Founded in the 1960’s by business partners Everett Edmund and Patrick Madison, the Henderson brand has been at the cutting edge of Style, Performance, and Product Innovation. Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, it has served the scuba community for over 6 decades becoming one of the most well-known names in the industry that’s trusted by millions of divers all around the world.
Although in the early days, wetsuits used to be sold primarily to Scuba divers as a “build it yourself” kit, an interest in the scuba community grew for suits that were already made. Henderson capitalized on this opportunity and began producing and shipping ready-made suits to its customers. The company was also the first to recognize women in diving by creating a full line of suits that offered color and style and soon appeared in the pages of magazines such as Elle and Cosmo. Wetsuits were now viewed for style and fashion and no longer just function. Henderson also produced the first wetsuit used for a Triathlon competition in 1990. The suits were called Speedsuits and sold under the Triumph brand name.
In the mid-1990’s, Henderson collaborated with legendary guitarist Jerry Garcia of “Grateful Dead,” an avid scuba diver, and developed the Garcia Signature line of Henderson wetsuits, which included a new “Trilaminate” neutral buoyancy material developed by Henderson. During this time, Henderson expanded into markets outside the Sports Diving community, producing its first line of surfing wetsuits called “Surf East.” Surf East sponsored such legendary surfers as Baron Knowlton, Todd Holland, and Peter Pan. Henderson further expanded its brands to Include “Neo Sport” a value line of thermal protection products.
In the new millennium, Henderson introduced a series of new product enhancements and technologies, including Gold Core, an ultra-warm skin-in wetsuit, Hyperstretch, the first ultra stretch wetsuit, Microprene, .5mm wetsuits, and Insta Dry, the first wetsuit that dried inside and out in minutes. The line of Hyperflex Wetsuits, a new surf brand, was launched in early 2002 with a renewed focus on the surf wetsuit market.
For over six decades, the Henderson brand has been at the cutting edge of Style, Performance and Product innovation. Today, the Henderson brand is available in hundreds of Scuba Retail shops around the United States, online and in over 20 countries around the world. Leisure Pro is proud to be a partner of Henderson, currently carrying Aqualock, Hot Skins, and Thermoprene product lines at our Scuba Store in New York City and online at Scuba.com.
For more information about the Henderson brand, visit www.hendersonusa.com.
