When did Shakespeare Company discontinue making archery equipment?

Answer 1

In 1959 Shakespeare picked up Parabow Archery Inc. and began the Shakespeare line of archery equipment. They produced solid fiberglass longbow and recurves. The style of these bow were simple and they were often the first bow of a youngster. In 1959, along with the Parabow line, Shakespeare introduced the 100 through 300 series of recurves. They had leather wrapped grips, and if right handed, had the name of RH-100, 200, 300, etc. If left handed, they of course were LH-100 and so on. . In 1961, the leather grip was dropped, and the bows took on a more sleek Ernie Root design

In 1967 Shakespeare acquired Root Archery. Root Archery had been a supplier to Shakespeare for a number of years. Ernie Root made his bows, from the early 50's to the late 60's or early 70's in Grand Rapids, MI. Around the late 60's he sold a number of his designs to Shakespeare, who slimmed them down and renamed them. For example: The Root Warrior became the Necedah in 1964 as a 55"bow, and The Brush Master became the Kaibab, the Field Master became the Ocala. The first bows of this type bore the name "Root, by Shakespeare". Shortly afterwards Ernie Root went to work for Shakespeare, and the Root name was dropped completely but his design influence would continue. After the sale of the company to Shakespeare, Ernie devoted his time to developing the metal riser take-down (Golden Eagle) with Phil Grable (Owen Jeffery later took over the design of the bow with Jeffery Archery)

Owen Jeffery, an inventive and talented bowyer was hire as President of Shakespeare Archery to revitalize the brand. Before He came to Shakespeare he was Master Bowyer and a Vice-President at Bear Archery. He brought Shakespeare's Archery operation in Columbia South Carolina. Later he began Jeffery Archery around 1975. Shakespeare, Bear, and Pearson were the three most widely sold brands in the country. They built and sold a lot of bows throughout the sixties and specialized in solid performers for reasonable prices. Shakespeare closed the line of archery equipment in 1976. Shakespeare's Archery division was only part of the Shakespeare Corporation and they decided to get out of the archery field when it became apparent that the market was headed to the development of the compound bow. They never produced compounds but did create prototypes.