What does GOSEN mean?
Well, we must admit that GOSEN isn't well-known in North America. GOSEN was established in Japan, GOSEN's headquarters is still in Japan, and GOSEN makes all the strings in Japan. But we also admit GOSEN doesn't sound like Japanese words, which might confuse our brand identity.
Major Tennis Brand Names
Let's take a look at other tennis brands. In most cases, we can guess where and how the brand originated from the brand name.
-HEAD-
From the founder's name, Howard Head
-DUNLOP-
From the founder's name, John Boyd Dunlop
-BABOLAT-
From the founder's name, Pierre Babolat
-MIZUNO-
From the founder's name, Rihachi Mizuno
-PRINCE-
From the location, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
-WILSON-
From the president's name, Thomas E. Wilson (oh, he was born in London, Ontario, Canada!)
...they are all very straightforward.
-YONEX-
From the founder's name, Minoru Yoneyama
It changed its corporate name a few times, such as Yoneyama Woodworks, Yoneyama Manufacturing... Since the name "Yoneyama" is difficult for foreigners to pronounce, it was created by adding "X" to the "YONE" of "Yoneyama" to represent future possibilities. Their YY logo was also created from "YoneYama."
-BRIDGESTONE-
From the founder's name, Shojiro Ishibashi
"Ishibashi" is written as "石橋" in Japanese Kanji characters. As you know, all the Kanji characters have meanings. "石" means "Stone" and "橋" means "Bridge."
...getting more confusing.
Where did the name "GOSEN" come from?
Have you wormed up? In 1951, a manufacturer of synthetic fibre fishing lines, longlines, and net lines was established called "Osaka Fibre Longlines Corporation." The registered name in Japanese was "Osaka Gosen Haenawa Kabushiki Gaisha." "Gosen" was a part of the original company name but, again, it doesn't sound like Japanese words and even Japanese native speakers don't understand the meaning of the word "Gosen."
ANIREVO, POKEMON... Japan, Home of Abbreviation Culture
Here is one more warm-up exercise in understanding what "Gosen" means.
Last week of July in Vancouver, there was a big event for Japanese culture and cartoons, called "Anirevo." (https://summer.animerevolution.ca/) This is the abbreviation of "Anime Revolution." "Anime" is already shortened from "Animation." Many people participated at Anirevo in "Cosplay' (an abbreviation of Costume Play). At Anirevo, well-known Japanese animes were presented and displayed, including "Pokemon." (an abbreviation of "Pocket Monster.") The mascot for Anirevo is Senmei, which is a nickname of Senkaku Mei. Her favourite food is Choco-Banana (Chocolate covered bananas)...
"Gosen" is an abbreviation
The registered original company name in 1951 in Kanji characters was "大阪合繊延縄株式会社." "合繊" is "Gosen," which even Japanese native speakers don't understand the meaning. This is because "合繊" (Gosen) is an abbreviation of "合成繊維” (Gosei Sen-i), which means synthetic fibre. So, GOSEN was a part of the original company name, which was already shortened from Gosei Sen-i (synthetic fibre).
Oh, I have to go now for the practice of "Badobu" (you are now an expert to figure this out...)