What's the most essential thing we've learned in more than 30 years of working in loud environments? To block out the noise and listen to what's important. By listening, we've heard some things loud and clear.
Every environment offers unique challenges.
Howard Leight® leads the industry by offering the most choices of in-ear hearing protection. And as the leader in innovation, only Howard Leight is continually developing new designs, materials and technologies that take comfort and protection to the next level.
From our beginnings as a one-man operation over 30 years ago, the Howard Leight brand has grown into one of the largest global manufacturers of hearing protectors in the industrial market, as well as the shooting sports, health & beauty care, hardware and automotive consumer markets. Howard Leight is recognized as an innovator in protection and people-oriented fit. Howard Leight, the premium brand of Sperian hearing protection offers the widest variety of earplugs ranging from our single-use earplug with the highest attenuation rating, to SmartFit's® Conforming Material Technology™, delivering a more personalized fit and raising the bar for innovative design, performance and comfort.
The History of Sperian Protection
In August 2007, Bacou-Dalloz was renamed Sperian Protection. With this corporate name change, we became a more unified company. We have consolidated a wide variety of safety brand names under the Sperian name. Although most of our product lines now carry the Sperian brand name, we have maintained three power brands; Howard Leight, Uvex and Miller Fall Protection since they are leading brands in their respective market segments. Even though the name has changed, the commitment to high quality safety products has not changed.
Our Roots
Christian Dalloz
The Christian Dalloz group was created in France in 1957 by Christian Dalloz to manufacture industrial components produced using injection-molded plastics. By 1980, the Group had become a leader among producers of polycarbonate injection-molded eyewear.
The company Christian Dalloz S.A. was introduced on the stock market in 1986. The same year, it entered the North American market and, in 1989, acquired the WGM Safety Corp., a manufacturer of fall protection and head protection equipment which also distributed eye protection equipment in the United States.
After the death of its founder in 1991, the group pursued its worldwide growth in the head protection industry through the acquisition of several companies: the Swedish company Bilsom (hearing) in 1994, the British companies Pulsafe (eye and face) and Troll (fall protection) in 1996, the French company Komet (fall protection) in 1997, the Australian company Moxham (fall protection) in 1998, the US company Fendall (portable emergency eye-wash equipment) as well as the German company Söll in Germany (fall protection) in the year 2000.
Bacou
The Bacou group was founded by Henri Bacou in 1974, initially as a manufacturer of safety footwear in France.
In the years following its creation, the Group made a succession of acquisitions in France: Fernez (respiratory) in 1997, Comoditex and Commeinhes-Remco (clothing) in 1980, Sofraf (gloves) in 1984, Delta Protection and Mutexil (clothing) in 1986, Antec (fall protection) in 1989, Ox'bridge (clothing) in 1993, Fenzy (respiratory) in 1997 and Optrel (welding) in 1998.
Over the same period, the Group gradually acquired distributors which were consolidated in 1999 under the name Bacou Développement.
In March 1993, the Group created the subsidiary Bacou USA and, in 1994, Bacou USA acquired Uvex Safety Inc. (eye protection). In 1996, Bacou USA was listed on the New York stock exchange where it remained listed until the merger with Christian Dalloz in September 2001. Despite the death of its founder in 1996, the company continued its external growth strategy in the USA with the acquisitions of Survivair (respiratory) and Biosystems (gas detection equipment) in 1997, Howard Leight (hearing) in 1998, Perfect Fit (gloves) in 1999 and Whiting & Davis and Platinum (gloves) in the year 2000.
How to Fit Earplugs
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