Steve Neago reveals how, why and when Huffy used the Raleigh name to market cycles in the USA

Some people may mistakenly believe that the American cycle manufacturer Huffy (Huffman) purchased TI Raleigh (USA) Inc. during the early 1980s. I can assure you this was not so! Huffy merely licensed the use of the Raleigh trade name during 1982-85 and did not purchase nor buy Raleigh USA.

You may ask how do I know and is this true? During 1983-1986 I lived close to the Huffy USA worldwide headquarters in Miamisburg, Ohio and sometimes stopped in to talk to the Raleigh marketing staff at Huffy. I dabble at collecting vintage Raleigh frames and during the early 1980s, I tried to purchase replacement decals for several frames that I owned, which led me to Huffy USA for replacements. Needless to say, I did not find the vintage decals I was seeking after several visits, but I had extensive talks with Huffy marketing staff regarding their franchise of the Raleigh name in the USA at that time. As a former Raleigh bike shop mechanic, this interested me and in 1983 I wrote a college paper that detailed Huffy USA marketing plans for use of the Raleigh franchise in the USA.

Huffy did not buy the USA operations of Raleigh because Raleigh International did not want to sell these rights, only franchise the use of the company name. At that time, Raleigh International seemed to want to cash in on the use the easily recognized Raleigh name and logo by franchising its use for bicycles, toys, clothing, and even sunglasses! As a result, there are NO USA documents in local, state, or federal government records that document a sale of Raleigh in the USA to Huffy. I have also performed a extensive USA federal trademark search of changes to ownership of the Raleigh logos and have found that Raleigh never transferred nor assigned any Raleigh logos to Huffy. Finally, my talks with the Huffy staff in 1983 revealed that the Huffy/Raleigh franchise marriage was intended to be a temporary experiment because it served multiple short term needs for both companies.

As an overview, Huffy in 1983 was seen as a mass-merchandiser of mid to lower quality bikes to large retail store chains in the USA. However, Huffy had little market presence in the local bike shop market and no quality higher end bikes to sell. By selling higher-priced bikes possibly through large retailer chains, Huffy believed they could earn more incremental sales and profits. Huffy sought out Raleigh (I believe this first contact was made at a tradeshow?) because Huffy thought that high end sales of bikes were becoming popular and they needed more of a market presence (buying local bike shop market share?) to capitalize on this trend. As an experiment, Huffy thought that franchising the Raleigh name would also allow them to expand Huffy sales to local bike shops where they did not have large market sales. Huffy experimented with manufacturing higher end frames and bikes with the Raleigh logo in Japan for possible expanded USA distribution. Raleigh seemed to want to franchise the Raleigh name through a number of avenues to raise additional capital for the parent company as worldwide sales started to decline.

The Raleigh franchise sales results were not what Huffy anticipated. Although Raleigh experienced some name recognition because the Raleigh USA and World Cycling Teams won prestigious victories in 1983-85, this did not translate into increased Raleigh sales in the USA. The associated costs of sponsoring the Raleigh Team USA (I have talked to 1983-85 Raleigh USA Team Coach Mike Fatka) and the growing popularity of BMX bikes finally convinced Huffy that high end bike sales were not going to increase. BMX users did not have a marketing migration path that guided them to higher end road frames. The major Huffy employee responsible for Huffy franchising the Raleigh logo left the company. Consequently, Huffy declined to expand advertising or sales support of Raleigh to enhance its sales. Huffy let the Raleigh franchise contract expire in 1985.

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