CCM Ribcor 86K SR Ice Skates

CCM is a Canadian hockey skates and gear manufacturer with history dating back to end of XIX century. It may be a surprise to many, but at the very beginning, the company has been focused on making bicycles and ...auto-mobiles. Company’s story is rich and full of unexpected turns of events, some of which can make you scratch your head wondering how it even survived up to this day. CCM stands for Canada Cycle and Motor Co.

By the end of XIX and beginning of XX centuries, bicycle market has became pretty saturated, pushing four smaller manufacturers in to consolidation under CCM banner. Because bicycles were no longer sold in high numbers, the company has started to make auto-mobiles, seeing that they were still pretty primitive and didn’t require much of investment in new production line machines. The Russel Motor brand was born, but in less than decade from releasing their first car, it has went its own way as a separate legal entity.

CCM was left with stockpile of raw materials (and scrap metal) from production of bicycles and cars, as well as no feasible way to put these resources in use for further production. Hockey skates and other equipment weren’t really a high tech gear back then, so owners turned their attention towards the most Canadian of all sports. After all, they had plenty of steel, leather and wood.

Another pivotal point was acquisition of hockey boot patent for a design created by boot manufacturer George Tackaberry. His boots were highly popular among professional hockey players. When George passed away, his wife sold the patent right to CCM and this is how flagship line of skates called TACKS was made.

Further down the line, the company went bankrupt, got bought out, changed owners multiple times, worked in toy manufacturing industry for a while, been acquired by Rebook and in turn, Adidas, only to be sold once again back in 2017. That is some turbulent history, but one thing remains consistent – CCM is one of the best and biggest hockey gear manufacturers in the world. In reality, there is only one company that can trade blows with it – Bauer, of course.