Hillerich & Bradsby Hillerich & Bradsby Hillerich & Bradsby Company (H&B) is a company located in Louisville, Kentucky that produces the famous Louisville Slugger baseball bat. The Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory in downtown Louisville features a retrospective of the product and its use throughout baseball history. H&B also makes baseball gloves, golf clubs, golf gloves and other equipment (under the "PowerBilt" brand). In 2015, the company announced plans on March 23 to sell its Louisville Slugger division to sporting goods manufacturer Wilson Sporting Goods. J. F. Hillerich opened his woodworking shop in Louisville in 1855. During the 1880s, Hillerich hired his seventeen-year-old
Hillerich & Bradsby becoming the first baseball player to officially endorse a bat. Frank Bradsby, a salesman, became a partner in , and the company's name changed to Hillerich and Bradsby. By , H&B was selling more bats than any other bat maker in the country, and legends like Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were all using them. During World War II, the company produced wooden rifle stocks and billy clubs for the U.S. Army. In 1954, the company purchased Larimer and Norton, Inc., a Pennsylvania lumber company to ensure a supply of hardwood for their products. In 1976, the company