SunTour and Shimano both released their vertical dropouts in 1975 and they immediately were spec'd on several top line Japanese racing bicycles including the 1975 Kabuki Diamond Road, 1975 Miyata MX-P and 1975 Panansonic Pro. The USA marketing brands quickly followed suit with examples such as the 1976 Nishiki ONP. Proprietary vertical dropouts were also the choice of many of the state-of-the-art, alternate material, frames of the mid-1970s, such as the Teledyne Titans and Kleins.

However, Shimano and Suntour were not first with vertical dropouts. Simplex released their version in 1974 and Campagnolo offered vertical dropouts as facr back as catalogue #15 (1967).

Some manufacturers of the era were building bicycles with radically short chainstays, to the point where the tyre had to be deflated to insert the wheel into the dropout. Vertical dropouts permitted shortening of wheelbases with out this impracticality.