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Product Innovation
In 1949 Unicorn became the first company to sell darts classified
by actual weight, an obvious benefit for all players. To this
day, Unicorn is the only company confident enough to guarantee
weight accuracy to within 0.33% on most tungsten darts.
Another Unicorn innovation of major significance was the
introduction in 1972 of the first commercial tungsten alloy
darts which allowed the player the great advantage of slimmer
darts for closer grouping. This was followed in 1987 with
the introduction of the first titanium tungsten darts and
our unique range of Golden Unicorn darts.
Flights, shafts and accessories have not escaped the Unicorn
pioneering zeal. From feather
flights, we developed and introduced the first one-piece
plastic flight, the modern polyester flight and in 1955 launched
the first flight with impressions on the wing.
Slikstik, Unicorn's patented side loading dart shaft, is
a world beater and in 1977 we introduced the world's first
steel shaft with replaceable top.
21st century dart technology arrived in 1995 with the launch
of QuikSteel. With QuikSteel Spin and Tri-Point, Unicorn launched
the world's first rotating, interchangeable integral steel
shaft and the world's first rotating, retracting and instantly
interchangeable dart point.
In packaging, too, Unicorn leads the world. The launch of
the X-series in 1998 introduced a brand new concept in darts
packaging - a transparent darts case allowing the consumer
to see the product clearly before purchase. Contoured to fit
the hand, it is both elegant and practical. With no waste
it is environmentally friendly. Without doubt, it is 'Clearly
Better' for all concerned.
2002 sees the launch of two new cases, the Eclipse
and the Compact,
which along with the X-Pack
are at the heart of the latest Unicorn darts range. For details
of the latest Unicorn range, click
here.
Rise of Professional Darts
It is not only darts technology that has changed over the
last 60 years but the game itself has moved forward into a
new professional age and here again Unicorn has played a pivotal
role.
The roots of darts are planted firmly in pubs and clubs and
the News of The World
Tournament, launched in the 1920's and revived briefly
with Unicorn's help in the mid 1990s, was the first major
sponsored darts tournament to raise the profile above the
local level.
As the tournament developed the winners invariably used Unicorn
darts and would sign an agreement making us the first company
to sponsor a dart player. One of these was Tom
Barrett, who helped introduce the game in America; another
was Barry Twomlow,
who has recently retired as Unicorn's Ambassador of Darts.
Television recognised the massive popular appeal of darts
and in 1975 Unicorn launched the Unicorn World Pairs Trophy
at London's West Centre Hotel, the first international tournament
with teams from 16 countries. In 1976 it became the first
televised World Darts Championship.
Such was the success of the programme that ITV's World of
Sport increased its viewing figures during the darts transmission
despite direct competition from the annual Boat Race on BBC.
Success breeds success and very soon other major corporate
sponsors from outside the sport jumped on the bandwagon and
a new series of televised events were organised, which allowed
us to concentrate on our main task of making fine products.
Darts is now having a good run on television thanks to the
initiatives of the Professional Darts Corporation and Sky
Sports, where another link with the past is Dave Lanning,
who was the ITV World of Sport's darts commentator at the
Unicorn World Pairs and is now part of the successful Sky
commentary team.
Rupert Murdoch is not known to back losers and Sky TV are
now firmly committed to darts and the viewing figures have
exceeded their wildest expectations and are certainly higher
than many of the so called traditional sports. Unicorn is
playing its full part in this professional revival through
its active involvement in the PDC, its sponsorship of the
official PDC boards in televised events and of course its
sponsorship of the professionals.
In 1998 we also sponsored a darts TV magazine programme in
association with Sky Sports, "Off The Oche", which
finished top of the ratings in its week of transmission.
Unicorn now has even closer links with televised darts as
we are now the Official Dartboard Supplier to the Professional
Darts Corporation and every darts tournament shown on Sky
Sports is played on a Unicorn
Eclipse dartboard.
Unicorn & the
Sport of Darts
The Silver
Comet
Feather
Flights
Tom Barratt
Barry Twomlow - The
man who taught the world to play darts
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