(No caption)
In a new partnership with Faygo, Detroit Bikes will produce limited-edition models in colors inspired by beverage flavors. (Detroit Bikes photo)
Zak Pashak, the 36-year-old founder of Detroit Bikes, takes advantage of a high-profile platform to spread the word that Detroit is “a good spot for urban revitalization to take hold.”
That's among his comments to Tim Higgins, a Washington-based reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek who profiles the three-year-old company this week. The news hook is a contract from a New York City ride-sharing program:
Pashak . . . points to the loading dock, where a tractor-trailer waits to haul the bikes more than 600 miles to Citi Bike headquarters in Brooklyn. “This was my dream when we got the factory—watching semis drive away at the end of the day,” Pashak says.
When his factory opened in 2013, bicycle manufacturing in the U.S. had all but disappeared. The long, downward spiral began in the 1980s, when industry-giant Schwinn shifted work to Asia, a cost-saving move that other manufacturers such as Huffy soon copied. In 2015 only 2.5 percent of the estimated 12.6 million bikes sold in the U.S. (not including those for children) were made here, according to the National Bicycle Dealers Association.
“A lot of people thought it was really goofy when I first started this,” says the bearded Pashak.
Now it seems far from goofy, suggests the business writer, who visited the 50,000-square-foot west side factory near Plymouth Road and Schaefer Highway:
Detroit Bikes’ contract with Motivate, the [Brooklyn] company that runs bike-sharing programs in 12 metro areas, has helped put Pashak’s company on pace to churn out 10,000 bikes this year. . . .
Currently, Motivate uses Detroit Bikes-assembled bicycles in New York, Boston and Jersey City.
The chief executive of Motivate tells the Bloomberg writer that before Detroit Bikes, “there were no bike-share bicycles that were being made anywhere in the United States.”
The 1,500-word article is accompanied by a photo essay with 13 factory images by freelancer Ricky Rhodes of Cleveland.
Detroit Bikes sells three models for $600 to $700 at its website and its downtown store, 1216 Griswold. They're also offered by retailers in the U.S., Canada and Switzerland.
Earlier coverage:
David vs. Goliath: Detroit Bikes Accuses Shinola of 'Trying to Play Fast and Loose, Dec. 2, 2015
