The history of LONSDALE goes back 131 years, somewhere in 1891 when the 5th Earl of the Kingdom of London organised the first gloves boxing match for the first time...
In 1909 the King donated the first Lonsdale belt to a professional boxer and half a century later sometime in 1959 the veteran boxer Bernard hart has been granted permission by the 7th Earl of the Kingdom to use LONSDALE as the name for a range of boxing equipment and clothing. The brand instantly becomes the number one brand as it was unique because of its heritage and because of hart's expertise in the design and quality of boxing equipment.
A year later in 1960 the first LONSDALE store became a reality in London at 21 beak street and moved 39 years later to 47 beak street to a larger store. Just 3 years later in 1963 world boxing legends such as MUHAMMAD ALI, HENRI COOPER,and SUGAR RAY ROBINSON became LONSDALE representatives in the ring and fought hundreds of fights worldwide wearing the most popular boxing brand's clothing and equipment.
In 1979 PAUL WELLER the leader and singer of JAM wears LONSDALE T-shirts in all his concerts in the world tour where his band did, and so the spread of brand recognition was very fast all over the world, several years later thousands of athletes all over the world and world champions like RICKY HATTON and JOE CALZAGHE started to wear LONSDALE in their games, in their trainings as well as in their exits.
In Greece, the love for LONSDALE starts to grow around 2010 by fans of athletes and members of various music bands, which is why some stores in the center of Athens will carry products of the global brand along with various other global brands where they already had them, but none of them had only LONSDALE products. So 2013 was the year where LONSDALE officially came to Greece with our online store and almost a year later on October 10, 2014 the first physical LONSDALE store opens its doors to the public at 137 Praxitelous Street in the center of Piraeus, as expected the love of the Greeks was evident from the first hours of operation...
Thank you very much!