Akron, Ohio: how four tire companies built the Rubber Capital of the World, the 1975 to 1981 collapse that cost 80,000 rubber jobs, what replaced it, and LeBron James’s hometown legacy

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4 lessons · Novice

Lesson 1 of 4

Why Akron Became Rubber Capital

Lesson 2 of 4

The Rubber Industry Collapse

Early-stage product — exploratory, no guaranteed results.

About this study

“Akron, Ohio: how four tire companies built the Rubber Capital of the World, the 1975 to 1981 collapse that cost 80,000 rubber jobs, what replaced it, and LeBron James’s hometown legacy” is a free, 4-lesson study at novice, created with soclever, a personal AI teacher. Each lesson takes a few minutes and ends with a check-in question; finish the curriculum and you can take a certificate test to earn a diploma. Starting is free once you sign in — or generate your own study on any topic. Shared by @meirrosenschein.

What you'll learn

  1. Why Akron Became Rubber Capital. Start with the check. In 1870 Benjamin Franklin Goodrich moved his rubber company to Akron on a $13,600 grant from the Akron Board of Trade. The business incorporated as B.F.…
  2. The Rubber Industry Collapse. The collapse happened in a sequence, and the sequence is the whole lesson. Step one, production. Between 1975 and 1981, Goodrich, Goodyear and Firestone all stopped making tires…
  3. Deindustrialization and Economic Shift. First, the population. The city of Akron sits at about 189,000 to 190,000 and is slowly declining. The metro area around it is about 571,000 and growing slightly. Now the…
  4. LeBron James and Post-Industrial Identity. Start with what the record shows. The Akron record first: LeBron James played at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School from 1999 to 2003. Over those four years the school went 101-6…

Questions this study answers

  • What was the most important idea in this lesson, in your own words?

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