This brochure was part of Shimano’s first campaign to establish itself in the West as a ‘quality’ manufacturer selling prestigious products, trying to shed its old image as a low cost producer of utility products.

It’s a pretty convincing effort, with its slightly strange hyper-realist photography and funky page layouts. You can detect a certain naivety in the thick cardboardy paper used and phrases like ‘it’s really almost a love affair between us and our product” (is it ‘really’ or ‘almost’?) - and I am sure that many a European manufacturer scoffed at Shimano’s presumptuous ambitions.

More fool them.

• Publisher: Shimano
• Country: Japan
• Date: December 1972
• Derailleur brands: Shimano
• Derailleurs: too numerous to list here - see individual pages