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"cycling guru Gary Fisher, widely credited with inventing the mountain bike in the 1970s — a bicycle that Schwinn's engineers literally laughed at." Classic ta

• Waterluvian 10y ago
  Napping on them, even!
• InclinedPlane 10y ago
  What I find fascinating is how failing to understand why people are buying your product can sometimes be more disastrous for the competition. Look at SUVs, almost nobody bought them to use as Sport and/or Utility vehicles, they were generally used for hauling stuff and people around town. Precisely the same things that minivans, station wagons, and extended cab pickups were always designed for. But minivans and station wagons had by the '90s picked up a massive uncoolness factor, and pickups had their own unique social connotations. Similarly, most people who were buying mountain bikes were not using them on mountain trails, they were just biking around the city on roads. But a mountain bike is a bit easier and more comfortable to ride than a road bike for most folks who don't ride long distances a lot. Also, by the '90s the "10 speed" had lost its coolness factor and mountain bikes were definitely acquiring a strong coolness factor (just as BMX bikes had during the '80s). Schwinn's failures remind me a lot of Radio Shack's. At one time a hugely iconic and market dominant brand, and then a few years later struggling to stay in business before tipping all the way into the abyss of history. All because they didn't understand what people wanted and how the market was changing around them and were disdainful of the competition until it was way too late.