Bear Archery, started its operations with a small shop in Detroit some 80 + years back, with a name of Bear Products Company. The main line of business for this company was silk screening and other advertising work for the major automotive makers and archery consumed only a small space. It was true that Fred use to make bows for himself and his friends, it wasn t until 1938 when Fred hired a very skilled woodworker from Detroit by the name of Nels Grumley that the Bear Products Company line expanded to include bows.
By 1940 as the archery line had grown to its extreme, Fred sold his part of the advertising business to his partner and continued to pursue his hobby/business as the Bear Archery Company. Despite of touch times, Fred being a very good business man, broom the business in best of its way until they moved from Detroit to a brand new plant which Fred had completed in Grayling in 1947. Fred sold the company in 1968 to Victor Comptometer to raise the needed fund for the growth of the company. Even though he was not the owner any longer, Fred stayed on as President of Bear Archery Company under Victor. The Bear Archery Company flourished in Grayling until 1978 when a strike at the plant forced the owners to move operations to Gainesville, Florida where the company remains today. Fred stayed active with the company that bears his name until his death in 1988 at the age of 86.
After the brief of this company, let s take a look at few of the popular offerings from Bear Archery.
The Bows of Bear Archery
Undoubtedly, Bear Archery Company has produced more traditional bows than all the other traditional bow companies combined. In the year 1975, Bear Archery made over 360,000 bows. With the quality products and the line gelling with the taste of professional Bow hunters these bear bows have been a first choice of hunters and target shooters.
Bear bows were the best marketed bows in the world for more than 50 years. Majority of the US citizens grew up looking at Bear Archery ads and promotions everywhere they turned and many of them grew up with Bear bows in their hands.
The Pre Grayling Era Bows of Bear Archery
Fred Bear’s first bowyer was a remarkable man by the name of Nels Grumley (back in 1938), Nels was a fantastic craftsman, and his skill was seen in each and every one of his bows. The pride in his craftsmanship is demonstrated in that each and every bow that Nels made is either stamped or signed with his name, along with the words Bear Products by Grumley or Bear Archery by Grumley .
In the beginning of 1947, Bear Archery moved into a new plant in Grayling, Michigan. Bow sales began ascending as new archers and bow hunters entered the sport in record numbers (thanks to successful promotions by Fred Bear).
Fred than realized that he would find difficult to cope up with the increase in demand from these new recruits, by making bows one at a time like Bear had been doing since it s inception. So he turned towards method of producing bows in mass, thus fulfilling the demand lapse. But Nels Grumley did not accepted quality of the bows in this sort of production. So Nels left the company to have one of his own.
After Nels departure, Fred brought in another employee named Bob Meeker to supervise the manufacturing of the new bowlines. Bob proved to be a fine bowyer in his own right.
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