The 1930s was a period in which Frank W. Schwinn established himself as a creative force in both his company and the bicycle industry. The decade started with an emphasis on motorcycles and ended with Schwinn firmly established as the highest quality bicycle maker for both adults and children. The innovations of the 1930s, such as the balloon-tired children’s bikes, front suspension, front drum-style brakes, and the Paramount Racer set the direction for Schwinn to next several decades. The publication in 1895 coincides with the same year Schwinn was founded by Adolph Arnold and Ignaz Schwinn. This publication with the name Famous Schwinn Built-Bicycles very likely was marketing the original bicycles sold by the new bicycle company founded by the two founders. The brochure contains four interesting safety bicycles, including two for racing and two for everyday use.
Having first made his money in the meatpacking business and later as a successful investor and banker, Arnold could see the promise of collaborating with an innovative bicycle factory manager like Ignaz Schwinn. The consequence was the Arnold Schwinn and Company was formed in 1895. With a strong investor and an experienced manager, Arnold Schwinn & Company was off and running. Richard Schwinn wanted to stay in the bicycle business but he was prohibited from using the family name.
This meant
that the California entrepreneurs had an opening to develop bikes with
suspension for riding on mountain trails. Joe Breeze, Charlie Kelly, Gary Fisher, and Tom Ritchey were avid Repack
riders and realized that the old Schwinns being raced on the mountainside course
had their limitations. The seeds of an end to the
Schwinn family dynasty as a bicycle manufacturer had been sowed after Frank W.
Schwinn’s death in the early 1960s. The company’s struggle to maintain pace
with the rest of the bicycle industry would turn into reality in the 1970s.
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.
The
question would be whether the new management team assembled by a young Ed
Schwinn, Jr. could prepare the company for the coming decade. In the era of Rosie the Riveter, the composition of Schwinn’s
workforce also changed. Male and some female Schwinn employees were reporting
for overseas duty in large numbers. Schwinn adopted schwinn tricycle a policy to encourage the
family members of those leaving for military service to fill their vacant jobs. Many mothers, wives, and sisters began
working on the Schwinn’s factory floor as their loved ones headed for the military
conflicts in Europe and Japan. During the war years, women became the main
workforce for Schwinn.
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 schwinn tricycle 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.
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 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.
The factory quickly cranked out a new line of bikes to satisfy what they
rightly anticipated would be a new bicycle craze. After
years in the making, in the early 1960s the three legs of a strategy to improve
sales were finally in place. These included investments in innovative marketing
techniques, strengthened manufacturing capacity, and improved efficiency of the
company’s dealer network.