PANASONIC Les-Maillots 1986 JAPAN MADE

Mr. Konosuke Matsushita was the man behind the National/Panasonic company. As a child he was adopted into a family who owned a bicycle shop. He passion for bicycles began at an early age and before long he was creating new innovations for the benefit of the cycling world.In Japan, Mr. Matsushita’s company was known as National. This presented problems when looking to sell products in other countries such as the USA, so the name Panasonic came about for use on exported products.

Panasonic was a Dutch professional cycling team. It was formed in 1984 by team manager Peter Post when the TI-Raleigh split up. A few riders followed Jan Raas to the newly formed Kwantum Hallen - Decosol - Yoko, the earliest ancestor of the current Rabobank team. Most of the riders from the Raleigh team stayed with Post and joined Panasonic, sponsored by the Japanese electric products manufacturer. The team was co-sponsored by Isostar from 1987 to 1989 and Sportlife from 1990 to 1992. The first two years, Raleigh remained the supplier of the material. Some successful riders in this period were non-Dutch: Eric Vanderaerden, Phil Anderson, Viatcheslav Ekimov, Robert Millar, Olaf Ludwig, Jens Heppner, Maurizio Fondriest and Eddy Planckaert.