[CR]LAWEE brands

(Example: Racing)

Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 07:42:26 -0800
From: "Bob Freitas" <freitas1@pacbell.net>
To: chuckschmidt@earthlink.net
cc: CLASSIC RENDEZVOUS <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]LAWEE brands

Chuck you are correct! Phillips ,he was a warehouse for and Bianchi he probably did some specifying for (anyone ever seem a Silver Specialissima other than I). Motobecane when it first arrived sold for the same $ as a Schwinn Varsity but Ben worked his magic and it became a dominant brand (at least here in the West) Italvega (Torpado) probably rose from his years with Bianchi and their departure from the market, with a private label bike he became the master of the brand. Another question here Italvega arrived in 1969 or so ,How many other private label bikes were available at that time? Univega, again a Lawee brand may have had distributors in the East, maybe the same for Bertoni? So Chuck to directly answer your question Italvega, Univega and Bertoni (I think these were sourced from Italy) were all Lawee private labels. I know with Univega he was trying to get his retail shops to buy by the container and this caused some grumbling, Peugeot had done that for years.

BOB FREITAS
                                               MILL VALLEY, CA USA