Short answers, pulled from the story.
Slazenger has supplied balls to the Championships at Wimbledon since 1902, making it the longest unbroken sporting sponsorship in history. The relationship has continued without interruption for well over a century.
Slazenger was founded in 1881 by brothers Ralph and Albert Slazenger, Jewish entrepreneurs from Manchester, who opened their first shop on Cannon Street in London selling rubber sporting goods.
Slazenger, along with its acquired companies Gradidge, William Sykes Ltd, and F. H. Ayres, redirected its wood and rubber manufacturing expertise to wartime production. Government contracts included 858,500 sets of rifle furniture, 17,500,000 detonator caps, 3,000,000 snow and sand goggles, and 250,400 machete sheaths, among other items, as recorded in a 1946 company document.
Slazenger equipment was used by cricketers including Sir Don Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, and Geoffrey Boycott, and by tennis player Fred Perry, who switched to Slazenger rackets in 1932 and won his first Wimbledon title two years later. Golfers including Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Watson, and Tom Weiskopf also carried Slazenger gear.
In the 1964 film Goldfinger, filmed at Stoke Park Golf Club in Buckinghamshire, Sean Connery wore a burgundy Slazenger v-neck jumper as James Bond. Slazenger golf balls also appear on screen and are mentioned several times in dialogue, including the line "You play a Slazenger 1, don't you?"
Slazenger is owned by Frasers Group, formerly known as Sports Direct. Sports Direct International acquired Dunlop Slazenger in 2004 for a reported £40 million, a steep decline from the £300 million management buyout valuation placed on the business in 1996.