Not built by 'Schwinn' only branded Schwinn. A grand for that is a joke, its a publicity stunt at best.
If they want to bring back Schwinn, then do it in Chicago, with the same manufacturing processes used before. Those were real Schwinn bikes, anything else is just a re-badge. 'Schwinn Approved' was fine, but still not a real Schwinn. Back in the day when I looked at various Schwinn Approved models, my thought was why not just buy a bike from the company who really made it, chances are if they put their name on their own version it would likely be better built.
A few local Schwinn dealers made the mistake of selling Panasonic and Giant along side of Schwinn models made by the same brands, in nearly every case the Panasoinic or Giant sold first being both cheaper and often better looking, with better components.
Needless to say putting an entry level Panasonic next to a Schwinn Varsity in 1980 kind of hurt Schwinn sales, but I suppose dealers saw the writing on the wall for Schwinn even by then.
To me, there's also nothing worse than a bad attempt at reviving a brand, worse yet when its done solely to grab some cash from a few collectors. If they want to revive Schwinn, built a plant and build them all here... Of course, the problem with that idea is that none of us could afford them, and likely wouldn't want one anyhow.
Schwinn has effectively been gone from US soil for nearly 28 years now. The majority of American bike buyers don't remember the real Schwinn bikes, many of which have been gone for nearly 40 years. They likely don't care about or want those bikes back. Those of us who remember Schwinn in its heyday, don't care much about this new stuff they build today. I personally wouldn't want to see Schwinn building the same brand new Pacific model Schwinn bikes here in America, it would only mean higher priced junk. built by higher priced labor. Leave the junk in China and start over.
It would need to be a whole new line of bikes designed and built here, and chances are most of us either couldn't afford one or just couldn't justify the expense.
As someone who has been around bikes and the business for decades, I've owned quite a few really nice bikes and a slathering of just about everything that's out there over the years, but have never, ever, considered spending $1000 on a bike, let alone one like is described in that article. Those of us who worked at shops back in the day mostly bought our bikes at cost, a fraction of what the buying public paid, and for me, many were built with bits and pieces and freebies from where we worked. Having the latest and greatest back then didn't always mean forking over big bucks, there were plenty of take off parts, warranty parts with a scratch or two on them or slightly damaged bikes that had been written off that you got for free and fixed. Every last bike I've owned was either bought at cost or built from spare parts off the shelf.
A grand for any bike is insane even in today's economy to me, especially for what amounts to a dressed up comfort bike wearing the Schwinn name. I also suppose the assembly will fall on some 'Qualified' Walmart employee working for minimum wage as well.
I'll stick to my original Schwinn bikes, I can do a lot of restoration work for a grand. In most cases that's four or five bikes. I'd also rather have a good working well used vintage Schwinn than any modern knockoff regardless of where its made.
$998 doesn't even make sense if you use one of those inflation meters, a 1973 collegiate sold for about $90 new back then, maybe even a bit less, that's maybe $500-525 in today's money at best, and no doubt those older models were better bikes.