D'Addario (manufacturer)

D'Addario (Da-dairy-oh) is a family-owned and operated American multinational company that specializes in musical instrument accessories, headquartered in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York.

D'Addario is the world’s largest musical instrument accessories manufacturer, marketing its products under several brands, including D'Addario Fretted, D'Addario Accessories, Evans Drumheads, ProMark Drumsticks, D'Addario Woodwinds, D’Addario Orchestral, and Puresound Snare Wire.

Having roots dating back to the 17th century, D’Addario was founded in 1973 in a 2,000-foot-long (610 m) Long Island storefront by Jim and Janet D'Addario. With fewer than five employees, sales revenues were under $500,000 in their first year. In 1974, father John D'Addario, Sr. and brother John D'Addario, Jr. joined Jim and Janet to launch the D'Addario string brand.

Today, the company conducts business worldwide, with offices on four continents including locations in Brooklyn, New York; Houston, Texas; Sun Valley, California; Newcastle upon Tyne, England; France, Germany, Australia and China.

D'Addario manufactures 95 percent of its products in the United States, distributes to 120 countries, and serves more than 3,300 retailers and all major e-commerce sites. Alongside its own products, D'Addario also produces OEM wire and strings for other musical instrument companies.

The D'Addario Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm, was established in 1979. The foundation works to identify, fund, and partner with grassroots, community-based organizations that improve outcomes for historically marginalized and impoverished children through immersive music education.

The Abruzzo region in Italy was an agricultural and sheep herding region in the 1600s, and many shepherds there produced strings made from sheep and hog intestines that were used on instruments such as guitars, violins, lutes, and harps. The D'Addario (phonetically pronounced /dəˈdɛɹio/ in American English or /dadˈdaɾio/ in Italian) family's connection to string making can be traced back to the 1600s.

The D’Addario family perfected their craft in Salle for two centuries before an earthquake destroyed their entire town in 1905. It was then that the D'Addario family emigrated to Astoria in Queens, New York to continue the family business. In the company's earliest days, Charles D'Addario imported strings his father made from Salle. Later, he opened a shop out of his garage in Astoria where he began to produce and sell his own gut strings locally. He established C. D'Addario & Co. in the early years of The Great Depression. His son, John D'Addario Sr., grew up learning the trade from his father and ultimately became a partner of C. D'Addario & Son in the 1930s. The company then transitioned from producing gut strings to steel and nylon core strings. Nylon strings adapted a nylon microfilament created by chemical company DuPont to be used in toothbrushes and brooms. John Sr. realized this material would be perfect for nylon harp and classical guitar strings.