Detroit Bikes hopes to make leap to national brand with key hire

Zakary Pashak has been the face of Detroit Bikes since he moved to the Motor City and launched the bicycle manufacturer in 2011. He set up the firm’s production plant on the west side of Detroit, served as its spokesman, and made sale after sale. That’s starting to change this summer.

Detroit Bikes has hired former Electra Bicycle Company founder Justin Manthe as its director of sales with the idea of setting up a national sales network for its classic American bicycles. Manthe spent close to 15 years building Electra into a top leisure and lifestyle bicycle brand in the U.S. before coming becoming a part of the Detroit Bikes team.

He’s already on the job.

“There are 160 million American who don’t ride a bike but could,” Manthe says. “We want to build a bike for them.”

Detroit Bikes specializes in building accessible, quality bicycles for everyday cruising. It is leveraging Detroit’s manufacturing heritage by producing thousands of bikes at its 50,000-square-foot facility. It also recently opened a flagship store in downtown Detroit at 1216 Griswold. The firm’s team of a couple dozen people can produce up to 100 bicycles a day.

“Our goal is fill this facility (with bicycle production) one day,” Manthe says.

Source: Justin Manthe, director of sales for Detroit Bikes
Writer: Jon Zemke

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