Leupold Rifle Scope Company

History of The Leupold Scope Company

For more than a hundred years Leupold has been a proud American business that is operated by family. In 1907, Fred Leupold began his business as an optics company in Portland, Oregon. Leupold was then joined by his brothers-in-law, Adam Voelpel and Markus Freidrich, in the shop on 5th and Oak Street. They named it Leupold & Voelpel. Sometime later Leupold's son Marcus, and JC Stevens became part of the company, and then in 1942, when the company expanded, the company's name was changed to Leupold & Stevens Instruments Company. At this point in time, Stevens' son Robert also had joined the business and would go on to become the General Manager. Fred Leupold always said that, "the customer is entitled to a square deal" and the company continues to operate with this belief system, which certainly contributes to their continued success. In 1944, Fred died, and Freidrich took over as president. Another son of Fred's, Norbert, made the choice to follow in his brother's and his father's path and eventually became Production Manager.

Leupold & Stevens did not begin designing rifle scopes until 1947, the 2.5x Plainsman Scope being the first. It was the very first scope that was filled with nitrogen as opposed to air, thus preventing it from getting fogged. As a matter of fact, many of today's standards in rifle scopes, like the Leupold VXIII scope are based on the innovations and developments that Leupold has come up with. In 1957, fifty years after starting the business, Leupold & Stevens were gaining attention for their rifle scopes and had also created an outdoors-men's compass. Due to the fact that the scopes were so beneficial to the success of the company, they decided that the very last half of the century would be centered on sports optics.

The last four decades have produced lots of new developments in rifle scopes with the invention of the Duplex- lightweight high power target rifle scope, compact rifle scopes and the Dual Dovetail mount system. Leuplod & Stevens also started the production of binoculars in the United States again with Leupold Golden Ring Binoculars. Then in 1998, after fifteen years as the company president, Tom Fruechtel succeeded Werner Wildauer and remains the company's president today. Leupold made the first Lowlight Scope, the first Compact Roof Prism Waterproof Spotting Scope and new, cutting edge competition rifle scopes in 2002. In 2006 they launched the new RX Rangefinder and the Leupold VX-L.

Over the past century, Leupold has strongly contributed to the lives of outdoors people, shooters and hunters with their rifle scopes. Continuing on the exact same road they have been traveling since 1907; paying attention to the consumers' need for a "square deal" would certainly make Fred very proud!