During the first part of the s, Trek remained at the technological forefront among bicycle manufacturers. Throughout the s, the company had succeeded in developing advanced materials that enabled it to maximize the lightness and strength of its bicycle frames. Using the OCLV process, Trek was able to make the lightest production frames in the world, weighing in at a mere 2. Meanwhile, another expansion project took place at Trek's Waterloo plant, which now measured , square feet.
During the early s, the bicycle industry in the United States experienced a bit of a sales slump. To compensate, Trek looked to boost its sales in other areas. The company continued to emphasize international growth during this period. Sales in Japan, for example grew by about 40 percent per year from through Trek also concentrated more on sales in Europe, where it was gaining a solid reputation among bicycle buyers who had long thought of American bikes as heavy, clunky monsters built for kids.
In addition, the company began to focus more on the sale of bicycling accessories. Beginning in , Trek assembled helmets at a new plant in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, out of parts purchased from other companies. By the plant was making helmets at a rate of about half a million a year, double its total from Trek also launched a small line of tandem bikes in Although a relatively small market, the tandem bikes proved popular among family fitness buffs.
In Trek acquired the Gary Fisher Mountain Bike Company, the company founded by and named for the originator of the mountain bike. That modest increase was impressive considering that it came during a period so difficult for bike makers that it saw longtime industry giant Schwinn sink into bankruptcy.
Having passed competitors Specialized and Cannondale, Trek was now the clear market leader in specialty bike shop sales. By that time, the company was manufacturing 65 different models in its Wisconsin plants, including road bike, mountain bike, hybrid, and tandem styles.
Trek expanded its children's bicycle business that year with the introduction of a line called Trek Kids. A number of major developments took place at Trek in That year, the company opened a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Whitewater, Wisconsin. Are Schwinn bikes made in the USA? Check It Out.
About The Author. Mike Mike is our head researcher and reviews tools, sporting equipment, and a variety of other products. Join Our Newsletter! But so does the rest of the bicycle industry. According to the National Bicycle Dealers Association, more than 16 million bicycles were imported to the United States in , mostly from Asia.
Virtually no American companies make smaller parts that go onto a bike like the brakes and the gear shifters. But Trek pursues domestic production when it can for higher end models, including manufacutirng larger components including high-end carbon frames.
These bicycles get a "Handbuilt in the United States" label. Lee, New Jersey. Joanna says most customers who come in to buy high-end bicycles are very savvy. They know which bikes are made in America. Before picking up the Trek brand in their store two years ago, the couple visited Trek's Waterloo operations to see how the bikes are made.
They liked what they saw, and say in-store Trek sales are doing "very well. Skip Navigation. VIDEO Workers craft Trek Bicycles in Waterloo, Wis. Most bikes, however, are manufactured in Asia.
You talk about focusing on making great products and providing great customer service, and you've spoken elsewhere about how you admired Steve Jobs and his passion for quality. Burke: I tell you, one of our failings is that we do too many things. And you're right, I'm a huge fan of Steve Jobs and what he did at Apple , and we've used those lessons very well here. But we do bite off a lot of different things.
We have an appetite for change and we want to play. There are a lot of companies who've seen this advocacy stuff, and most of the bike industry sees it and they go, "That's not me — somebody else does that.
We do a lot of different things. McMahon: Describe your decision-making process. You come off as a no-nonsense guy who makes decisions quickly. Burke: Yeah. There are these two whiteboards, and the reason there are two is that one usually gets filled up and we go on to the other. But my decision-making process is really simple: I get the best people in the room, I get a whiteboard and a bunch of markers, and I listen to what everybody has to say, and I write it all up on the board, and then we figure it out, and we go.
I love getting people's input — that's why you have people. And we have so many smart people around here. When you can put stuff up on a board you can visualize it; it just helps me think the problem through and it becomes clearer. I thought I was weird that I always had to have this whiteboard.
Then I Googled "Steve Jobs whiteboard" and he was a huge fan of it. So in all the Trek offices around the world there's a big whiteboard. Burke: We have this thing where we say, "Get the right people, in the right seats, in the awesome bus. We do everything we can to make Trek a great place to work.
If you look outside the door here, we've got the best 15 miles of mountain-bike trails. They're not in Whistler, they're not in Colorado — they're right across the street here in Waterloo.
And you see people go over by the hundreds every day to go ride their mountain bikes. Employees own a good piece of the business here. And if you take a look at our health program, we do everything to make this a great awesome bus.
So what we look for and who that's up to are our great individual leaders who are tasked with hiring their teams. I hire my team, but those people go and hire their teams. If you take a look at the guy in charge of legal at Trek, he's been here for 22 years. The guy in charge of our international business, he's been here 28 years.
Guy in charge of product, 29 years. Guy in charge of US sales, 31 years. If you take the woman in charge of global customer service, she's been here 28 years. The woman in charge of the international distributor market, 28 years. We've got a core group of people who have been here a long time. And when you go down in the organization, people spend a lot of time here, and they do so for a good reason.
I always thought, if you take a look at the ballplayer who plays for the same team his whole career, that's something special.
People move around in companies more today than they ever have, but when you just take a look at some of these people who have worked at Trek for a long time, I look at that and I say, that's really cool.
And you won't find that anywhere else in the bike business. Handmade Trek Project One frames await final assembly before being shipped to customers. McMahon: How do you feel these days about Specialized , one of your fiercest rivals? Burke: I respect all the brands we compete with. Specialized does some good stuff. We have a great competition with Specialized and with other companies. The one thing I like the most about Trek is we're not focused on Specialized; we're focused on Trek.
If we do what Trek needs to do, we're doing great. We have so many great plans on the drawing board; we have so many platforms to execute on. Let's focus on what we're doing. That was one of the keys at Apple: They stopped focusing on Microsoft and they did their deal. What Trek needs to do is focus on Trek. McMahon: It's been over decade since the beginning of the end of " the Lance effect. Now that you've had that distance, how do you look back on the Lance effect today?
Burke: The best thing about the Lance effect is probably two things. One, it got a lot of people riding their bikes. Not just riding around the neighborhood — I mean, it got a lot of people into serious riding. Marathon riders picked up cycling.
It got a lot of people into the serious side of the sport. That had a huge impact, not just on the business but on the sport itself.
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