The company originally manufactured bicycle and carriage tires, rubber horseshoe pads, and poker chips, and grew with the advent of the automobile.

[10] In 1903, Goodyear president, chairman and CEO Paul Weeks Litchfield was granted a patent for the first tubeless automobile tire.

[11] In 1910, the company purchased an existing rubber factory in Bowmanville, Ontario, in Canada, which expanded their manufacturing outside of the United States for the first time.

[12] In 1916, Litchfield found land in the Phoenix area suitable for growing long-staple cotton, which was needed to reinforce its rubber in tires.

[15] By 1930, Goodyear had pioneered what would later become known as "tundra tires" for smaller aircraft—their so-called low inflation pressure "airwheel" aviation wheel-rim/tire sets were initially available in sizes up to 46 inches (117 cm) in diameter.

Goodyear's success was partly due to the challenge posed by radial tire technology, and the varied responses.

[19][20] When Charles J. Pilliod Jr. became CEO in 1974, he faced a major investment decision regarding the radial tire, which today has a market share of nearly 100%.

[21] Despite heavy criticism at the time, Pilliod invested heavily in new factories and tooling to build the radial tire.

"[24] In 1983, Goodyear acquired the natural gas company Celeron Corporation in exchange for stock valued at more than $740 million.

[24] It went on to invest heavily in gas exploration including the 1,200 mile crude oil "All American" pipeline from California to Texas.

[26] In October 1986 British financier James Goldsmith in conjunction with the investment group Hanson purchased 11.5% of Goodyear's outstanding common stock.

[30] Two subsidiaries involved in agricultural products, real estate development, and a resort hotel in Arizona were sold for $220.1 million.

President Tom Barrett succeeded Chairman Robert Mercer in 1989, and began a process of modernizing and expanding Goodyear plants in cities like Lawton, Oklahoma, Napanee, Canada, Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Scottsboro, Alabama.

[31] In the 2000s, the move of business into low-wage countries, facilitated by GATT (which Goldsmith had warned government against, calling it "a policy to impoverish"[32]), resulted in plants across North America being shuttered, for instance Cumberland, Maryland; New Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Windsor, Vermont were closed.

[35] In the summer of 2009, the company announced it would close its tire plant in the Philippines as part of a strategy to address uncompetitive manufacturing capacity globally by the end of the third quarter of that year.

During closing remarks, the attorneys for Twidwell put up a slide with the heads of Goodyear's expert witnesses pasted onto "insulting caricatures.

"[42] In December 2018, Goodyear ceased operations in Venezuela due a lack of materials and rising costs resulting from hyperinflation.

Following the military coup in Indonesia in 1965, the Indonesian president Suharto encouraged Goodyear to return and offered rubber resources and political prisoners as labor.

Indonesia has a fabulous potential wealth in natural resources and the New Order [the fascist regime headed by pro-U.S. General Suharto] wants it exploited.

The United States Congress overturned this decision by passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 which was the first bill signed into law by President Obama.

In rejecting Ledbetter's appeal, the Supreme Court said that "she could have, and should have, sued" when the pay decisions were made, instead of waiting beyond the 180-day statutory charging period.

Her dissent asserted that the employer had been, "Knowingly carrying past pay discrimination forward" during the 180-day charging period, and therefore could be held liable.

[57] The Center for Public Integrity reports that Goodyear has been named as a potentially responsible party in at least 54 of the nation's Superfund toxic waste sites.

[citation needed] On February 8, 2008, Goodyear announced the launch of an environmentally friendly tire produced using a cornstarch-based material.

The Goodyear Eagle LS2000 partially replaces the traditional carbon black and silica with filler materials derived from corn starch thanks to "BioTRED compounding technology".

According to Goodyear and EPA officials "the fuel-efficient line-haul tires deliver up to 4% improved truck fuel economy, and when used with other SmartWay-qualified components, each 18- wheel tractor and trailer used in long-haul can produce savings of up to 4,000 gallons per year, or more than $11,000 annually.

[62] On August 18, 2020, WIBW, a local CBS-affiliate television station, reported that an internal PowerPoint slide on political attire from a Topeka, Kansas, training seminar was circulating on social media.

[68] Defective tires are suspected to be the cause of multiple truck accidents and fatal injuries that occurred in France, Spain and other European countries in the 2010s, according to an investigation published in the French daily Le Monde in March 2024.

Goodyear organized a public retirement celebration on August 7 and 8, 2015, offering a last opportunity for the community to view the blimp up close.

It appeared at numerous events, including the Rose Parade and Academy Awards, and was featured in television shows.