Goodyear is the most successful tire supplier in Formula One history, with more wins and constructors' championships than any other tire supplier. They pulled out of the sport after the 1998 season. The company is also the sole tire supplier for NASCAR series. Goodyear tires were used on the winning car at the Indianapolis 500 in 1919 and all tires used in the event were supplied by Goodyear in 1975. In 1970, Goodyear produced the first tires on the moon for the Apollo 14 mission. Racing tires from Goodyear were used on more winning stock and sports cars than any other brand in 1962.
Founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling, the company was named after American Charles Goodyear, inventor of vulcanized rubber. The first Goodyear tires became popular because they were easily detachable and required little maintenance. In 1901, Goodyear founder Frank Seiberling provided Henry Ford with racing tires. In 1903, Goodyear president, chairman and CEO Paul Weeks Litchfield was granted a patent for the first tubeless automobile tire. In 1910, the company expanded its manufacturing outside of the United States for the first time by purchasing a rubber factory in Bowmanville, Ontario. By 1930, Goodyear had pioneered what would later become known as "tundra tires" for smaller aircraft. The company acquired its rival Kelly-Springfield Tire in 1935. During World War II, Goodyear manufactured F4U Corsair fighter planes for the U.S. Military. In 1944, Goodyear created a subsidiary in Mexico. Goodyear opened a factory in Lurgan, Northern Ireland in 1967. In 1978, the original Akron plant was converted into a Technical Center for research and design. Goodyear Aerospace, a holding that developed from the Goodyear Aircraft Company after World War II, designed a supercomputer for NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center in 1979. In 1987, Goodyear formed a business partnership with Canadian tire retailer Fountain Tire. In 1994, Goodyear was the first global tire manufacturer to enter China when it invested in a tire manufacturing plant in Dalian. In 2005, Titan Tire purchased the farm tire business of Goodyear under license. In 2011, Goodyear partnered with Zeppelin again to build more zeppelins. In 2018, Goodyear and Bridgestone announced the creation of TireHub, a joint wholesale distribution network across the United States. In February 2021, Goodyear acquired the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company. In July 2024, Goodyear announced the sale of its off-the-road tire business to Yokohama Rubber Company. In January 2025, the firm announced the sale of the Dunlop brand to Sumitomo Rubber Industries.
Goodyear manufactures tires for passenger vehicles, aviation, commercial trucks, military and police vehicles, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, race cars, and heavy off-road machinery. It also licenses the Goodyear brand to bicycle tire manufacturers. The first Goodyear advertising blimp flew in 1925. The Goodyear Blimps are a fleet of airships used mainly for advertising purposes and capturing aerial views of live sporting events for television. Beginning in 2014, Goodyear began retiring their GZ-20 airships and replacing them with the Zeppelin NT.
In 1986, British financier James Goldsmith attempted a takeover of Goodyear. In 2018, Goodyear was ordered to pay $40.1 million to J. Walter Twidwell, who claimed he developed mesothelioma because of exposure to asbestos. In December 2018, Goodyear ceased operations in Venezuela due a lack of materials and rising costs. In February 2015, Goodyear agreed to pay over $16 million to settle Foreign Corrupt Practices Act charges that two of its African subsidiaries allegedly paid bribes. In August 2020, an internal PowerPoint slide on political attire from a Topeka, Kansas, training seminar caused controversy, leading to calls for a boycott of Goodyear tires. Defective tires have been suspected as the cause of multiple truck accidents and fatal injuries in Europe in the 2010s.
Researchers identified Goodyear as a significant corporate producer of air pollution. On February 8, 2008, Goodyear announced the launch of an environmentally friendly tire produced using a cornstarch-based material. On April 22, 2008, Goodyear joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's SmartWay Transport Partnership.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.