The Bowman Gum Company was a Philadelphia-based manufacturer of bubble gum and trading cards. Bowman produced a line of baseball cards, which were highly popular in the 1940s. Bowman also produced American football and basketball cards.
![Box of 1989 Bowman Baseball Cards]( "Who owns Bowman Gum? 1")
Who owns Bowman Gum?
Jacob Warren Bowman, an American chewing gum salesman, started his own company, Gum, Inc. in Philadelphia in 1927. Gum, Inc. started producing Blony bubble gum which immediately became the top-selling penny bubble gum in the United States in 1929.
The company was acquired by Topps in 1956, and the brand was discontinued. After the success of the Chrome set by Topps, Topps created a Bowman Chrome set in 1997. This was initially fueled by rookie cards of José Cruz Jr. and Travis Lee, but the top rookie cards from the set now are of Roy Halladay, Miguel Tejada, Eric Chavez, Kerry Wood, and Lance Berkman. The set continued to be a mainstay and got a major jump in 2001 following the inclusion of autographed cards.
Bowman also creates a set called Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects. This set is like regular Bowman but shows cards of MLB Draft Picks, participating players from the MLB All-Star Futures Game, and MLB rookies that have had previous issues. Usually, relic cards featuring swatches from jerseys of All-Star Futures Game players, other memorabilia cards, and non-rookie autographs called Signs Of The Future.
