Dear Partners, Clients and Athletics Fans

The year 2026 marks the jubilee of 60^th anniversary of Polanik, which is why our catalogue is a bit different, focused more on the products, the company and the people who work in it.

It seems that quite recently we have been celebrating the jubilee of 50^th anniversary, but a decade has passed since then and in that time, there have been events which we would have never expected to happen. On one hand, we have experienced the biggest process of development and investment which resulted in doubling production and storage capacity to over 10,500 sqm., as well as increasing employment by 40% to 140 people. On the other hand – we faced the pandemic, death of company’s founder Wiesław Szczepanik, the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the loss of some important markets. It was a challenge to confront those obstacles, but overcoming them fortified strong position of the company and the Polanik brand.

The jubilee is typically a great moment to slow down for a while and take a stroll down the memory lane to remind you ladies and gentlemen and ourselves how it all started.

The start was very modest. It all began with a small, rented space of 24 sqm. and my dad Wiesław Szczepanik – a man full of passion and ideas, a man who did not conform to the socioeconomic system of that time in Poland. It was a drive for independence and creativity that pushed Wiesław to take a chance and start a company in 1966. Initially, Polanik manufactured clips for suspenders, license plates, drawing board instruments and home appliances.

A key moment in the history of the company arose at the beginning of the 70s when there was an opportunity to accept a technical challenge to produce training sports javelins. The product was of high quality at that time and it sold well, but Wiesław Szczepanik dreamed of implementing competition javelins of the highest quality made out of duraluminium.  In the first half of the 80s, this dream became a reality. All foreign customers were fully satisfied with the final quality of the product which resulted in the decision of focusing all work force of the company  on manufacturing athletics equipment. Initially, the lack of contacts in the world of athletics and very modest promotional possibilities made it challenging to find new customers and to develop. However, concentrating on  the highest quality  and broadening product range  using our own unique technological solutions  from day one, were crucial for the upcoming success of the company.

Building Polanik brand and  centring  on premium products for professional athletes as well as a strategy for fully equipping athletics arenas  formed another milestone in the history of the company and as time went on made Polanik one of the leading manufacturers and suppliers of athletics equipment in the world.

Systematic development resulted in turning an one-person company into a family partnership and created organizational structures worthy of a modern enterprise with full management staff and teams of committed employees. High quality of products led to higher greater presence in athletics arenas during prestigious competitions and that in turn made it easier for the company to build a full network of distributors in Poland, Europe and in the world.

Today, every athlete, coach, promoter and judge is greatly familiar with Polanik brand and its products. For years, not only have we equipped athletics arenas, but we have also supported athletes and organizers of the highest rank competitions. That resulted in crowning accomplishments: our partnership with European Athletics and Polish Athletic Association, and  Polanik product presence on lists of mandatory equipment necessary for conducting world championships and Olympic Games.

It does not mean that there is nothing left to do, though. In fact, we implement new products or upgrade the ones which are being produced. We also put a lot of effort into developing our machinery park and human resources.

It does not mean that there is nothing left to do, though. In fact, we implement new products or upgrade the ones which are being produced. We also put a lot of effort into developing our machinery park and human resources. We have created a landing area production department from the ground up, we gradually launch a production of new generation garages for landing areas. We offer 700 g javelins which are compliant with new World Athletics rules, we have upgraded crank mechanism in hammer and discus throwing cages, we work on implementing new Basic cages at attractive prices. We increase judges’ comfort by introducing new starter’s podium with handrails, our top of the line high jump and pole vault stands now have LED indicators used to indicate correct or failed jumps. Our assortment has been expanded with new athletics  mobile shelter with 8 seats and foldable roof as well as new electronic display boards. Our new portable  weather station makes sure there is good weather at the stadium 😊

This is not all, you can see it in our newest catalogue and I strongly recommend to do so.

Soon, installation of Kuka welding robot will be finished, the quality of our labels will be noticeably better thanks to the new Roland printer. Installation of new server and introducing Microsoft 365 in our company will boost all processes and information flow. We take great care of balanced development, our galvanizing department is equipped with modern sewage treatment plant and the power of photovoltaic installation on our roofs has been increased to 250 kW.

The agreement with European Athletics resulted in two last years of promotion of Polanik during European Athletics Championships 2024 in Rome, European Athletics Indoor Championships 2025 in Apeldoorn, European Athletics Team Championships 2025 in Madrid, European Athletics U23 Championships 2025 in Bergen ad European Athletics U20 Championships 2025 in Tampere. I would like to thank the European Athletics president Dobromir Karamarinov and extremely friendly team of European Athletics for the cooperation.

We would not be where we are now if it were not for the support and trust of many kind people who we were lucky enough to meet during our journey throughout all those years.

I would like to thank our distributors, federations and athletics associations especially Polish Athletic Association with presidents Jerzy Skucha and Henryk Olszewski and Sebastian Chmara, European Athletics with president Dobromir Karamarinov, Czech Athletic Federation, Slovak Athletic Federation, Polish Masters Athletics as well as promoters, judges, coaches, athletics competitions organizers, athletics facilities for cooperation, effort and help.

These great athletes had a huge contribution to development and upgrades of our products: Anita Włodarczyk, Szymon Ziółkowski, Paweł Fajdek, Wojciech Nowicki, Tomasz Majewski, Piotr Małachowski, Joanna Fiodorow, Piotr Lisek, Konrad Bukowiecki, Marcelina Witek-Konofał and many, many more from our country and from abroad. They trusted Polanik equipment. I thank you very, very much.

I would also like to thank my closest coworkers and managers: Marcin Szczepanik, Magdalena Studziżur, Piotr Rysiukiewicz, Paweł Ciechanowski, Joanna Grabara, Monika Lasota, Paweł Banaszczyk, Artur Śmiechowski, Robert Kozera, Zbigniew Szczukocki, Jarosław Kieller and all current and former employees. Polanik is our common success.

I thank my Wife and Son for the support and my Business Partners and Family for fruitful cooperation.

We enter the next decade. I hope it will be full of progress and successes. See you soon. 😊

Darek Szczepanik

P.S. Wiesław Szczepanik was fulfilling his passion till the end of his life. He passed away on 29^th of March 2020 at the age of 87 as a fulfilled man in both private and professional lives.