Park Tools began back in 1956 when Howard Hawkins and Art Engstrom invented a bike stand that held the bike off the ground allowing easy, access to any part of the bike. They initially put the stand together in the back of a hardware Store in St. Paul Minnesota.
Early Days
The original stand was put together using legs from a dining room table, an empty shell casing and a truck axle from a 37 Ford. Soon other bike shops, and eventually the Schwinn Bicycle Company, saw the work-stand in action, requests were made for a production model. Park Tool Company came into being.
Tool Expansion
From the early work-stand, the line grew quickly to include a wheel truing stand, more repair stands including a double arm shop version, wrenches gauges, fixtures and consumer tools soon joined the company’s offerings. Today the sixty employees of Park Tool take great pride in building the best bicycle tools in the world. Park Tools manufacture over 3500 parts and boast a product line now which now includes over 400 different products.
Keep on Developing
As bikes have developed and diversified, Park have kept producing tools to keep up with technical developments and changes. In recent times, fifteen to twenty new product lines have been introduced each year. These new products ensure that mechanics can keep work on the latest bikes.
Park n Ride
From their early days producing their initial work-stand, Howard and Art could never have imagined that the Park Tool Company would grow to what it is today: the world leading company when it comes to tools for the bike mechanics. Park tools are the most popular brand of bike tools around the world. They offer hard wearing products relied upon by bike mechanics all over the world.
