America's Scooter Company

all about the Genuine Scooter Company.

Our humble beginnings trace back to the garage of Genuine Scooter Company Founder and President Philip McCaleb. 

In his previous life, McCaleb worked in the corporate world. He spent several years stationed in Greece and Belgium, among other overseas locations. While in Greece in particular, McCaleb noticed that everyone enjoyed getting around on scooters. It didn't take long for him to recognize that scooters are not only incredibly practical, but super fun to ride! Pretty soon, he was hooked and adopted a vintage scooter as his daily transport. Some of his fondest memories are cruising around the busy streets of Athens on two wheels.

Upon his return to the states, McCaleb didn't see millions of people driving around in cars. Instead, he saw millions of people who loved scooters (they just didn't know it yet).

So in 1989, McCaleb started restoring and selling vintage Vespa and Lambretta scooters out of his garage on the north side of Chicago. Some of his early clients were celebrities and rock stars.

Noticing an untapped market and burgeoning subculture, McCaleb used his business knowledge to source hard-to-find vintage scooter parts and sell them to scooter enthusiasts through a mail order catalog. Scooterworks USA was born!

As Scooterworks grew, so did the vintage scooter subculture in the US. During this time, McCaleb was instrumental in the formation of the Vespa Club of America, as well as setting standards for vintage scooter appraisals. Thanks in large part to McCaleb's efforts; the rusted heaps tucked in the back of barns nationwide were transformed into gleaming collector's items.

In 2002, Scooterworks got its hands on some excellent vintage scooter manufacturing equipment. Figuring that the only thing better than an old vintage scooter is a NEW vintage scooter, McCaleb and crew created the Stella and Genuine Scooter Company was born!

The first Stellas landed in dealerships in spring of 2003 and immediately enjoyed brisk sales and a cult-like following. Soon a new subculture was created, as witnessed by the formation of Stella clubs across the country. Stella's online presence was bolstered by the formation of www.stellaspeed.com, an online group dedicated solely to Stella.

In 2006, Genuine recognized the need for a modern, automatic scooter with vintage charm. This ushered in a new era for Genuine, highlighted by the Buddy, the Rattler, the Blur, the Black Cat, and soon the Roughhouse.

You don't have to look hard to find Buddy scooter clubs and enthusiastic online user groups such as those found onwww.modernbuddy.com. We think this demonstrates that Genuine's modern machines feature all the charm and fun of the old classics (minus the hard-to-find parts and repair bills!)

The way we see it, if riding our scooters helps you capture the same feeling our founder had on his old scooter in Athens, then we're doing something right.

Posted in: scooters