Shimano's Coasting project wins international award

Raleigh Coasting model. (Gary Boulanger)

Shimano's Coasting project, a design collaboration between the Japanese bicycle component maker and Palo Alto, California-based design firm IDEO, received the Gold IDEA Award in the International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) competition presented by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and sponsored by BusinessWeek magazine.

"We're thrilled about this honor from IDSA that we believe recognizes the innovation resulting from our partnership with IDEO and the various design and manufacturing partners involved with Coasting," said Kozo Shimano of Shimano American Corporation. "The collaborative network behind this program was genius, ranging from IDEO's designers working with Shimano's product development team to our trusted OEM partners Giant, Raleigh and Trek."

In the development of Coasting, IDEO conducted research on consumer's bike experiences and found that most Americans had fond memories of riding a bike as a kid. With that in mind, Shimano and IDEO created Coasting as a casual bike experience Americans who remember riding a bike as a kid and want to relive that experience.

"We're delighted for this recognition as we feel the experience IDEO helped Shimano create has achieved Shimano's goal of getting more people on bikes," said David Webster, partner of IDEO. "We started with a reference design of what we thought the bicycle should look like, and after showing it to bicycle manufacturers and working closely with Shimano, we ultimately created a new category in the bicycle industry that has been well received."

Now in its second year, Shimano's Coasting bike designs range from futuristic cruisers and urban bicycles, to vintage-inspired rides from Fuji, Giant Bicycle, K2, Phat Cycles, Raleigh, Schwinn and Trek.

For more information, visit www.coasting.com.  

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