What Is Wilson?
Wilson started in 1913 as a Chicago by-products company and now supplies the NFL and NBA game balls. Its tennis business is booming inside Amer Sports, and its Kith rackets resell at two to nearly three times retail. Here is the story, the prices and the numbers.
Most sportswear brands borrow credibility from athletes. Wilson has spent a century supplying the equipment those athletes actually play with: the football in every NFL game, the ball in every NBA arena, the rackets on the biggest tennis courts. That credibility is what makes its fashion collaborations, especially with Kith, land.
The story
Wilson was founded in 1913 as the Ashland Manufacturing Company, according to Wikipedia and company histories, a Chicago business set up to use animal by-products from the slaughterhouses of a meat-packing parent. It made tennis strings, violin strings and surgical sutures before moving into sports equipment. It took the Wilson Sporting Goods name in 1931, in honor of Thomas E. Wilson.
Two product decisions did the rest. The Wilson Duke football was adopted as the official ball of the National Football League in 1941, a partnership that continues today. Decades later Wilson also became the official game ball of the NBA and WNBA, starting with the 2021 to 2022 season after more than 30 years with a rival supplier.
- 1913Founded in Chicago as the Ashland Manufacturing Company.
- 1931Renamed Wilson Sporting Goods Company.
- 1941The Wilson Duke becomes the NFL’s official ball.
- 1989Becomes a subsidiary of Finland’s Amer Group, now Amer Sports.
- 2019Amer Sports comes under the control of China’s Anta Sports.
- 2021 to 2022Official game ball of the NBA and WNBA.
- June 20, 2025Kith for Wilson 2025 collection.
- August 18, 2026Amer Sports reports Q2: Ball & Racquet up 24%.
- November 17, 2026Amer Sports scheduled to report Q3 results.
Who owns Wilson
Wilson is a subsidiary of Amer Sports (NYSE: AS), whose other brands include Arc’teryx, Salomon, Peak Performance and Atomic, per its own press materials. Wikipedia lists Anta Sports as the group’s controlling shareholder. Wilson’s results are reported as the Ball & Racquet Sports segment, which also covers its baseball, golf, basketball and football categories, so it is not a Wilson-only number.
The Kith collaboration
The Kith for Wilson 2025 collection, titled “Quiet Please,” dropped on June 20, 2025, and The Second Serve calls it the pair’s third collaboration. Earlier projects included a 2021 apparel and balls capsule and tennis-court restorations in New York, Paris and the Yardley Tennis Club in Birmingham. The headline pieces are three co-branded rackets: the Pro Staff 97L V14, the Blade 98 16x19 V9 and the Shift 99 V1, plus balls, racket covers, bags and apparel.
Rackets
Pro Staff 97L V14, Blade 98 16x19 V9 and Shift 99 V1, each listed at $260 on StockX.
Balls and covers
Two-color ball 3-packs listed at $10 and retro racket covers at $45 on StockX.
Bags
Leather racket bags, backpacks and totes; Kith’s Canadian store lists a Showmen leather bag at CAD 535.
Apparel
On- and off-court clothing; the 2021 capsule had a vintage tee at $70 and a tennis sweater at $170.
Prices do not agree everywhere. StockX shows $260 retail for each racket, while a Kith store page lists the Shift 99 at $300 in US dollars and the Pro Staff 97L at CAD 355. I could not confirm which is the original US launch price, so treat $260 as the StockX figure.
Price chart: Kith x Wilson rackets, retail vs resale
StockX retail price against the 3-month average sale price, in US dollars. Full bar equals $800.
Source: StockX product pages, November 2026. The premiums are my calculation from those averages. 12-month ranges: Blade 98 $428 to $1,366; Pro Staff $374 to $798; Shift 99 $318 to $549. Only 4 to 16 sales per racket in the last 3 months, so these are thin markets.
From the Wilson US store
Prices as listed on wilson.com/en-us on November 8. The racket in the banner above, the Blade 98 16x19 V10, was $299. This is Wilson’s own range, not the Kith collaboration.
Where to buy
| Channel | What you get | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| wilson.com | Rackets, balls, apparel, footwear | The brand’s own site |
| Dick’s Sporting Goods and other sports retailers | Tennis 360 ranges | Tennis 360 expanded from 250 to 450 Dick’s stores in 2026 (SGI Europe) |
| kith.com | Kith for Wilson pieces | The 2025 range may be sold out; check the collection page |
| StockX and other resale marketplaces | Sold-out Kith pieces | Prices run well above retail |
Rackets are easy to fake and easy to damage, so buy from Wilson, a sports retailer or Kith. On resale, check the style code against the product page: StockX lists WR200610F for the Blade 98, WR200510F for the Pro Staff 97L and WR200410F for the Shift 99. I found no official authentication guide.
Chart: Ball & Racquet Sports in 2026
Revenue growth versus the same quarter of 2025. Full bar equals 30%.
Constant-currency growth was 10% in Q1 and 23% in Q2. Source: Amer Sports filings.
Chart: how Amer Sports segments grew in Q2 2026
Revenue growth versus Q2 2025. Full bar equals 40%.
Group revenue rose 32% to $1,633 million. Source: Amer Sports Q2 2026 results, August 18, 2026.
What the numbers say
| Item | Figure | Source and scope |
|---|---|---|
| Ball & Racquet revenue, 2025 | About $1,307 million, up 13% | Segment, not Wilson alone |
| Ball & Racquet margin, Q1 2026 | 3.6%, down 370 basis points | Higher advertising and selling costs (Amer Sports) |
| Ball & Racquet adjusted margin, Q2 2026 | 17.2% | As reported by SGI Europe |
| Ball & Racquet full-year 2026 guidance | About 14% revenue growth, 6.7% to 7.2% margin | Amer Sports guidance, August 2026 |
| Implied 2026 segment revenue | About $1.49 billion | My arithmetic: $1,307M x 1.14 |
| Owned stores, June 2026 | 97, up from 63 a year earlier | Wilson row in the segment table |
| Group Q3 2026 outlook | Revenue up 20% to 22% | Raised from 18% to 20% (FashionNetwork) |
The pattern is a business turning from a slow, expensive Q1 into a strong Q2, helped by new rackets and a bigger Dick’s presence. Amer Sports reports Q3 on November 17, so these figures will move. This is not investment advice, and the figures say nothing about how Wilson’s fashion collaborations alone perform.
How it compares
| Label | Parent | Q2 2026 growth | Our guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wilson | Amer Sports | Ball & Racquet +24% | This guide |
| Arc’teryx | Amer Sports | Technical Apparel +32% (segment) | Arc’teryx guide |
| Kith | Independent | Not reported | Kith guide |
| Woolrich | BasicNet (Europe) | Group revenue +21.6%, 9 months | Woolrich guide |
Questions
What is Wilson?
A Chicago sporting-goods brand founded in 1913, known for the NFL and NBA game balls and tennis rackets.
Who owns Wilson?
Amer Sports, which has owned it since 1989 and is itself controlled by Anta Sports.
What is the Kith x Wilson collaboration?
A series of tennis collections, the latest on June 20, 2025, with three co-branded rackets, balls, covers, bags and apparel.
How much do the Kith x Wilson rackets cost?
StockX lists $260 retail; Kith pages show $300 in US dollars for one racket. On resale, 3-month averages were $469 to $717.
How is Wilson doing financially?
Its segment grew 13% in Q1 2026 and 24% in Q2. Wilson has no separate published results.
When are the next results?
Amer Sports reports Q3 2026 on November 17, 2026.
Janet Arklis
Janet Arklis is a fashion writer at Street Iconic. She covers streetwear brands, designer collaborations, sneaker culture and Japanese fashion, with a focus on how a label’s history, ownership and design choices shape what ends up on the rack. Her guides trace where a brand came from, what it sells and what it costs, and she flags anything she could not verify.
Research support: AI tools working from public sources. Sources are listed at the end of every guide.
Keep reading
Kith
The New York retailer behind the Wilson collaboration.
Arc’teryx
Wilson’s sister brand inside Amer Sports.
Woolrich
An American heritage brand now run from Turin.
All brand guides
Browse every Street Iconic brand explainer.
Sources
- Wilson US store
- Amer Sports: Q2 2026 results (SEC)
- Amer Sports: Q2 2026 segment discussion (SEC)
- Amer Sports: Q1 2026 results (SEC)
- SGI Europe: Amer Sports lifts 2026 guidance
- FashionNetwork: Amer Sports raises Q3 outlook
- Morningstar: Q3 results date
- Wikipedia: Wilson Sporting Goods
- StockX: Kith x Wilson Blade 98
- StockX: Kith x Wilson Pro Staff 97L
- StockX: Kith x Wilson Shift 99
- Kith: Kith for Wilson 2025 equipment
- Hypebeast: Kith x Wilson summer 2025
- The Second Serve: Kith and Wilson’s third collaboration
Street Iconic is independent and not affiliated with Wilson, Amer Sports or Kith. Prices change; figures were checked in November 2026. Financial figures are for information only, not investment advice. Product images are from the Wilson US store. See our Disclaimer and Affiliate Disclosure.
