No Hands: The Rise and Fall of the Schwinn Bicycle Company: An American Institution

Traces the career of Schwinn, from its uncontested predominance over the bicycle market of the 1950s to its failure to cope with the mountain bike fad of the 1980s, to its ultimate descent into bankruptcy and corporate takeover. Tour.

This involving saga of the rise and fall of an American icon, the Schwinn Bicycle Company, combines a colorful social history of bicycling with a cautionary tale on the many forces that can bring down a family-run enterprise. Founded in 1895 in Chicago by headstrong German immigrant Ignaz Schwinn, the firm saw its market eclipsed by the automobile age, until Schwinn's son Frank led the bicycle industry out of the Depression with diverse styles and a youth-oriented image. Business boomed in the 1950s, but imported bikes splintered the market, and third- and fourth-generation Schwinns, clinging to old formulas, fell behind. The closing of the Chicago factory in 1983, a Pyrrhic victory over the union, left Schwinn essentially an importer. Parts shortages and lack of investment in new equipment were further burdens. Crown and Coleman, reporter and deputy managing editor, respectively, at Crain's Chicago Business, maintain that Ed Schwinn Jr., who became president in 1979, soured key relationships with dealers, employees and suppliers through his arrogance, managerial blunders and a series of joint ventures that sapped the company's limited resources. After filing for bankruptcy in 1992, Schwinn Bicycle was bought by Chicago investors Sam Zell and David Schulte, who moved the streamlined enterprise to Boulder, Colo. Photos. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A fine generation-spanning account of the unhappy fate of Schwinn, a family firm that for the better part of a century bestrode US bicycle business like a colossus. Although they received no cooperation from surviving members of the founding family, Crown and Coleman (both staffers at Crain's Chicago Business) tapped a wealth of other sources to reconstruct the sad story of a Windy City enterprise that achieved the status of an American household name, only to develop an inbred arrogance that rendered it unable to meet the challenges of an increasingly volatile marketplace. The authors track the activities of Ignaz Schwinn, who set up shop as a manufacturer in 1895, four years after emigrating to the US from Germany. During the patriarch's lengthy tenure, which lasted until his death at 88 in 1948, Schwinn earned a reputation for quality and innovation, becoming the brand of choice among kids, who accounted for 95 percent of the domestic industry's sales. The founder's son and grandson consolidated these gains, and the company produced one million bicycles in 1968. Schwinn's prosperity came to a screeching halt in the mid-1970s. Among other problems, the company (which was unprepared as well as unwilling to meet overnight demand from fitness-minded adults for mountain and racing bikes) lost momentum in the children's market. Imports, a steadfast refusal to go public, labor strife, an unsuccessful move of manufacturing operations from Chicago to Mississippi, resistance to technological advances not developed in- house, and other miscalculations all took a toll. In the fall of l992, Schwinn filed for bankruptcy. The marque lives on, thanks to vulture capitalists who snapped up corporate assets at distress prices, but control has passed from the founding family's hands. A tellingly detailed, often gossipy, and consistently absorbing case study on the largely self-induced eclipse of a commercial paragon, from journalists who know the territory. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The Schwinn bicycle is one of childhood's icons, a piece of Americana. The story of the Schwinn Bicycle Company is also an American story, now an all-too-common one. Chicago-based Schwinn was a century-old, once-proud family business unable to change with the times and had fallen prey to internecine family squabbling. Although its classic bicycle is now a high-priced, much-sought-after collectible, the company misread the market in the 1980s and initially scoffed at the concept of the mountain bike. During the last half of that decade, sales plunged by half, and the company filed for bankruptcy in 1992. Shortly thereafter it was purchased by private investors. Crown and Coleman covered the company's demise in the hometown weekly Crain's Chicago Business and here re-tell Schwinn's saga in fascinating detail. This is a corporate history that will have widespread appeal. David Rouse

Schwinn, whose name was synonymous with the American bicycle, was for many decades an innovative and highly successful company. Since its founding in 1895 by German immigrant Ignaz Schwinn and later ownership by his descendants, the company produced such sought-after bicycles as the Black Phantom, Sting Ray, Varsity, and Excelsior. In 1992, Schwinn filed for bankruptcy and was subsequently taken over by an outsider. Crown and Coleman, both of Crain's Chicago Business, examine the history of Schwinn "not only in the context of the bicycle industry but also in its fall as an American icon?a tale for businesses large and small." The reasons they cite for its failure include management blunders, marketing and distribution miscalculations, and a clash of corporate cultures. An insightful look at a leading player in an important U.S. industry; recommended for both public and academic collections.?Lucy T. Heckman, St. John's Univ., Jamaica, N.Y.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.