Schwinn X & Z Bikes: Universal Cycling Launch

Creative Direction | Brand Strategy | Product Marketing

The Challenge

After decades of steady indoor cycling offerings, our innovation team set out to do more than update the Schwinn lineup, we wanted to redefine indoor cycling itself. Led by the Schwinn Product Director, the team developed the Universal Group Cycling family: Schwinn X and Z. The timing made it personal. We were launching in the middle of a global pandemic, with a workforce already stretched thin. The question wasn't just how to introduce a new product, it was how to unite an international company around it without adding one more thing to an already exhausted team's plate.

The Strategy

Working closely with the Product Team and Education Manager, we built a two-pronged internal launch designed to inform first, then energize.

1. An internal hub built for transparency. We launched a dedicated internal webpage housing a full suite of content and collateral, giving everyone at Core, from VPs to Customer Support, the same line of sight into the Schwinn X and Z story. It wasn't just documentation; it made every employee feel like the insider they actually were, ahead of a launch the rest of the world hadn't seen yet.

2. A virtual launch party with real momentum. Schwinn Product Director Ashley Thorne hosted a live virtual event, backed by Schwinn's Master Instructors, that drew Core's global employee base, many of whom arrived already primed by the internal site. The event closed with our "X and Z Media Flight": a simple, organic call for employees to like, comment, and share the official launch post across their own networks. The result was engagement well beyond what a typical corporate post generates.

The Execution

To carry the momentum from internal launch to market, we built a comprehensive Marketing + Ad Package for internal sales teams and our dealer/distributor network, an interactive booklet featuring product videos, spec sheets, catalogs, The NEW Schwinn Story, ready-to-use email campaigns, and a full library of product and lifestyle imagery.

The Outcome

A pandemic launch came with challenges we could plan for and plenty we couldn't. What carried the Schwinn X and Z from concept to a genuinely successful global launch was cross-functional partnership; marketing, product, and education working in tight coordination to turn constraint into creativity.

Product Director: Ashley Thorne
Digital Design: Robert Pallister, Ryan Langston
Graphic Design: Cory Patterson
Marketing Manager: Mackenzie Henshaw
Marketing Ops Manager: James Young
Videographer: Graham Koffler