- If you're looking at Rotiform, TSW, Niche,
or "Ni-shay", Motegi, Asanti,
or any other wheel pros brand right now,
you're gonna want to watch this video,
because there's important information that goes
into effect June 15th,
which is like couple, two, three days away
that may push you to make a choice
on actually picking up a set or not,
because prices in short are gonna go up like 15%.
Not a range.
Most definitely 15% at least.
Good news, bad news, and all news in between.
We are the connoisseurs of information
that affects your life ever so slightly.
Like when there's that dot on your glasses,
and it's causing you (classical music)
to focus on that, and it gives you a headache,
and it's just annoying enough for you to clean it off
only for it to actually streak,
in which case you have to get a proper cleaning rag,
which is much more difficult than you think,
because you're around, you got nothing in your pockets,
and no one has one,
and then you have the Ray-Bans one
that you got with the sunglasses
back when you're 16 years old, but they're terrible,
so you just end up using Windex, which streaks your glasses,
and then you're left upset, okay?
The last two years (upbeat music)
when it comes to supply chain with wheels,
tires, and suspension, that like analogy,
the dot on the glasses,
that has been like everything that's happened.
And every single time we try to fix,
every single time we try to clean up the old supply chain,
make it easy to pick up wheels, tires, and suspension,
it pretty much only sort of kind of gets worse, okay?
The dot is just everything that's happened
in the past 12 to 24 months.
I'm Alex, @alex.fi on Instagram,
and today, we're gonna be talking
about what's about to happen in the wheel industry
and why if you've been on the fence about picking up a set
that you're just gonna want to do so right now.
And it's not really good news,
but this is gonna feel a little bit
like an M. Night Shyamalan movie,
where you're just not sure what to do with the information
if you haven't decided to purchase yet.
And if you haven't (upbeat music)
heard from us, (claps legs)
I got shorts on, (claps legs)
so you can really hear the. (claps legs)
Hi, we started this channel to talk about wheels, tires,
and suspension for aftermarket cars and such,
so if you're looking for aftermarket wheels, tires,
or suspension, be sure to hit us up over
at fitmentindustries.com.
And if you're not entirely sure on what to pick up yet,
then at least go check out our gallery,
where you can see like a big old hunk and chunk of cars
that have different sort of modifications done to them.
And if you like something,
and you also have a vehicle that you own
that's the same thing as something in the gallery,
you can actually see what fits,
so it makes it really easy to pick up.
Plus they come mounted, bound, and shipped
to the lower 48 for free.
Alaska and Hawaii, I'm sorry, but you're too far away.
We've talked about the tire shortages of 2021
in a previous video where we called
out some of our like specific favorites,
like the Federal 595 and the Nitto Neo Gen,
facing supply chain issues and availability.
Hence why people are treating them
like blue party hats these days
if you ever go out onto Craigslist
or Facebook Marketplace right now.
In fact, people are begging to find 595s.
Our solution back then when we made
that video was to take a look at the comparables out there,
Yokohama Advan V601s were getting awesomely popular
and getting in stock,
Delinte D7s were an awesome pick,
Vercelli Strada IIs were great to add onto your wheels,
and more entry-level tires.
You did, we did, the world rejoiced, and we moved on.
People were relatively pretty happy with what was happening,
even though that tire was going away.
Then we talked about suspension shortages,
primarily coming from raw material bottlenecks
and the fact that a large amount of components come
from overseas from the same like few companies.
This resulted in a long lunch line
where just answering the math problem when asked
didn't get you into the cafeteria,
and ultimately you were kind of left with just
waiting in line until maybe sort of sometimes
an entry-level suspension company
would get inventory in stock.
So our recommendation for that was to look
at mid-tier coilover companies
that have a bit more availability
due to a lesser demand and plan out
like a four to six week timeframe to get your coilovers
versus a normal two to three weeks.
That was a little bit unfortunate, but such is life,
and the shipping days are just kind of growing
a little bit right now,
outside of a lot of people's controls.
But it is what it is, okay?
But wheels. (upbeat music)
Now we got to talk about wheels,
and it's kinda sorta getting ridiculous, okay?
It's making me hot and heavy,
and there's 15 people listening to me right now,
which makes me a little bit uncomfortable,
because there's not any cool music playing
in the background, so it's just my voice.
P.S., let me know what your next set
of wheels are in the comment section below,
so we can see what y'all are Googling up.
I'll be taking a look to see
if maybe we need to get your hands on more for everyone,
especially as 2021 is turning out to be
slightly, same amount of chaos as 2020.
The wheel market is huge, (upbeat music)
and I mean like big boy thicc.
When 2020 came and hit us where the sun doesn't shine,
plenty of wheel manufacturers were able to press on
just because of the sheer size of their company.
I mean, wheel companies are absolutely massive.
I mean, when you really think about it,
most wheel companies outside of our own
like little brand new brand of Artisa ArtFormed wheels,
check it out, you know, we got inventory,
things are going well, have huge portfolios
of varying degrees of offerings and markets.
You'll see companies nowadays offer pretty much everything
from one piece, two piece, three piece,
ATV wheels, UTV wheels, SUV and CUV wheels,
truck wheels, Baja racing wheels,
race car forged monoblock center lock wheels,
all with their unique name,
all with their unique marketplaces.
And you multiply that by the amount of brands
that they carry to enter like the various price segments
of those types of products, and a single company
like Wheel Pros for instance can have over 20 brands
with three or four market segments within them.
It's absolutely nuts.
That's how big the market actually is.
And when you put all of that together into one portfolio,
you do have a good amount of muscle
when it comes to getting product.
So as 2020 put on their boxing gloves,
the wheel industry put their gloves on too.
And for the most part,
the battle was going pretty darn okay.
The world started going back to some normalcy,
and although shipping was a mess
and logistics were getting pretty tough,
people like you and people like me could muscle through it,
and you maybe saw maybe a 2% to 3% increase
on like the pricing of wheels
to make up for all of the headache.
And that's when we thought it was gonna end.
Except it didn't.
More crap happened earlier this year.
And this is where things get a little finicky.
Shipping didn't really slow down.
2021 has become the year of shipping companies,
like pretty much becoming Amazon, just unlimited growth
and pretty much being able to do whatever the hell you want
without much restrictions or issues.
And I'm not kidding.
As normal restrictions started to lift
on what was needed to be shipped
for like health and safety reasons,
the fight for making money returned to the centerfold,
and let me tell you boys and girls,
if there's a business to be in right now,
it's ocean freight.
Just type in ocean freight,
and you'll feel like an expert
after reading three articles,
because it is an absolute political nightmare right now.
Ocean freight companies began surcharging containers,
like the big old containers, for $1,000
to $2,000 to $4,000 a container.
And over the last 90 days,
not including the actual shipping costs of a container,
sometimes you have to pay up to $5,000
just to secure your place in line
to get a container onto a frickin' boat.
And you can't even get like the shipping quoted anymore,
because the prices change hourly.
I mean, last time that we heard from our own tire vendor,
their container costs exceeded $20,000
for a chunk of tires to arrive in our hands.
That is, that just is a lot of money
when it was was $3,000 in January of 2020.
For shipping, now we all joke about the fact
that like the (indistinct), (upbeat music)
the Suez Canal blockage
which took six days to pull out (laughs),
in all honesty, I would've just strapped
a Stage 3 B5 S4 to one side
and Ken Block's Hoonicorn to the other side
and yanked that bad boy out,
but hey, we can't fix every problem.
But that little issue actually did cause
a little bit of strife in the overall global trade.
I mean after all, that canal carries 10%
of our total global trade through it
including 70% of the world's oil.
And while the goods primarily
on those boats were for smaller goods,
the proverbial hair is what ended up
breaking the camel's back in terms of people
using just in time inventory for the wheel companies.
People had to reroute during that entire thing,
which increased prices, increased deadlines,
messed more things up, and ultimately caused everything
to go haywire even more than it already has.
And when a (beep) boat gets stuck in a canal for six days,
that causes yet another ripple in the market
for people to buy wheels,
because the things that were on containers,
either heading through that canal or by it,
now had to be redirected,
which just further messed things up in 2021.
Not the only issue, just one of the onslaught of issues.
Now in an effort to keep production
and availability moving for enthusiasts though,
this does mean that certain companies
like if you take for example Rotiform,
who's part of the Wheel Pros brand,
has to increase their prices just to stay alive.
And by no means is the increase necessarily
a small amount, but it has to happen,
and it's gonna be 15%.
Niche, same thing, Motegi, same thing,
TSW, same thing.
The pricing changes go into effect on June 15th of 2021,
which if you're looking at any of these wheel brands
or something similar, I would truly recommend
picking them up before this date,
because they are going to be 15% less now
than they will be towards the end of June.
And when 6-16 comes around,
the worldwide web will have new MAP restrictions
on these wheels, which is your minimally advertised price.
That's why you get the best price on wheels that have MAP,
and that's why our prices are always the lowest.
And this isn't just unique to the brands that I mentioned.
I'm using them as ones that you probably know and love.
Wheel Pros is just one of the giants in the wheel industry,
which means as they change prices,
many will be sure to follow, and some already have.
Otto Hahn, WORK, Vorsteiner, Variant Wheels,
and more are all going through these pricing changes
or increases right now, or they've already gone through it.
We don't have the time to tell you,
because they mostly just told us.
Wheel Pros was nice enough to tell us,
"Hey, this is what's going to happen.
You may want to let some people know,"
and that's why we're letting you know.
And that's a lot.
As of just a week ago, (upbeat music)
Amazon, Walmart, and Costco continued to dominate
purchasing nearly all the space available
on these freight ships coming to the USA,
leaving very little for other companies to jump on board
with guaranteed commitments from the shipping companies
to even get product into the states.
That doesn't include the stuff
that has to get in the states out of the states,
because other countries are feeling the same way.
Essentially, they take their money right now,
they say, "We'll call you,"
and then they just put you on a wait list,
and you just pray that they call back,
like that time you gave somebody your number at a bar.
I've been married for nine years,
so I don't know what that's like.
Wheel companies are pretty resilient
but not resilient enough to withstand the pressure
of freight companies charging
whatever the hell that they want.
Supply lines at factories increasing raw material pricing
and reducing quality inspections in favor of speed.
This is causing factories to make just not
the best stuff anymore, and people don't want to do that.
Companies like Rotiform don't want to do that,
which is why they need to increase pricing
and slow things down.
And that's probably why you're watching this video.
It shouldn't be too much of a surprise to hear
about these things happening,
but it's enough to mention to people
that are looking for these types of wheels
and especially are looking in 2021,
because pricing on most wheels are about to go up,
especially with those that have a minimally advertised price
like Rotiform or Motegi or TSW.
This lift is gonna be about 15% or $150
when it's all said and done, and I am sorry.
But if you've been on the fence
and want to beat the price increase,
we would recommend picking up a set before June 15th.
That's about as simple as it gets.
One of the last things that we'll say
on the matter is that we'll continue to try to help
and curb the impacts of these things as they come up,
because at the end of the day, we get the information,
and we hope that you enjoy the information as well.
We're trying to kind of push the impact down a little bit
by focusing on wheel and tire packages,
because that helps us essentially give you
a better deal when they come together,
and they come mounted, bound, and shipped
to your door to the lower 48 states.
Allows us to give everybody a cool price discount,
and because of how it works,
it makes it easier for you to install,
so your shop (indistinct) doesn't judge you
for wanting a stretch setup on a nine and a half inch wheel.
But if none of that matters,
at least you learned that if at all else,
if you're looking for some sort of career to jump into,
I would highly recommend the shipping business right now.
But what do you think?
Do you think this is ever going to go way
or is this a temporary thing?
Let us know below, and of course, if you're looking
for aftermarket wheels, tires, or suspension,
be sure to check us out over
at fitmentindustries.com.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
We hope you enjoyed this.
Sorry for sometimes the good news, bad news,
or indifferent news, but we will see you later.
Peace.