The Creation Of West Coast Cycle
Nishiki was created by West Coast Cycle, founded by Leo Cohen Sr. and RosaBelle Cohen. The two had previously been partners in Wheel Goods Corporation in Minneapolis. They later moved to Los Angeles in 1946 to purchase an existing retail bicycle store called Atlas Cycle. They went on to rename it Playrite Bicycle Supply Co.. The Cohens subsequently founded a bicycle, parts and accessory distribution company in the late 1950s. This was named West Coast Cycle Supply Company.
They operated the company known as West Coast Cycle with their daughter Louise and sons Leo Jr. and Howie. Howie Cohen subsequently took over the business, followed by his brother.
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When Cohen Sr. died in 1963, Howie Cohen traveled to Japan to find new sources for bicycles. He was interested in finding a Japanese factory capable of producing high quality bicycles that would be welcomed by U.S. independent bike dealers and the bicycling community as well. He wanted bicycles that would be able to compete with American and European-built bicycles.
Howie Cohen Builds The Business
Howie purchased Premium brand Hi-Riser bikes using H. Tano Shokai in the early 1960`s. These bikes were produced by Sakai Bicycle Co .
Cohen also created working relationships with many other Japanese bicycle parts manufacturers. This included Asahi, Araya, Dia-Compe, Kashima, Mikashima (MKS), Shimano, Sugino, and Suntour just to name a few. Cohen travelled to Japan 8 to 10 times per year while developing his brands (American Eagle, Nishiki, Azuki and CyclePro).
Howie Cohen Moves To Japan
Howie worked closely with Rio Marui, Sammy Shigemura & Ed Yokohama. Marui was an exporter and exported an expensive model of an American Eagle bicycle along with many different Japanese components to WCC. When WCC found it necessary for Howie to move & live in Japan, Marui was extremely helpful in making the move successful and less complicated. Marui developed and owned the Tioga line of components & parts. He also opened a U.S. office under the name Oriental Boeki, located in Glendale, California. His son, Shinji, worked in this office with Mark Pippin.
Kawamura Cycles was the original builder of the American Eagle and Nishiki brand bicycles. Howie met Mr Yukio Kawamura in 1964 at which time he visited the factory for the first time.
Howie believed that this factory would be able to produce high quality bicycles. The spirit and passion of Higesan and his staff convinced Howie that it would be beneficial to work with his firm. Higesan was a smart business man and decided to mentor Howie. He showed him the in’s and out’s of bicycle production and what made a quality bike.
Howie would stayed in the Kawamura residence for weeks at a time. There were many staff members with whom Howie worked with over the years. These same staff members would follow Howie to America and live with him while learning about the American bicycle market.
H.Tano to Kawamura
Cohen placed his initial order for 570 bikes with Kawamura, selling them under the American Eagle brand. WCC sold tens of thousands of American Eagle bikes before changing the name. Howie decided to change the name when a customer suggested it was disingenuous to put such an “American sounding name on a Japanese product”.
WCC wanted a new, Japanese name that was easy to pronounce with an none-offensive. Cohen held a contest with Kawamura factory workers for Japanese names The names that won were Nishiki and Azuki. Nishiki is a gold thread used to make wedding kimonos. The name Azuki was chosen for the secondary bicycle line. Azuki is a sweet, red bean. The logo used for this model was the
chrysanthemum.
The Two Brands Enabled More Dealerships
A second line allowed WCC to market essentially identical bikes through more than just one dealership in a sales territory. Louisville Cycle & Supply were sub-distributors for both brands in the Southeast and Pettee Cycle in Denver, Colorado were sub-distributors of both brands. Kawamura trademarked both names for the Japanese Domestic Market and Europe while WCC trademarked the brands for the USA. Early promotional material for American Eagle and Nishiki lines often carried the tagline ‘KB Bicycles’ or simply ‘KB’ signifying ‘Kawamura-Built.’ WCC continued also to market the bicycle brands of Mundo, Caloi, Windsor, Zeus, and Mondia.
Howie Cohen served as President of WCC from 1965 until his retirement in 1976. His brother, Leo Jr. along with some outside investors, subsequently took over operations of the business.
 (L to R) WCC's Leo Cohen Jr, Bob Hansing, Mr. Ikutaki (chief engineer at Kawamura) and Howie Cohen standing in the Kawamura Bicycle Co display booth at the Japan Cycle Show, c.1972 |
The Dollar/Yen fluctuations Move Production
Through the 1980s WCC continued to sell Nishiki bikes produced by Kawamura. International currency fluctuations in the late 1980s made Japanese-manufactured bicycles far more expensive and less competitive in the United States. This forced WCC to move Nishiki production to Giant of Taiwan.
After manufacture of Nishiki bikes shifted to Giant, Kawamura continued manufacturing bicycles for the Japanese and European markets. Other brands such as Takara, Schwinn and others followed suit.
Leo Cohen and his associates later sold West Coast Cycle to Medalist. Derby International eventually acquired the rights from West Coast Cycle to market bikes under the Nishiki brand in the United States.
Howie Cohen later founded the company Everything Bicycles. He worked with Kuwahara to build and import BMX bikes which would use the Kuwahara brand name. He developed the first major BMX distributorship and ultimately supplied Kuwahara bicycles for the 1982 movie E.T. while securing the right to market the “ET Bicycle.”
To make the Kuwahara brand name a household word, Cohen ran a promotion giving free stickers to children who called a toll-free phone number and correctly pronounce the brand name. In 1989, Cohen sold the Kuwahara name back to the Japanese parent company. In 1992, Cohen returned to the bicycle industry to work with and assist the Gary Fisher bike brand. Eighteen months later Howie brokered the acquisition of Gary Fisher Mountain Bikes by Trek Bicycle Corporation.
Mr. Cohen Stays Active
Cohen later worked as a consultant in the bicycle industry for several companies, including Rotor Componentes of Spain, and subsequently retired from Lomita, California to Colorado where he and his wife, Kay (Kay Piercy Guithues Cohen) catalogued his collection of bicycling memorabilia and maintained his website, HowieBikeMan.com.
When Howie Cohen died on July 11, 2013, Bicycle Retailer said he was “a hugely influential figure in developing the U.S. BMX market and arguably the first person to bring high-quality Asian-made bikes to America.”
Derby
From 1989 through 2001, Derby International marketed bikes in the United States under the Nishiki name. They also marketed the Univega and Raleigh brands as well. Some of the all terrain and mountain bike models were designed in partnership with famed mountain bike designer and Hall of Fame member R. Cunningham. These Nishiki models were manufactured outside Japan by other companies. These included Giant, Colnago, Olmo and Viner.
In order to sell American Nishiki’s outside USA, Derby Cycles was forced to use the brand name Cyclpro. This brand was used for mail order and department store bicycles in the home market. Sometimes Cyclpro bicycles had “Nishiki” engraved in the frame which caused some confusion. After existing as a department store brand, Derby ceased selling Nishiki’s in the USA in 2001.
Nishiki Beyond 2010
As of 2010, Nishiki-branded bicycles were manufactured by the Accell Group. These bicycles were available for sale again in the U.S. at Dick’s Sporting Goods. Dick’s had obtained licensing rights to the Nishiki Bike brand in the U.S.
In 2013, Nishiki Europe made up of an unrelated group of European distributors, marketed bicycle models in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. Nishiki bikes had previously been also marketed in Norway, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Estonia.
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