Giant further endeared itself to Schwinn during the strike
by delivering on a promise to pick up the slack in manufacturing capacity. Giant agreed to provide Schwinn with an additional 80 thousand bicycles. By
1984, Giant ratcheted up production to 500 thousand bicycles for Schwinn which
accounted for about two-thirds of Schwinn sales (Crown and Coleman 1996). Another change in the bicycle industry confronting Schwinn
was a mountain bike craze emerging in Marin County, California.
Bicycle output in the United States grew to over a million units per year by the turn of the 20th century. Having managed two bicycle factories and worked in a number of bicycle shops, Schwinn’s experience came during one of the biggest evolutionary periods in bicycle technology. He saw first hand the development of the drive train using a chain and equal sized wheels. He saw the “high-wheel” (penny farthing) go the way of the horse and buggy, and he watched as pneumatic tires took the place of solid rubber on steel rims, offering a much softer ride. Schwinn also recognized the opportunity of converting the 60 pound high wheel with wheels from 48 to 60 inches in diameter to a 25 pound “safety bicycle” with wheels of equal size. With historic roots in outdoor cycling, Schwinn®’s focus has always been on authenticity and quality.
Many were quick to blame the generation of family managers after Frank W.
Schwinn but the rise of low-cost manufacturing in Asia was challenging for all American
companies. “Made in America” schwinn mountain bike was giving
way to made in Japan, Taiwan, and eventually China. Schwinn was still a force
in the early 1970s, but the bloom was coming off the rose of an iconic American
company.
With the Hollywood stars endorsing Schwinn products combined with
its reputation for quality, their bicycles began flying out of stores. Schwinn increased sales to 400,000 bikes by
the late 1940s and by 1950 had a 25% market share of bicycles sold in the USA. The seeds for how to market Schwinn products were spread during
the 1930s. Frank W. Schwinn was eager to reduce the company’s reliance on large
retailers and had begun investing resources in developing direct relationships
with small bicycle dealers across the nation. The consequence of this shift was
that Schwinn had a pipeline of information about consumer preferences from those
on the front line of bicycle sales. By the end of the 1940s, Schwinn had reduced
its relations with large retailers and focused on its relationships with bike
shops.
As if this wasn’t enough, Schwinn would be challenged in
nearby Wisconsin by a new company called Trek. Sounding more like a hiking
company, the company decided to build “Made in America” lightweight bikes to
satisfy the growing demand for bicycle touring. They featured lightweight steel
and brazed lugged frame construction. Due to the inability to handle
the new lightweight steels, Schwinn began to look for alternative ways to sell
lighter bicycles. Instead of modernizing
to make the new bicycle lines in-house, in the early 1970s, the decision was
made to import lugged lightweight bicycles from Japan.
The lightweights caught on very slowly but the fat tire bikes carried the company successfully through the ‘60s. The historical treatment takes the narrative through World War II. The book then becomes more a catalog of models that many of you likely rode during the 1950s and 1960s.
This was not much different
than the earlier autocycle, but they added some fancy styling features that made
it popular among consumers. The Black Phantom was advertised as having all the
popular options, such as a spring fork, chrome fenders, horn button on tank,
built-in fender light, and white wall tires. The model became quite popular
during the 1950s and today they are a collector’s item. Founded in 1974 in a Southern California garage, Mongoose has always been an aggressive brand with products that push the limits of what a rider can do. From the biggest hits on the mountain or in the park to the urban jungle, Mongoose is an authentic brand that produces durable products built for real riders. If I recall, it was what Schwinn called a “cantilever” frame, where the seat stays pass by the seat cluster and continue on in a graceful curve to join the bottom of the head tube.
This in turn led to further inroads by domestic and foreign competitors. Faced with a downward sales spiral, Schwinn went into bankruptcy in 1992.[59] The company and name were bought by the Zell/Chilmark Fund, an investment group, in 1993. In the 1950s, Schwinn began to aggressively cultivate bicycle retailers, persuading them to sell Schwinns as their predominant, if not exclusive brand. During this period, bicycle sales enjoyed relatively slow growth, with the bulk of sales going to youth models. In 1900, during the height of the first bicycle boom, annual United States sales by all bicycle manufacturers had briefly topped one million.
He pivoted Schwinn’s
reliance for sales through large retailers towards independent bicycle companies
that were more in tune with consumer bicycle needs. Finally, he tweaked Schwinn’s
“fair market” policies so that retailers could not compete against one another based
on price. Whether you are looking for a bicycle to meet your fitness goals or to surprise your little one, having the right bike will make a lot of difference.
According to old-timers, “Regression analysis
clashed with the glad-handing old boy school culture. (Crown and Coleman 1996, p142)
“ Ed Schwinn, Jr. broke with long-time managers
including schwinn mountain bike the well respected Ray Burch and Al Fritz. The likes of a 25-year-old
brother-in-law was hired to take their place along with a host of financial
analysts and marketing specialists.