A Brief Back Ground Connected With Rapala Fishing Lures
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010There 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 lure production was initiated some 60 years ago. The products are clearly crafted from experience and the until now, Rapala has developed progressively winning its name of international brand with a large distribution network and a great position in relation to its competition.
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. As the saying goes ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’, so did Rapala decide to improve his fishing productivity, by developing a better lure. 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.
Rapala company won most of its fame after the Second World War. After the war Rapala revived his small lure making enterprise. In the very beginning, all the Rapala fishing lures were made by the founder himself and later on he involved the members of his family in the process as well. 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.
After the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952, foreign visitors were among the first who took Rapala fishing lures beyond the country’s borders to other countries. Exports began soon afterwards, initially toSweden and Norway and then to the USA. In 1957 the business got formalized and the Rapala and Sons / Rapala-Uistin company was established. Further business exposure was achieved with the publication of a complex article in the pages of Life Magazine in 1962. It was perhaps because the same magazine issue wrote about Marlyn Monroe’s death that Rapala fishing lures increased their popularity in America, even if the quality of the products contributed most to the market impression.
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. The company has defended itself against these copies both by taking legal actions and, more importantly, by continuing the production of consistent high quality equipment that has always made the difference between the original products and the copies.