The company was established in 1696 by toolmaker John Wilson. The Sheffield engineer was famous throughout England for the quality of his tools, his crafting skills and had an unrivalled reputation for excellence.

John Wilson came to the notice of the British royal family when King Charles, who wanted to continue ice skating after his return from exile in Holland, commissioned a pair of blades to be made by Wilson. Continuing the Royal skating tradition, Queen Victoria was said to have enjoyed many skating outings with her future husband, Prince Albert. It is said that in 1841 Prince Albert was skating on the lake at Buckingham Palace when the ice cracked and he was immersed in the freezing water. Had he not been saved no male heir would have been born and the whole British monarchical would have been completely different!

Hattersley & Davidson, a substantial and extremely well regarded engineering company was formed in 1894 and subsequently acquired john Wilson’s toolmaking company.

In 1994 Bauer acquired Hattersley and Davidson for the John Wilson skate brand with the intention of developing figure skating blades to go with their hockey brand. A year later Nike bought Bauer and for the following year worked with Wilson on research and married their brands with the Wilson technology and innovative style. Nike eventually decided that figure skating was not how their core business would develop and sold the skating business back to the management team.

In 1997 Hattersely & Davidson bought the world's second prestigious figure skating company, Mitchell & King, and therein created a company that totally dominated the figure skating industry.

In 1999 the management of Hattersley and Davidson restructured the business to fully concentrate on the sports world, changing the company name to the HD Sports as it is known as today.

HD Sports have an unwavering commitment to the figure skating industry. For more than 300 years the company has been at the cutting edge of blade technology, innovative design and a deep passion for the skating industry. Every blade is laser cut, precision hardened and is now, and will always be the blade of champions.