For the middle half of the twentieth century, almost every road in America led back to a single bend of the Little Cuyahoga River in northeast Ohio.
Akron was the rubber capital of the world. If you bought an American car between the 1920s and the late 1950s, there was a three-in-four chance the tires rolling off the showroom floor came from an Akron factory. Names like Firestone, B.F. Goodrich, General Tire, and Goodyear were not just corporate logos; they were industrial royalty.
Walk through a tire warehouse today, and those same heritage logos still sit on the racks.
Look at the corporate registrations, though, and you will notice something curious:
General Tire is owned by Continental AG in Hanover, Germany ($628 million in 1987).
Firestone is owned by Bridgestone in Tokyo, Japan ($2.6 billion in 1988).
Uniroyal-Goodrich is owned by Michelin in Clermont-Ferrand, France ($1.5 billion in 1989–1990).
Cooper Tire was swallowed by Goodyear for $2.5 billion in 2021.
Of the original titans that once commanded 80% of the domestic market, only Goodyear ($GT) remains an independent, American-headquartered manufacturer.
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