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# Who invented the bicycle tire?

The story of the bicycle tire starts in the 19th century with two names: Charles Goodyear, whose vulcanization process made rubber practical and durable enough to use on a wheel in the first place, and John Boyd Dunlop, credited with developing the practical pneumatic (air-filled) tire that made bicycles genuinely comfortable and fast to ride.

[Schwalbe's own history starts much later, in 1973](https://schwalbetires.crisp.help/en-us/article/where-does-the-name-schwalbe-come-from-1o1d4mb/), when company founder Ralf Bohle first imported bicycle tires from Korea into Germany. That single shipment turned into the company's entire focus from that point forward.