Schwinn Bicycle Company

The Schwinn Bicycle Company is an American bicycle maker, now headquartered in Vancouver, Washington. Ignaz Schwinn, a German-born engineer who emigrated to the United States in 1891, founded it in Chicago in 1895 with financial backing from the meat packer Adolph Arnold, and for decades it traded as Arnold, Schwinn and Company. Schwinn grew by buying smaller bicycle firms and building a modern factory on the city's west side, and in 1912 it bought the motorcycle maker Excelsior, later adding Henderson to form Excelsior-Henderson. After the stock market crash of 1929 ended that motorcycle business, Ignaz's son Frank W. Schwinn steered the firm entirely to bicycles. The company introduced the Aerocycle in 1934 and the high-end Paramount racing line in 1938. In the twentieth century it became the dominant manufacturer of American bicycles. Schwinn declared bankruptcy in 1992 and was restructured, then declared bankruptcy again in 2001 and was bought by Pacific Cycle, which is owned by the Dutch conglomerate Pon Holdings.