Growing up and working in the family bike shop outside St. Paul, Minnesota, Eric Hawkins learned all aspects of bicycle repair and the bicycle business. When his father, Howard, and a business partner saw a need for higher quality bicycle tools and repair stands, they started Park Tool out of the back of the shop in the mid 60’s. In 1983, Eric joined the small company and quickly accelerated the growth and world-class image of the brand.
Eric took over as the CEO in 2001 and continued to expand the brand’s product offering and global footprint. Today, Park Tool is the world’s largest manufacturer of bicycle tools, serving over 70 countries with a product line of over 600 products. Park Tool launched their YouTube channel in 2015 as another vehicle to build on their commitment to educate consumers and professionals with free content on how bikes work and how they can keep them maintained. Through organic growth and great content, the channel has become an integral part of the industry and has almost 1,000,000 subscribers with some videos tallying over 13-million views.
