Trek Bicycle Corporation: История и развитие американского производителя велосипедов

American bicycle manufacturing company

Trek Bicycle Corporation is a bicycle and cycling product manufacturer and distributor under brand names Trek, Electra Bicycle Company, Bontrager, and Diamant Bikes. The company has previously manufactured bikes under the Gary Fisher, LeMond Racing Cycles, Klein, and Villiger Bikes brand names. With its headquarters in Waterloo, Wisconsin, Trek bicycles are marketed through 1,700 independently owned bicycle shops across North America, subsidiaries in Europe, Asia, South Africa, as well as distributors in 90 countries worldwide. Nearly all Trek bicycles are manufactured outside the United States, in countries including the Netherlands, Germany, Taiwan, and China.

In December 1975, Dick Burke and Bevil Hogg established Trek Bicycle as a wholly owned subsidiary of Roth Corporation, a Milwaukee based appliance distributor. In early 1976, with a payroll of five, Trek started manufacturing steel touring frames in Waterloo, Wisconsin, aiming at the mid to high end market dominated by Japanese and Italian made models. Trek built nearly 900 custom hand brazed framesets that first year, each selling for under $200. Later that same year, Trek Bicycle was incorporated. In 1977, Penn Cycle in Richfield, Minnesota became the first Trek retailer in the world. Within three years, Trek sales approached $2,000,000 in 1979.

Hampered without additional manufacturing capacity, Trek sales plateaued in the late 1970s. In just a few years, Trek had outgrown its original "red barn" manufacturing facility—a former carpet warehouse. Recognizing the need for expansion, in 1980 Trek broke ground on a new corporate headquarters on the outskirts of Waterloo. Company co founder Dick Burke would later recall that "it wasn’t until we built the new factory that we became a business." With more factory space available, Trek expanded its manufacturing to include complete bikes. In 1981, Trek entered the steel road racing bike market, introducing the "Pro" line, including the 750 and 950 models, and in 1983, Trek built its first mountain bike, the 850. In 1984, Trek ventured into the aftermarket parts and accessories business, launching its Trek Components Group (TCG) department.

In 1985, borrowing technology from the aerospace industry, (and bike companies such as Alan and Vitus), Trek introduced its first bonded aluminum bike frame, the 2000. The introduction of bonded aluminum to Trek's production line proved very problematic for a company that had built itself on hand brazed steel frames. Manufacturing ground to a halt as Trek worked to figure out how to build bonded frames in a production environment. A year later, Trek followed up the success of the 2000 with a 3 tube carbon composite model, the 2500. Thus began Trek's foray into carbon fiber. That same year, to keep up with rapidly growing sales, Trek added another of manufacturing space to its Waterloo headquarters. In 1988, Trek introduced "Trek Wear," marking the company's entry into the cycling apparel business. A year later, Trek expanded into foreign markets, opening subsidiary offices in the UK and in Germany. That same year, Trek introduced its Jazz brand of bicycles, a collection of entry level and kids’ bikes designed by Trek but manufactured in Taiwan. Jazz bicycles were discontinued in 1993. 1989 was a pivotal year for Trek, marking the year that the company unveiled its first molded carbon fiber frame, the Trek 5000. The 5000 frameset (monocoque carbon frame plus bonded aluminum fork) had an advertised weight of Designed by Trek but built by Brent Trimble, an outside manufacturer, the 5000 suffered enough quality problems that it was discontinued after just one year. But the lessons learned from the 5000 would prove to be instrumental in driving Trek to develop its own carbon manufacturing capabilities in the coming years. In 1990, Trek developed a new category of bicycle that combined the comfort features of a mountain bike with the quick ride of a road bike: MultiTracks, Trek's first line of hybrid bikes, were born. That same year, Trek also introduced its first line of kids’ bikes. In 1991, Trek opened its first company owned retail store in nearby Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to showcasing a full line of Trek products, the Trek Store served as a hands on sales training center for employees from Trek's headquarters who lacked retail experience. The store also provided an outlet for Trek to test merchandising and marketing ideas before expanding them to its network of independent bicycle retailers.

In the early 1990s, Trek's director of technology, Bob Read, attended an aerospace industry trade show in Salt Lake City, Utah, eventually meeting up with a closed mold tooling company called Radius Engineering. That visit convinced Read that Trek's future success depended on building frames from carbon fiber, a material he envisioned could be used to make light, strong frames. Having lived through the troubled introduction of the 5000, Trek invested heavily in in house carbon fiber manufacturing capabilities. In 1992, Trek unveiled its first home grown, full carbon framed bicycles, the 5500 and 5200, featuring OCLV Carbon frames. OCLV stands for "Optimum Compaction, Low Void" and refers to Trek's proprietary process for creating carbon structures that exceed aerospace standards. Weighing only , the 5500 frame was the world's lightest production road frame. To make room for its new OCLV manufacturing facility, Trek expanded its Waterloo headquarters again to a total of 1992 marked another first for Trek: its first full suspension mountain bike, the 9000 series, which featured Trek's T3C (travel is three times compression) suspension system. In 1993, Trek introduced its first OCLV Carbon mountain bike frames, the 9800 and the 9900, which at was the world's lightest production mountain bike frame. In 1993, Trek also acquired Gary Fisher Mountain Bikes, named after Gary Fisher, one of the inventors of the mountain bike and one of the most popular names in off road cycling. Fisher had founded Gary Fisher Mountain Bikes in 1983 and sold his company in 1991 to Taiwan's Anlen company, remaining on as President. In 1992, Howie Cohen, who had previously imported Nishiki, Azuki and Kuwahara bicycles, assisted Gary Fisher with his brand — 18 months later brokering the acquisition of Fisher by Trek (in 1993). ), Trek announced its 1 World 2 Wheels bicycle advocacy campaign at its annual Trek World dealer convention in Madison, Wisconsin. Central to 1 World 2 Wheels is its "Go By Bike" initiative, which urges Americans to ride their bikes instead of drive their cars for trips of two miles (3 km) or less. Through 1 World 2 Wheels Trek also pledged $1,000,000 to help fund the League of American Bicyclists’ "Bicycle Friendly Community" program and committed $600,000 to the International Mountain Bicycling Association's (IMBA) Trail Solutions Services. On January 6, 2014, Trek announced the acquisition of the Electra Bicycle Company. In 2009, Trek created the Trek Women Triathlon Series. 2011, Trek sponsored three women's triathlon series; the Trek Women Triathlon Series, the Danskin Series and the Iron Girl Series. As from the 2014 season, Trek became the main sponsor of Pro Tour cycling team Trek Factory Racing, a continuation of its bike sponsorship of Team RadioShack and co sponsorship of Team Leopard Trek. In 2017, Trek paid equal prize money to the male and female winners of the Cyclocross World Cup race hosted at their headquarters in Waterloo, Wisconsin, which was, "the first time in the history of the sport that women would be paid as much as men for racing the same course at the World Cup level." In 2021, Trek announced the release of its professional level Madone.

In 2014, the UCI unified the two classifications into a single classification in line with regulations for current track pursuit bikes. Following the change in the rules, German Jens Voigt became the first rider to attempt the hour record, on 18 September 2014 at the Velodrome Suisse, Grenchen, Switzerland on a Trek bicycle. He set a new record of 51.110 km, beating the previous record set by Sosenka by 1.410 km.

Trek Y series bikes were used in the hit TV series Pacific Blue and outfitted with Spinergy wheels, NiteRider lights and Janned police bags making each bicycle worth $5,000.

In early days Trek has manufactured bikes by itself in Wisconsin and distributed under the brands Gary Fisher, LeMond Racing Cycles, Klein, and Villiger Bikes brand names. Nearly all Trek bicycles frames are produced in Taiwan and China. Most of the high end alloy frames are welded in Tawian and finished in Wisconsin. An important supplier is the Chinese company Quest Composite Technology, which also produces frames for the German brand "Canyon".

For the year 2010, Trek teamed with multiple suppliers to provide eco friendly products. This includes brand new bikes that are economically priced and are made out of steel, it being an easier material to obtain and recycle. Also, Trek is starting to provide bike shops with funds to start recycling old tubes to be sent to Alchemy Goods in Seattle, Washington, to be made into bags, seat bags, and panniers.

Bontrager branded products include helmets, tires, wheels, handlebars, stems, seatposts, saddles, electronics and cycling shoes, water bottles, cycling clothing and other accessories. The Bontrager brand name is being phased out and replaced with Trek branded products, adding the Bontrager name to Klein, Gary Fisher and LeMond as American companies that Trek has acquired and then dissolved.

The relationship between Trek and Tour de France winner Greg LeMond went back to at least 1995 when LeMond licensed Trek to produce LeMond branded bicycles. According to Trek, "In 1999, the LeMond line was one of the fastest growing road bike brands and one of the top five largest road bike brands in the United States". Trek responded in April 2008 by suing to sever business ties with LeMond. The suit was settled out of court in 2010. As of 2021 LeMond remains the only American Tour de France champion and was eventually awarded a congressional gold medal for his career long commitment to cycling.