One month after Paragon Machine Works abruptly shut its doors, the company’s designs and assets have found a new home. Portland-based Firsthand Framebuilding announced today that it has acquired Paragon’s intellectual property, brand assets and manufacturing tooling, preserving the brand’s highly influential component catalogue.
While the name may be unknown to many riders, Paragon served as one of the custom bicycle world’s most trusted suppliers for decades. Countless custom steel and titanium bikes were built around the brand’s dropouts, bottom bracket shells, head tubes, fork crowns, couplers and other framebuilding components, especially in North America.
As such, the sudden shutdown raised immediate concerns about the future availability of domestically produced framebuilding hardware, which Firsthand’s acquisition aims to address.
The sale includes the entirety of Paragon’s design and copyright holdings, trademarks and, even, the tooling required to make Paragon’s extensive range of parts.
“Transitions are never easy, but working with Firsthand to secure Paragon’s future has been a dream come true,” said the Norstad family, owners of Paragon Machine Works.
“To see the product line not only carried on, but by a company that is truly investing in the future of framebuilding is more than we could have hoped for…We’re delighted that the Paragon product line will live on.”
Firsthand Framebuilding was already a Paragon dealer as well as the North American distributor for Reynolds steel and titanium tubing. Additionally, Firsthand Framebuilding is set to launch a framebuilding school in Portland later this year.
Chris Blandford, owner of Firsthand Framebuilding, described the acquisition as both an opportunity and a responsibility.
“Like so many, I’ve long admired Paragon,” Blandford said.
“The Norstads and their staff have supported the framebuilding community for decades. I am humbled that they have put their faith in me and Firsthand to uphold and carry forward their substantial legacy.”
Paragon had cited declining sales and rising operating costs among the reasons for its closure, and Blandford acknowledged those same challenges remain.
“If the Norstads can’t make this business work as-is, then I definitely can’t,” he said. “What we’ve bought here isn’t an operating business we hope to fix or replicate; it’s a legacy of framebuilding knowledge and design that needed the right steward.”
According to Firsthand and Paragon, the transition will occur in several phases. In the near term, Paragon will help supply Firsthand with an initial inventory of critical frame components as the company winds down operations. Firsthand then plans to work with manufacturing partners to resume production of portions of the Paragon catalogue before eventually bringing some manufacturing in-house.
“With the right approach, manufacturing high-quality, affordable framebuilding bits domestically is still very doable — and important — in 2026,” he said.
“Paragon’s closure was a gut-check for all of us. With Paragon’s IP in hand, I’m excited to see what the Firsthand team and I can do to bring a fresh perspective to framebuilding component supply in the future.”
