Sydney Stahlbaum shows the texture of the stitched turf after it comes out of the tufting machine, which stitches threads of fiber into the turf backing, at the AstroTurf factory on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015, in Dalton, Ga.AstroTurf, one of the most famous names in all of sports – high school, collegiate and professional – calls Dalton, Georgia home, and has since 1968.
In the mid-1960s, AstroTurf invented the artificial turf segment for athletic field coverings. In 1966, AstroTurf was installed at the “Eight Wonder of the World,” the multi-use Astrodome in Houston, Texas for use during Houston Astros and Houston Oilers professional baseball and football games, respectively.
Over the years, AstroTurf has racked up a list of clients that reads like a who’s-who of big-name sports: the St. Louis Rams, the Kansas State Wildcats, the Orlando Citrus Bowl, the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Toronto Blue Jays.
The United States women’s national soccer team practices on AstroTurf, which led to the World Cup champion women playing an exhibition game at Chattanooga’s Finley Stadium – equipped with AstroTurf – in August.
Thanks to the star power of its brand and its obsession with quality, AstroTurf has come to own roughly 70 percent of market share in the artificial turf segment.