Frank W. Schwinn had built the company into a schwinn bicycles bicyclepowerhouse in over 30 years. He introduced a glitzy line of children’s bicyclesthat sold very well from the early 1930s through the 1960s. In the late 1930s,he produced world-class lightweight bicycles—including the Schwinn Paramount—thatwere ahead of their times.
The top of theline middleweight was the Corvette, a name mimicking the popular sports car. The lightweight bicycles were still not sellingvery well and in 1954 middleweight bikes like the Corvette, Jaguar and Pantherfilled the void for older children and young adults. With the manufacturing capacities in Europe and Asia decimated,the company became one of the dominant bicycle manufacturers in the USA. Withintwo decades that included a pause for World War II, Schwinn did not miss abeat. Frank W. Schwinn had changed a failed motorcycle business and a flounderingbicycle company into a powerhouse that was on its way to becoming an Americancultural icon. The seeds for how to market Schwinn products were spread duringthe 1930s.
During the ensuing years, competitorswould begin catching up with Schwinn. Schwinn still increased its sales steadily from around fivehundred thousand bicycles in 1950 to over one million by the late 1960s. Frank W. Schwinn was not satisfied that he had changed thechildren’s bicycle market. After another trip to Europe in 1935, he was delighted to see adultsriding bicycles.
The Schwinn Bicycle Company emerged during the bicycle boom of the 1890s, a period where over 200 cycle manufacturers and small shops operated in Chicago alone. The company began operations in a factory at the northwest corner of Peoria and Lake Streets in Chicago. With the collapse of the bicycle market around the turn of the century, the company purchased March-Davis, a competitor which was operating on what was then the city’s far west side, and moved operations there. At this time, very few of the bicycles being produced by Giant bore their own brand name.
Schwinn still was a company that could spot trends andquickly produced new bicycle models. In 1962 an executive at Schwinn named AlFritz noticed a trend in California of boys riding funny-looking bicycles. They had small wheels, long seats, smallframes, and riser handlebars that looked like Texas longhorn steers. With thisunusual configuration, he was surprised to see kids doing instant wheelies andriding on the rear wheel for blocks. Schwinn started the decadeselling 500 thousand bicycles in 1960 and reached close to 900 thousand by 1970(Petty 2007).