A Brief Back Ground Connected With Rapala Fishing Lures
There are numerous manufacturers of fishing equipment, and they produce everything you may need in the branch from lures, hooks, and rods to beginner fly fishing rods. Heddon and Rapala are two names with tradition in this business. And the history of the Rapala company is told by some of the oldest items they produce such as the Rapala fishing lures. The company started the lures production some 60 years ago. Experience and tradition definitely influence the quality of the products and the company’s track record and current unique distribution network, brand portfolio and manufacturing brand gives it a great position for further growth.
Rapala fishing lures came from Finland, originally. Lauri Rapala, the one who founded the business, was born in Finland in 1905 in a poor family, later in life making a buck by working on farms and fishing. The creation of improved lures came from the practical necessity of improving productivity. The prototype for Rapala fishing lures saw daylight in 1936 in the form of a carved lure that caused an off-center and wobbled in the water. This initial model is still the basis for a lot of the Rapala fishing lures.
Lauri Rapala’s business had blossomed just before World War II. We could actually speak of a revival of the small Rapala business. Lauri Rapala made the fishing lures himself at first, but in time, the craft was also learned by some other family members. Since the very first days of the company, high emphasis was put on testing, and all the Rapala fishing lures still have to go through a rigorous quality checking process.
The international episode in the Rapala fishing lures story started after the Olympic Games of Helsinkin, 1952, when foreign visitors took some of the products abroad with them. From this moment, exports started, initially toNorway and Sweden and then to the USA. In 1957 the business got formalized and the Rapala and Sons / Rapala-Uistin company was established. In 1962, Life Magazine published a long article about Rapala products. Maybe the fact that the article appeared in the same magazine issue that wrote about the death of Marilyn Monroe, had something to do with the company’s growing popularity in America; however the quality of its products definitely helped.
The rest of the international market opened a lot more easily after success of Rapala products in the United States, but there appeared lots of imitators too. Legal actions have been taken against unauthorized copying, yet, forged versions still exist; yet, the quality provided by Rapala still remains a good criterion of appreciation that is surely unsurpassed.
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