The Long P with Stars and Stripes
“To conclude, I would say that the American market certainly offers great opportunities for the sale of high-quality products, and this means both car tyres and power cables with rubber insulation […]. To achieve this, however, we must remember that our sales in the United States must adopt an American sales system, and certainly not the type of organisation that follows the approach adopted in Europe.” The quotation comes from a meticulous report detailing the company’s findings during a trip to the United States from 5 August to 20 December 1916, covering meetings, market analyses, and product assessments. It shows how Pirelli’s strategic approach involved understanding the ins and outs of the new market in order to plan future actions effectively. Over the following years, Alberto Pirelli – in 1928 – but also other executives made several trips to North America, and their reports are now kept in the Archive.
The historical ties between Pirelli and the USA actually date back to 1904, when the company took part in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis. This was a major event, where Pirelli displayed an outstanding series of products based on rubber (technical products, sanitary and haberdashery articles, toys, coloured balls and a diver’s suit) and insulated electrical wires and cables. It was also where the company formed important ties in the commercial and production sectors. The creation of the iconic Long P logo came shortly after, in 1908, in none other than the city of New York. In fact, Vittorio Sereni talked about this in an article that appeared in the second issue of Pirelli magazine in 1958: “…The idea of the capital letter stretching out horizontally to shelter the other letters that make up the name, came about one day in New York, way back in 1908. It was the brainwave of the moment, in response to a request from Pirelli’s local representative at the time. It was imperative to stand out in the commercial and advertising jungle that was already packed over there. The name, while not entirely unfamiliar, was still relatively young and needed to stand out with a bold emblem of its own so as not to be completely overshadowed”. The Long P thus conquered the world. And it entered the history of a product. In 1967 a press release announced the arrival in the United States of the CINTURATO tyre for the “new Camaro” – a racer that was to compete with the Ford Mustang. This was the official birth certificate of the CN72 tyre, which Pirelli technicians specifically designed for American roads with a complex tread pattern that had a sort of flowering of longitudinal and transversal elements.
But the third millennium, too, brought significant developments for Pirelli in the States. In 2002 came the opening of the plant in Rome, Georgia, expressing the very essence of the company’s presence overseas. In 2005, Fatti e Notizie announced not only the agreement signed between Pirelli Labs and the prestigious Georgia Tech for the development of working-from-home solutions, but also the opening of the company’s new headquarters in Atlanta. P Zero World, Pirelli’s first flagship store anywhere in the world, opened in Los Angeles in 2016, an entire single-brand store that narrates the company’s rich history and its on-going achievements.
The large production plant in Rome is now focused on premium specialty tyres for cars, light trucks and SUVs, with sizes ranging from 19” to 30”. These products incorporate Pirelli’s most advanced value-added technology. Nearly 70% of production goes to premium automakers, and a significant amount is exported outside the United States. America is a land of ground-breaking experimentation. So it is hardly surprising that the Pirelli plant in Georgia is also the first tyre manufacturing plant in the world to receive FSC certification from the Forest Stewardship Council.
“To conclude, I would say that the American market certainly offers great opportunities for the sale of high-quality products, and this means both car tyres and power cables with rubber insulation […]. To achieve this, however, we must remember that our sales in the United States must adopt an American sales system, and certainly not the type of organisation that follows the approach adopted in Europe.” The quotation comes from a meticulous report detailing the company’s findings during a trip to the United States from 5 August to 20 December 1916, covering meetings, market analyses, and product assessments. It shows how Pirelli’s strategic approach involved understanding the ins and outs of the new market in order to plan future actions effectively. Over the following years, Alberto Pirelli – in 1928 – but also other executives made several trips to North America, and their reports are now kept in the Archive.
The historical ties between Pirelli and the USA actually date back to 1904, when the company took part in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis. This was a major event, where Pirelli displayed an outstanding series of products based on rubber (technical products, sanitary and haberdashery articles, toys, coloured balls and a diver’s suit) and insulated electrical wires and cables. It was also where the company formed important ties in the commercial and production sectors. The creation of the iconic Long P logo came shortly after, in 1908, in none other than the city of New York. In fact, Vittorio Sereni talked about this in an article that appeared in the second issue of Pirelli magazine in 1958: “…The idea of the capital letter stretching out horizontally to shelter the other letters that make up the name, came about one day in New York, way back in 1908. It was the brainwave of the moment, in response to a request from Pirelli’s local representative at the time. It was imperative to stand out in the commercial and advertising jungle that was already packed over there. The name, while not entirely unfamiliar, was still relatively young and needed to stand out with a bold emblem of its own so as not to be completely overshadowed”. The Long P thus conquered the world. And it entered the history of a product. In 1967 a press release announced the arrival in the United States of the CINTURATO tyre for the “new Camaro” – a racer that was to compete with the Ford Mustang. This was the official birth certificate of the CN72 tyre, which Pirelli technicians specifically designed for American roads with a complex tread pattern that had a sort of flowering of longitudinal and transversal elements.
But the third millennium, too, brought significant developments for Pirelli in the States. In 2002 came the opening of the plant in Rome, Georgia, expressing the very essence of the company’s presence overseas. In 2005, Fatti e Notizie announced not only the agreement signed between Pirelli Labs and the prestigious Georgia Tech for the development of working-from-home solutions, but also the opening of the company’s new headquarters in Atlanta. P Zero World, Pirelli’s first flagship store anywhere in the world, opened in Los Angeles in 2016, an entire single-brand store that narrates the company’s rich history and its on-going achievements.
The large production plant in Rome is now focused on premium specialty tyres for cars, light trucks and SUVs, with sizes ranging from 19” to 30”. These products incorporate Pirelli’s most advanced value-added technology. Nearly 70% of production goes to premium automakers, and a significant amount is exported outside the United States. America is a land of ground-breaking experimentation. So it is hardly surprising that the Pirelli plant in Georgia is also the first tyre manufacturing plant in the world to receive FSC certification from the Forest Stewardship Council.
