Electra Bicycle Company
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| Private | |
| Industry | Bicycles |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Headquarters | Encinitas, California, United States |
| Products | Bicycle and related components |
| Parent | Trek Bicycle Company |
| Website | http://www.electrabike.com/ |
Electra Bicycle Company, a subsidiary of Trek Bicycle Company, was founded in Vista, California, in 1993, by Benno Bänziger and Jeano Erforth. Electra offers a wide range of modern cruiser bicycles. Additionally Electra designed and sells comfort bicycles, and hybrid bicycles. Electra also sells a line of accessories, apparel, and bicycle parts.
Electra was founded in 1993 Benno Bänziger. A Swiss national, Bänziger had grown up in the Swiss Embassy in West Berlin interested in California and action sports. As a teenager, he began designing and manufacturing snowboards in Germany, later moving to California after graduating with a degree in graphic design He founded Projekt Design in 1990 working for companies including K2 and Adidas. Bänziger considered manufacturing snowboards or skateboards, but felt those markets were crowded with competitors and seemed a poor bet for a beginning manufacturer. He turned his attention to bicycles.
Bänziger told the San Diego Union-Tribune, "The one thing I found when I looked at cycling in the US was that everything was some kind of sport, but very few people used bikes for fun or for transportation. I wanted to introduce the 'having a bike in your life' factor, as opposed to 'being a cyclist'".
At the time, there were very few cruisers, the classic "fun" bike, on the market. "Back in 1993, there were no cruisers available", Erforth told the Carlsbad Local News, "You could buy a $99 Huffy at Wal-Mart, or you could try to find an old one and restore it, which is very expensive", Bänziger decided there was a market niche for a stylish, affordable cruiser bicycle for twentysomethings and began working on designs that combined classic looks with contemporary technology. About this time, Bänziger met Erforth, a fellow German transplant who was selling pieces of the Berlin Wall. Erforth said he could sell the kind of bikes Bänziger was designing, so the two pooled $30,000 in personal savings and founded Electra Bicycle Company. The two remain the firm's sole shareholders.
The new Electra cruisers were manufactured by a Taiwanese contractor and the two partners began trying to sell them to bike shops. At first, "Dealers laughed at us," says Bänziger. "But people realized they didn't need a mountain bike to go to the grocery store." However, when bike shops tried stocking the Electras, they began to sell, and word-of-mouth convinced more dealers to sign on. In fact, the fledging company's cruiser sales were so strong that larger firms were spurred to start offering their own cruiser models. Today, Electras are available in bike shops throughout Europe, the USA, Japan, and Australia.
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Wikipedia