The new Schwinn Collegiate.
Detroit Bikes is to make a limited run of Collegiate bicycles for Schwinn. After its introduction in 1954 the roadster bicycle was a two-decade top-seller in Schwinn’s catalog.
The original Collegiate was sold via Schwinn’s authorized dealers, a network of independent bike shops formed in 1952 that dominated the sale of bicycles in America for the following 30 years, including into the “bike boom” of the early 1970s.
The new Collegiate—based on the 1965 model—will be sold exclusively via Walmart.com.
Detroit Bikes was founded in 2011 by a Canadian immigrant; a German immigrant founded Schwinn in 1895.
Schwinn’s sprawling factory in Chicago, as seen in the brand’s 1939 catalog.
This year Schwinn celebrates its 125th anniversary. The brand has been owned by Dorel Industries of Canada since 2004, and is in the group’s Pacific Cycle division which sells to big-box retailers. Dorel also owns bicycle brands Cannondale and GT, which are mainly sold via specialty retailers, including independent bike shops.
“Schwinn’s rich heritage is something we are very proud of,” said Pacific Cycle president Nando Zucchi.
“As people turn to bikes to help navigate the global health crisis, there has never been a more important time to focus on developing new and exciting products,” he added.
The last US-made Schwinn bike rolled off the production line in 1982. The family-owned business—mismanaged by sons and grandsons of the founder Ignaz Schwinn—was dismembered after bankruptcy in 1993 by “vulture” financier David Schulte and real estate mogul Sam Zell and their Chicago-based Zell/Chilmark Fund in cahoots with then smalltime U.S. bicycle company Scott U.S.A. of Sun Valley, Idaho.
A 1960s Schwinn Collegiate.
Further financial woes, brought on by a flat market and increasing competition from Asia, including Giant Bicycle of Taiwan, which had originally been Schwinn’s main supplier, led to the brand name being sold—along with the similarly troubled BMX brand GT Bicycle—at a 2001 bankruptcy auction to Pacific Cycle.
Three years later, Pacific Cycle was acquired by Canada’s Dorel Industries. Schwinn’s big-box bikes have been made in Asia since the 1980s.
Not that Henry Ford
The new Collegiate will be made in Detroit by, among others, Henry Ford II.
Mr. Ford—no relation to Detroit’s more famous Henry Ford—is the Master Builder at Detroit Bikes, which has two welders and 23 other workers. The factory was founded by Canadian Zak Pashak who moved to Detroit after developing an interest in making a transportation product for cities.
“I started a music festival [in Canada],” Pashak told me last year.
“Through that, I got interested in politics and cities and started reading a lot of urban planning policy documents. I ran for city council in Calgary and got interested in transportation policy. It dawned on me that there’s only so much I could do as a city councilor—there needs to be a shift in how people think about how we move around cities.”
The “secret weapon,” he came to realize, was the bicycle, and he founded Detroit Bikes as part of a burgeoning reshoring trend in the revitalized Michigan city.
Making the Collegiate for Schwinn was an “absolute honor,” Pashak told me by email.
“When the opportunity to collaborate with Schwinn came up, I knew we had to jump on it,” he stressed, adding that a Made-in-the-USA Schwinn fits perfectly with the “heightened demand for bikes” during today’s lockdown-related bike boom.
The Collegiate will be available only via Walmart.com. Walmart has 4,000 stores and sells more bikes than any other U.S. retailer.
One of the directors of Walmart is Steuart Walton, grandson of Walmart’s billionaire founder Sam Walton. Along with this brother Tom, Walton runs RZC Investments, which owns British cycling apparel business Rapha and part-owns Allied Cycle Works, a high-end bike manufacturer based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
“For many rural communities, Walmart is the only place to buy bikes locally,” said Pacific Cycle’s communications manager Ryan Birkicht.
“Accessibility of bikes is one of the key factors in growing the bike industry,” added Birkicht, who is based at Pacific Cycle’s HQ in Madison, Wisconsin.
The special edition Collegiate will go on sale July 1.
