He managed the plant for two years while he searched for the time, place and money to launch his own venture. This he found with the collaboration of another successful German immigrant, Adolf Arnold. Arnold owned a meat packing plant and was part owner of a local bank. According to Pridmore and Hurd, Arnold invested $75,000 in the venture, and Schwinn offered his expertise. The Schwinnfamily bicycle company was very strong for two generations.
In 1894 he had a chance meeting with a fellow German immigrant named Adolph Frederick schwinn electric bike William Arnold. Having first made his money in the meatpacking business and later as a successful investor and banker, Arnold could see the promise of collaborating with an innovative bicycle factory manager like Ignaz Schwinn. The consequence was the Arnold Schwinn and Company was formed in 1895. With a strong investor and an experienced manager, Arnold Schwinn & Company was off and running. Richard Schwinn wanted to stay in the bicycle business but he was prohibited from using the family name.
Competitionwould soon come, but in the 1950s Schwinn became the bicycle of choice for manyAmericans. The popularity of Schwinn would make it a national icon and carry itthrough the next several decades. The idea of moving towards dedicated bicycle dealers wasreinforced by a visit of Ray Burch and his marketing team to a bike shop in California owned by George Garner thatwas selling Schwinn’s like hotcakes. A World War II veteran living in California,he had purchased a shop that sold a wide variety of products including bicycles. He got tired of selling model airplanes and othernickel and dime items.
The decade started with an emphasis on motorcycles and ended with Schwinn firmly established as the highest quality bicycle maker for both adults and children. The innovations of the 1930s, such as the balloon-tired children’s bikes, front suspension, front drum-style brakes, and the Paramount Racer set the direction for Schwinn to next several decades. The publication in 1895 coincides with the same year Schwinn was founded by Adolph Arnold and Ignaz Schwinn. This publication with the name Famous Schwinn Built-Bicycles very likely was marketing the original bicycles sold by the new bicycle company founded by the two founders.
In 2021, a new chapter begins with the sale of the Schwinn brand to Pon Holdings, a manufacturer of high-quality bicycles. Pon Holdings emphasize that one major reason for its purchase of Dorel Sports was that Schwinn is one of the major known brands of bicycles in the USA. The fate of the Schwinn brand is still unknown, but being part of a larger company with deep pockets may lead to innovation and perhaps even to upgrading their offered schwinn bicycles bicycles. To accomplish this, in the mid-1980s Schwinnpurchased a one-third share of a China Bicycles factory in Hong Kong (Crown andColeman 1996).