I would genuinely like to understand badging better, and I think Trojan serves as a great example of what's confusing about it.
I can understand a reseller wanting to have a bike badged for them when they don't have the resources to produce their own bikes; department stores, auto parts stores, tires stores, etc. That's clear.
But bike manufacturers already have the expected variety of offerings from entry level to high-end within their own brand. What is the advantage of creating an entirely separate make with it's own badging and colors? In the automobile world we have Ford / (Mercury) / Lincoln, Honda / Acura and so on. So I can, to some degree, see producing high / medium- / low-end brands in an attempt to capture certain target markets. With the cars the difference often is just the badge and color. There's even a name for it: badge engineering.
But from my limited experience with antique and classic bikes there seems to be no end to how many different badges were offered by a single manufacturer - and CWC is also a great example of that. It feels like the market must have been positively saturated with all of these differently badged bikes. When in reality they were all the same under the paint.
With modern bikes it makes a bit more sense because you have such a wide array of groupsets. God only knows how many varieties Shimano offers nowadays. But when we're talking post-war single speeds, as far as I understand the pieces are all the same.
And getting back to Trojan, literally, go find one. I would never imply they're rare, but where are they all? Why is it the same blue & white ladies that pops up from time to time and not much else? I've seen the burgundy & white boys version once or twice, but all are the same '53/'54 era. Where are the rest? Was the brand a flop? If so, why? It's fully a Roadmaster with the badge turned upside down!
Thank you
@lgrinnings for the image of the '37 badge. That tells me the brand was around for at least 17 years.
If someone can expand on early- to mid-century badging and Trojan specifically, or point me towards a source that can, I would be grateful for the education.
E=-)