Tyres Bridgestone

The history of Bridgestone began on the first spring day of 1931 in the Japanese city of Kurume. The company owes its name to its founder, Shojiro Ishibashi, whose name was translated into English as "stone" (ishi) and "bridge" (bashi). Like many other well-known Japanese brands today, this tire manufacturer did not disappear into the annals of history thanks to World War II, which brought it numerous military orders. Japan's defeat in the war created some difficulties, which, nevertheless, made Bridgestone much more resilient than before. After all, it significantly expanded its product range, most of which consisted not of tires, but of rubber products of various purposes.

Diversification of the business, as well as the widespread use of the latest technologies at that time, allowed the company to become the largest tire manufacturer in Japan in the 1950s. The next decade brought the company the development of radial tires for passenger and commercial vehicles, as well as the start of bicycle production under its own brand. In 1967, the first North American branch was opened, which, at that time, when the recent military confrontation between Japan and the United States was still fresh in memory, was an extraordinary event.

In the 1970s, the company continued its progressive development, which consisted of expanding to other markets. In 1972, the first European branch was opened in Belgium. And seven years after this significant event, the technology for recycling car tires into fuel for industrial furnaces was introduced. However, all this was overshadowed by the death of the company's founder, Shojiro Ishibashi, who passed away in 1976.

The 1980s marked the 50th anniversary of the existence of this Japanese company, which by that time had become one of the leaders of the global tire industry. These positions were significantly strengthened in 1988 after the purchase of the second-largest North American tire manufacturer, Firestone. But before that, in 1982, the company introduced the first Japanese winter tire without spikes, for which five years later a widely advertised rubber compound with a microporous structure was developed.

Around the same time, a whole range of other developments was presented, on which the company's current leadership in technologies is based. First and foremost, this is the technology of distributing external pressure for commercial tires and the technology of optimizing rolling resistance for passenger tires. A little later, these and many other technological innovations were combined into the Uni-T technology, which is successfully used in the tire products of this brand today. The debut of this complex of technical solutions took place simultaneously with the presentation of Bridgestone's sports tires for passenger cars, Potenza. Today, this name is used in relation to a whole line of passenger models, numbering several dozen names.

In addition to the passenger direction, the company continued to work on commercial tires. In particular, in the mid-2000s, it acquired Bandag Inc., which specialized in retreading tire treads for commercial vehicles. As a result, the Japanese tire giant gained access to the most advanced technologies in this area, which, along with the brand, were used in its own tire products. The buyers also won, getting access to tires with advanced technical characteristics and a very long service life. This applies equally to both passenger and commercial models.