market, for example, under the brand name 'Royce Union.'Ĭohen also created working relationships with Japanese bicycle parts manufacturers including Asahi, Araya, Dia-Compe, Kashima, Kusuki, Kyokuto (KKT), Mikashima (MKS), Mitsuboshi, Taihei, Sanshin, Shimano, Sugino, Takagi, Suntour and others. Kawamura had produced quality bicycles for the Japan domestic market, but at the directive of their overseas buyers, had produced lower-quality, lower-priced bicycles for the U.S. independent bike dealers and the bicycling community bicycles that would be able to compete with American and European-built bicycles.Īfter visiting over 60 bicycles factories over a period of six weeks, Cohen turned to Kawamura Cycles. died in 1963, Howie Cohen traveled to Japan to find new sources for bicycles, and especially, a Japanese bicycle factory capable of producing high quality bikes that would be welcomed by U.S. Howie Cohen subsequently took over the business, followed by his brother. They operated the company - widely known as West Coast Cycle (or WCC) - with their daughter Louise and sons Leo Jr.
The Cohens subsequently founded a bicycle, parts and accessory distribution company in the late 1950s, naming it West Coast Cycle Supply Company. and RosaBelle Cohen who had previously been partners in Wheel Goods Corporation in Minneapolis, later moving to Los Angeles in 1946 to purchase an existing retail bicycle store, Atlas Cycle, renaming it Playrite Bicycle Supply Co. West Coast Cycle was founded by Leo Cohen Sr. market and began marketing Nishiki-branded bicycles and accessories. In 2010, Dick's Sporting Goods acquired the licensing rights to the Nishiki brand for the U.S. market until currency fluctuations in the late 1980s made them less competitive, leading companies to source bicycles from Taiwan.Īs of 2013, Nishiki Europe markets bicycle models in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. Japanese-manufactured bikes succeeded in the U.S. bike boom of the 1970s and into the 1980s, Nishiki and West Coast Cycle competed with domestic companies including Schwinn, Huffy, and Murray European companies including Raleigh, Peugeot and Motobecane-as well as other nascent Japanese brands including Miyata, Fuji, Bridgestone, Panasonic, Univega, Lotus and Centurion-itself a line of Japanese-manufactured bicycles that were specified, distributed and marketed by Western States Imports (WSI), a U.S. The bicycles were first marketed under the American Eagle brand beginning in 1965 and later under the Nishiki brand until 2001. in Kobe, Japan, and subsequently by Giant of Taiwan. Nishiki is a brand of bicycles designed, specified, marketed and distributed by West Coast Cycle in the United States, initially manufactured by Kawamura Cycle Co.
1971 advertisement: American Eagle Bikes, American Bicyclist Magazine, with 'KB Bicycles' signifying 'Kawamura-Built'
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