- If you were a race car driver in South Africa,
how would you spend all the money that you won?
(yell) (crash)
Would you spend it on, you know, like, diamonds?
Would you spend it on a cool house?
Or would you spend it building a wheel brand?
Today we're gonna be talking about TSW.
(cheering)
(plop)
(baby laughs)
So in 1967, Eddie Keizan, sports car racer in South Africa,
decided to give his run a go on making wheels,
for really no apparent reason.
He had a bunch of different business ventures
in the late 60s,
but he decided he wanted to found and start
Tiger Sport Wheels.
That name is absolutely terrible.
I'm sorry, but Tiger Sport Wheels is like an atrocious name.
But TSW sounds a little bit better.
TSW is actually founded with the impression
of making wheels for the racing enthusiast.
(crash)
But they never really had a specific angle.
Their angle was to just make wheels.
They started out in South Africa.
They really didn't go public until the late 1980s,
where they ended up going
into the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and then exploded.
(yelling)
(pop)
So while Eddie Keizan was trying to make alloy wheels,
he was also part of the racing in South Africa.
He actually participated in three F1-style championships
and won zero.
But he's probably still a better driver than me.
He apparently has more money than me
because TSW is founded and I'm still over here
getting stared at by a mechanic.
(whoosh)
- [Offscreen Woman] They ask you how you are,
and you just have to say that you're fine
when you're not really fine, but you just can't get into...
- TSW purchased a company called ATS in Germany
that helped them acquire more smaller companies
throughout the world, including companies in Poland,
Germany, and of course, the United States of America.
(rock music) (yelling)
(beep)
So while TSW continued to grow organically,
they actually split off in 2001
in between their OE production line
and their after-market alloy wheel game.
It was essentially split into Tiger Wheels and ATS,
depending on if it was in the domestic market
or in the European market.
The European market for OE applications
was bought out by Yokohama Tire.
(sad horn, wah-wah-wah-wah)
The after-market wheels of TSW were sold
to Terrence Schecter,
was a previous business partner for TSW.
So they've still managed to maintain both
an OE application system and an after-market wheel game.
And this is where it gets a little bit crazy.
TSW has dominated
the domestic wheel manufacturing community.
Between then and now,
they've launched almost 10 wheel brands.
But they're known for taking these companies
and shutting them down completely.
They won't continue their development
unless they know it's something that they can work with
or if it's not gonna be potential competition
for a company that they've already bought in the past.
TSW made headway in the US using the acquisition
of GoodRoads Auto Systems.
Now who are they?
They are a company in Florida that was bought out
by TSW, or acquired, but pretty much TSW owns them,
so you pretty much (whines) whatever.
TSW has a bunch of new brands that they could continue.
Most notably, they're ending them.
Things like Status, XO, Ruff Racing, are,
just to name a few words,
unlikely that TSW is going to continue that brand.
Why is that?
Well, because TSW doesn't need another company
that hits the same market as something else
that they already have.
TSW has almost 10 or 11 brands that they manage and hold,
where they have a very high expectation of what
they expect their wheel name to become,
and some of them just don't make the cut.
Ruff Racing, sorry, bro.
So is that backed by factual science?
Aeeh, not really.
But if the fact that you don't see
their acquisition paperwork showing
that they're owning Ruff Racing,
it's a toss-up or it's at least a sign
that it's unlikely that they're gonna carry brands
like Tough and XO into the future.
TSW's expansion is aggressive to say the least.
They have at least three distribution centers
in California.
They are getting their fourth
through the GoodRoads acquisition in Florida,
and they even plan on opening up one in Chicago,
which will help solidify their market
throughout the entire United States of America
into 24-hour shipping is their ultimate goal.
But that has upset current suppliers, to say the least.
There also has been rumor that TSW is increasing
their pricing on almost all of their wheels
to help push out outside warehousing companies
and just going centralized at things like
Discount Tire Direct to help with their overall shipping,
help with their quality,
help with centralizing all of their wheels.
And it's made more people upset.
They're just not in a good light right now
from the back and side of things,
just because of what they're doing to their current
and past partners.
But hey, if you're Discount Tire Direct,
you're in a perfect spot.
(quacking)
So TSW is not afraid of making jumps
when it comes to the after-market wheel game,
but how are they staying on top?
Well, (whine) they make mono-block and rotary-forged wheels.
Rotary forging is very simple.
It's when they take the center disc is steel cast,
but the rim itself is rotary forged.
They spin it super, super, super fast,
and then they heat it up,
and they put these little rollers on,
it goes (high-pitched whine).
Then it straightens out the grain structure,
helps minimize weight rotational mass,
and it just makes them easier to go wide around
without increasing the weight.
TSW has like a lotta wheels, like a lot.
If you go out there to look at TSW's wheel line,
it's insane.
They're pretty much the name
when it comes to staggered setups
because they can only make
rotary-forged and mono-block wheels.
They don't dive into multi-piece or two-piece wheels
to give them that offset creativity.
It's time for a drinking game.
Every single name that I get right in the TSW line-up,
I don't have to take a drink.
Every single time that I get it wrong,
I have to take a drink.
The Om-a-ru. (buzzer)
The Ascent. (buzzer)
The Bar-do. (buzzer)
The Bar-thirst, (buzzer)
Bristol, (buzzer)
Brooklyns, (buzzer)
Cattawell, (buzzer)
Casino, (buzzer)
Mallory? (buzzer)
Honestly, TSW, bro, slow down.
I can't keep up with this sort of stuff.
TSW Oslo, 83 different options,
when it comes to sizing and offset,
that's how many options you have with a TSW wheel.
And that's almost with every single one of their wheels.
They do an amazing job at making sure
that they have as much, in terms of variety, as possible,
with the wheels that they make.
So is TSW a bad brand?
No, they're not.
They make original wheels, they have some intricate designs,
they're pretty cool, they're a little bit expensive,
in my eyes, but that's personal opinion,
but a lot of TSW's problems,
a lot of the reason that they get a lotta crap,
is because of the back end.
It's the fact that they're pretty much a discount tire
direct company only.
They don't like dealing with online wholesalers.
They don't like dealing with online companies.
They don't like dealing with anything that would
require them a ton of work.
They like buying out companies,
they like buying out and acquiring as much as possible,
deciding what they wanna keep and throwing away the rest.
So besides being a bully on the block,
TSW, pretty good brand.
Wish that they would keep some
of my old-school childhood designs alive
from Ruff Racing and stuff like that,
but we can't all win.
So that is our wheel history this week.
The winner of last week in terms of what we gave away,
remember, guys, it's you get put into a drawing,
in, into a drawing.
You don't just win stuff.
That'd be like a thousand dollars of gear,
if we just gave away to everybody that commented.
That's not how it works, not how it works.
You're entered in to win.
So the winner is right here, so congratulations.
You're gonna want to shoot us an email at
wheels, no...
Email our videographer for the giveaway information
'cause apparently he wants to know.
That is mario at Fitmentindustries.com.
The winner is right here.
So that is everything that we have to TSW.
Let us know in the comments what you would like to see next.
If you have questions, concerns, wheel history knowledge,
anything like that,
we like to see comments on every single video.
If you're looking to pick up a set of TSWs,
check out their website, www.fitmentindustries.com.
Add your car to our gallery, if you have TSWs.
We have a few.
We love our gallery, 5000 cars plus.
♪ La, la. ♪
But I'm Alex at Fitment Industries.
We'll see you later. Peace.