Rapala Lures and Tackle

Rapala Lures and Tackle

Lauri Rapala, the founder of the Rapala business, was born into poverty in Finland in 1905. He made his living by farm working and fishing. To make a better living for himself and his family, Lauri started to develop a lure that would increase the productivity of his fishing. In 1936, he finally managed to carve a rough-looking lure that produced an off-centre and enticing wobbling action – the one that is still the basis for many Rapala lures. The story of Rapala lures had begun.

Foreign visitors to the Helsinki Olympic Games of 1952 were amongst the first to take Rapala lures outside Finland. In 1955, the first export sales started to Sweden and Norway and later to the USA. In 1957, the business was formalized and the Rapala-Uistin (Lauri Rapala and Sons) company was established. The successful Rapala lures started to build a good reputation in North America, and in 1959, Ron Weber and Ray Ostrom started to distribute Rapala lures in the USA, a business later to become Normark Corporation. In 1962, Life magazine published a long article on Rapala. It happened to be in the same edition that covered the history of Marilyn Monroe who had just died and it broke all circulation records. Consequently, piles of orders started to pour in necessitating major capacity and production increases.

After Lauri Rapala died in 1974, the company name was changed to Rapala Oy and the eldest son Risto was appointed as President of Rapala while his brothers Esko and Ensio had their own responsibilities. Production methods and technology were further developed and the capacity increased markedly: while a total of 25 million lures were produced during 1936-1975, the total number of manufactured lures reached 100 million in 1988. The range of lures was further widened, the Blue Fox spinner brand was introduced and a manufacturing unit was established in Ireland. During this time, the Group acquired the Flipper boat company and a caravan business.