Founding The company was founded by Benjamin Russell in
Alexander City, Alabama, in 1902. By 1925 long underwear, sweaters, athletic shirts, and women's
bloomers were added to the production of women's vests, making a more complete product line. In 1932 Russell acquired Southern Manufacturing Company, which gave the company access to athletic team apparel, and the company became Russell Southern. This was the beginning of the Russell Athletic division's cutting and sewing operations. Later in 1938, Russell began making
woven athletic garments, including basketball, baseball, and football pants and jackets.
Expansion In 1941, founder Benjamin Russell died on December 16 and the reins of the company were passed to his son Benjamin C. Russell. During
World War II, Russell's 'Athletic' Division sold primarily to the military. Shirts,
drawers, T-shirts, athletic garments, and special outer garments were made for the Army and Navy. Benjamin C. Russell died in 1945 and was succeeded as president by his brother, Thomas D. Russell. After the War, the company embarked on further expansion and development throughout its knitting, weaving, dyeing, finishing, and cutting departments. During the 1960s, the 'Athletic' division was the largest marketer and manufacturer of athletic apparel and uniforms in the country. By 1995, Russell Athletic was the official supplier of team uniforms for 25 of (the then) 28 MLB teams, outfitted more NFL teams than any other company, and was still the largest manufacturer of athletic uniforms in the U.S. Meanwhile, the contract with MLB was extended to 1999 (by which time the league had expanded to 30 teams); after which there was no exclusive uniform supplier to MLB, but continued to supply uniforms to some MLB teams through the end of the 2004 season, when
Majestic Athletic became the exclusive supplier to uniforms to MLB, a partnership which began the next year in 2005 and continued until the end of the 2019 season, when
Nike took over the MLB uniform contract starting in 2020.
Acquisition On April 17, 2006,
Berkshire Hathaway agreed to purchase 100% of Russell. Finally on August 1, 2006, Russell shareholders approved the sale of their firm to
Berkshire Hathaway for $18.00 per share in cash. The acquisition was successfully completed on the following day. Russell's brands joined
Fruit of the Loom in the Berkshire Hathaway family of products. Following their success in Europe, Russell Athletic also operates in other regions of the world including Australia, Japan and South Africa. Russell Athletic has had a team of brand ambassadors representing the brand in their local markets, ranging from Olympic swimmers
Stephanie Rice and
Ellie Faulkner to number of professional
rugby union and
rugby league players in
England and
South Africa such as
Sailosi Tagicakibau,
Cheslin Kolbe,
Shaun Lunt,
Ryan Atkins, and
Stevie Ward and professional health ambassadors and Yoga ambassadors such as Samantha Laura Kaye. In early 2015 Russell Athletic Europe visited one of their factories and filmed the process of the making of a T-shirt.
Refocus and reversal On September 28, 2017, Russell Athletic said it would be exiting the team uniform manufacturing business after 115 years, and the company would be refocused on activewear for the consumer apparel market. The company cited that companies like
Nike,
Adidas, and
Under Armour (which all started making
athletic footwear) starting their own team uniform units, and as a result eating away at Russell's market share in that department was a contributing factor in discontinuing Russell's team uniform manufacturing business. However, the company reversed course shortly after and restarted its uniform manufacturing department, via a partnership with
Georgia-based company, Augusta Sportswear. The agreement had been announced by both companies in June 2018. ==Sponsorships==