The Fall of Schwinn as presented by Crain Magazine 1993

Don't know if this has been posted before, but I ran across this while searching for something else and thought a lot of people on this site would be interested. Crain Magazines story on the fall of Schwinn.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/19931009/ISSUE01/100018007/the-fall-of-schwinn-pt-1-of-2

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/19931009/ISSUE01/100018008/the-fall-of-schwinn-pt-2-of-2

Those articles were the origin of the following book, which goes into quite a bit more detail: No Hands: The Rise and Fall of the Schwinn Bicycle Company, an American Institution



Highly recommended for anybody interested in Schwinn history, here is a review: http://allseasonscyclist.com/2012/05/28/no-hands-the-rise-and-fall-of-schwinn-bicycle/

This Crain's article and "No Hands" gives the complete story
of the Schwinn saga and is well worth reading.
Your local library should have a copy of "No Hands".
A must read if you have any interest in the rise and fall of Schwinn.

Sad story

Schwinn illustrates perfectly the adage, pride comes before the fall.

"those mountain bikes will never amount to anything"

"it's better just because it's a Schwinn"

"nobody will buy those lightweight Asian bikes when they can have a Varsity"

The above are not actual statements quoted from the article, but what I interpreted as corporate culture from reading the article.

Schwinn was once king of the hill but never bothered to see or recognize others who were trying to kick them off.

Like I said, a sad story.