.