CCM's Roots

Resilience is a quality that you must have to succeed. It took 100 years of hard work and dedication on the part of every single CCM employee to get to where CCM is today, positioned as the largest hockey equipment manufacturer in the world.

The beginning of hockey is debatable, Montreal, Kingston, Halifax, England and even Holland, but there is no debate over CCM's roots. In September of 1899 Canada Cycle & Motor Company Limited opened its doors for business in Weston, Ontario, Canada.

One hundred years ago the American market for bicycles had become saturated and overly competitive. As a result, American manufacturers looked to the North. As plans were in the works for the American Bicycle Company to open a manufacturing facility in Canada, five major Canadian bicycle manufacturers decided to take action. Massy-Harris, H.A. Lozier, Welland Vale, Goold and Gendron joined forces to combat the American venture and formed Canada Cycle and Motor Company Limited...CCM

By 1905 the market for bicycles in Canada began to decline with market saturation and seasonality playing key roles. Experimentation with importing and the manufacturing of automobiles also did not work out. It is at this point that the sport of ice hockey was growing rapidly and CCM decided to endeavor into the market place with the launch of the CCM Automobile Skate. Within 30 years CCM dominated the hockey skate market with over 90% of all players wearing CCM skates with the remaining percentage being divided amongst seven other manufacturers. In fact, the NHL scoring champions between 1939 and 1969 all wore the world famous Tackaberry hockey boot with CCM Prolite blade.

Today, CCM remains a leader in skate innovation and technological development. CCM has introduced such features as the Heel Wedge, Instapump Skates, Vakutacks. With continued innovation from CCM and strong research and development, we are poised to continue our dominance well into the future.

The Legend of the Tackaberry Boot.
In 1905, a shoemaker from Brandon, Manitoba named George Tackaberry was approached by his neighbor, future Hall-of-Famer Joe Hall, who had a problem. His skates just didn't do the job. Mr. Tackaberry got to work and came up with a custom leather boot featuring a reinforced toe and heel. Little did he know that he had produced the first pair of Legendary Tacks skates.CCM acquired the Tackaberry name upon his death in 1937 and has made it the most recognized skate name in the world today.

CCM & Advertising
Early advertising featured the product and praise about its performance. This much has not changed over the century, with CCM continuing to look for improved methods of exposing the four families of skates and protective equipment. Increasing the exposure of the CCM name has also expanded from print media to radio, TV and now the Internet. The methods may have changed, but the message has always remained the same, CCM means durability and performance.

The use of endorsers may seem like a recent phenomenon, but CCM signed up Hall of Fame legend King Clancy in 1936 as CCM's first official spokesman. Throughout the 20th Century, CCM has been represented by a list of hockey legends including Paul Henderson, Mike Bossy, Marcel Dionne and today by Iron Man Mark Recchi, NHL superstars Joe Thornton and Vincent Lecavalier and Phenom Rookie Alexander Ovechkin.