GSO Bike history: Higgins Schwinn bldg. demolished

[Dale B Brown]

The old Higgins bike shop building on Battleground ASve.has just been demolished.

Interesting piece of GSO bike history...

In the early 1960s, Schwinn bicycle company radically changed retail bicycle shops. Until then most had been bicycles, lawnmowers and key shops in the less expensive side of town. Schwinn in Chicago came up with an approach that standardized the look of each store. Nowadays we're used to the idea of all McDonald's and other retail franchises looking alike, but before the 1960s,  each business was designed and instigated by its owner. So they all had different personalities .

Schwinn changed that with the help of a man named George Garner, a Californian who came up with athe Schwinn total concept approach. All the Schwinn dealers were required to buy the same signage, countertops and showcases. So when people walked in a Schwinn store, they knew they were in a Schwinn store.

Glendi Higgins' bike shop was one of those. He started as a small funky business cloe to UNCG, but then moved to Battleground Avenue, the highest traveled retail street in Greensboro. And he opened his store using the new Schwinn motif.

In the late '60s and 1970s he was hugely successful. For the Christmas season they sold over 1000 bikes. That's as many or more than most shops sell in an entire year. It was quite a show.   I worked for him in 1972, a fascinating experience!

Then things changed, the retail market became more complex. And more bike shops became owned by enthusiasts who were into their product and knew a lot about them. And many Schwinn shops were not very knowledgeable about "fancy bikes" And those nicer bikes were where the market was going. The Tour de France, Greg Lemond, Lance Armstrong, and mountain bikes led the way for more adults to become involved in cycling and left many Schwinn dealers behind. 

So Schwinn bicycle company was sold, was sold again, and it was sold again. Now it's basically an inexpensive department store & internet product.. No longer the high quality it once was. 

  Adios Higgins Schwinn. Welcome to the New World.

Dale Brown
cycles de ORO Bike Shop
701 A Hill Street
Greensboro, North Carolina 27408
336.274.5959
www.cyclesdeoro.com

[david.h...@gmail.com]

My hometown of Grand Forks ND (pop 50,000) also had a Schwinn shop very similar to Higgins, they too cut keys. Both of my older brothers Andy and Steve worked as mechanics at the GF shop. I remember my Schwinn Varsity, green with 5-speeds, and a World Sport, as well as a used Schwinn banana seat bike, all bought there. Schwinn also had the brands Paramount and Waterford. As you imply Dale, just about any town of any significant size had a Schwinn shop - for years in Grand Forks we had to drive to Fargo (75 miles south) or Winnipeg (150 miles north) to find an independent bike shop that wasn't Schwinn-affiliated. And yeah, it wasn't in the prime part of town that's for sure, it was near the Greyhound bus depot in fact, not far from the railroad roundhouse and the infamous winking water tower of Grand Forks.

The demise of Schwinn was caused famously (or infamously) in large part because the corporate owners honestly thought that the whole mountain bike thing in the 1980s was just a fad, that it would soon go away, and so they didn't take it seriously until they had already lost the market.

The Schwinn brand is still available, but mostly at Walmart.

David Hampsten, Community Bike Shop

[Charles Moore]

Awesome read! Thanks for that piece of history! 

Charles E. Moore

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[Jeffrey Blaser]

Thanks so much for the background !  My father bought our ‘Christmas’ bikes and replacements as we grew from Higgins for many years.    I bought my first ‘fancy’ bike, a MotoBecane Super Mirage from you on Tate Street near UNC-G in the mid 70s, before 1979.  Fun memories...how time flies!

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From: triadc...@googlegroups.com <triadc...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Charles Moore <moebet...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2026 2:42:52 AM
To: david.h...@gmail.com <david.h...@gmail.com>
Cc: Triad Ride List <triadc...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [Triad Cycling] Re: GSO Bike history: Higgins Schwinn bldg. demolished

 

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