[Skybird]

https://robertisenberg.medium.com/be...e-270de04339d3

Once Bettin was satisfied with his R&D, Kwiggle won widespread attention in a most 21st Century way — by crowdfunding. Kwiggle was a darling on Kickstarter and received a series of write ups in English-language websites, which mostly praised its unusual design and compact fold.
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Today [August 2021, Skybird], Kwiggle is an established business, and it’s growing. Last year, a development bank in the Lower Saxony invested “a six-figure sum” in the company. Customers can freely order their own Kwiggle from the official website. Units can be delivered almost anywhere in the European Union, and they have gained a widespread continental following.
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Up till now, units haven’t been widely available in the United States. My only exposure consists of JPGs and video clips on the Internet.


But that’s about to change. Bettin expects to enter the U.S. market this autumn [2021). To start, the company will ship its product directly from Germany. But it’s very possible that Kwiggle will open a brick-and-mortar store in a major American city, or even several. Other folding bike brands, like Brompton and Dahon, have flagship stores in (among other places) New York City. Bettin is interested in a distributor, or even a partnership. For now, it’s all up in the air.

I’m also fairly cynical about bicycling in my native country. I have ridden large chunks of Western Europe, including parts of the Rhine and Ruhr Rivers, across Belgium and the French campagne, and the experience is night and day. Europe isn’t a two-wheeled Utopia, but Europeans are — literally — miles ahead of Americans in terms of cycling culture. The Kwiggle would look eccentric anywhere, and it has yet to receive the glare of, say, a tattooed American contractor in a Ford pickup, who wants to share the road with exactly no one.
But the perception is rapidly changing. Small-wheeled bikes are everywhere now. Electric scooters zip down American sidewalks, moving every kind of person around with unironic ease. Many U.S. cities have a bike-share program, and where it exists, it is popular. If anything good can be said about COVID-19, it’s the exponential popularity of cycling. Bikes are more diverse than ever, and they’re better accepted every day. I myself own a recumbent bike; the most common response I get is, “Where did you get that?!”

I read around a bit about the company, and it seems they did a textbook jumpstart from day one on, they ran one of the most successfull kickstarter campaigns every, and grow rapidly even during Corona and logistics meltdown. I conclude - they have definetly hit a nerve.