This strategy would succeed and the Schwinn Paramount
would become part of Schwinn’s enduring legacy for quality and innovation until
the company’s bankruptcy in 1993. The brand name passed through a number of owners over the following years, including Schwinn/GT, schwinn mountain bike which also went bankrupt in 2001. The Schwinn brand was then purchased by the current owners, Pacific Cycle, Inc. This company is part of Dorel Industries and it also owns a number of other bike brands, including Cannondale, [GT Bicycles](/s/-/gt and Mongoose.
Schwinn still was a company that could spot trends and
quickly produced new bicycle models. In 1962 an executive at Schwinn named Al
Fritz noticed a trend in California of boys riding funny-looking bicycles. They had small wheels, long seats, small
frames, and riser handlebars that looked like Texas longhorn steers. With this
unusual configuration, he was surprised to see kids doing instant wheelies and
riding on the rear wheel for blocks. Frank W. Schwinn also was constantly innovating on the
factory floor by investing in new manufacturing techniques.
By 1960, annual sales had reached just 4.4 million.[10] Nevertheless, Schwinn’s share of the market was increasing, and would reach in excess of 1 million bicycles per year by the end of the decade. Schwinn also didn’t want to part with all of its tried and
true children’s market and this meant that bicycle shop inventories
proliferated out of control with too many bicycle models. Selling children and
adult bicycles was an awkward mix for Schwinn dealers. During the late 1980s,
all of these companies were competing for a shrinking piece of the bicycle pie. Bicycles sales declined by 20 percent from about 12.6 million in 1987 to 10.7
million bicycles in 1989 (National Bicycle Dealers Association, 2021). After the death of Frank W.
Schwinn, the three legs of the stool that had built began to wobble.
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.
It was an unqualified success, other than that it was very expensive to produce and showed little if any real profit potential. Sponsorship of 6-day riders produced a team to showcase the Paramount, the riders schwinn mountain bike such as Jerry Rodman (The Michael Jordan of that time in Chicago) and the rest of the Schwinn Co. bicycle line. At the end of the 1980s, bikes coming in from overseas piled
up in Schwinn’s warehouses.