- I'm taking this very seriously,
if you could please, if you could please,
step of--, this is how I learn.
Just let it sink in.
Today we're taking it back to the city
that never seems to stop making tires
because that's where every company makes tires
in the United States of Ameri--.
We're taking it back to Akron, Ohio.
Which is, there's like, in Ohio,
there's like three really exciting things to do,
three of which all encompass tires or tire manufacturing.
We're taking it back to the town, the city, the area.
the person that decided to create a tire business
because he was an entrepreneur
and he just wanted to make a lot of money.
Today we're gonna be talking about
none other then, BFGoodrich.
So BFG stands for Benjamin Franklin Goodrich,
and back in 1870 he founded the idea in Akron, Ohio.
Now if I'm saying Akron incorrectly,
or A-kron, or acorn.
I might just interchange em every once in a while,
but you get the point, it's a city in Ohio.
They make lots of tires,
and that's pretty much about it.
In fact, if you didn't know,
Akron, Ohio is the tire capital of the world,
and he was one of the first people
to produce a factory in the town to start the BFG name.
Back in 1870 BFG started off by making rubber hoses
that would actually be used for fire hoses
and a lot of different other things,
like rubberized balls and other small rubber grommets,
and different things, that you would need at the time.
It wasn't until a few years later
that they actually decided to get into
rubber tire manufacturing,
just as most companies do,
because there was a growing market for it.
Now a lot of these tire businesses
are essentially established around the same time.
The early 1900s.
In fact, a lot of them are formed in the late 1800s
because of the fact that the whole automobile industry
was actually taking off at that time.
There was a lot of people that were deciding
to make the jump either from carriages or to cars,
and not a lot of people actually had any faith
when it came to carriages or cars
and everybody was just like,
"Neither of them are gonna last long.
Probably just stick to horses,
that's what we're known for,"
and well, you know, BFG was one of those companies
that was gonna kind of take a risk on both.
By getting into the rubber automotive
and non-automotive industry
by making hoses and things like that,
they were able to essentially gain capital
that was gonna work for the company,
and it allowed them to have a foundation
so that they could start getting into tires
if the automobile industry was actually going to take off.
But BFG didn't have it all easy back in the day,
in fact, they were actually pretty close
to closing the old doorskies
in the first decade of being in business.
They rebounded back in the 1880s,
and into the 1890s is when they really began to grow.
And just like most companies
that are getting into a different sort of business
that they don't have a lot of idea about,
it does take time to either get it rolling
or end up closing the doors.
BFG was able to survive
because of the fact that they got involved in
making different rubberized grommets
and just overall having a better mentality
then a lot of other competitors at the time,
and there were quite a few.
You had companies like Uniroyal.
You had companie6s like Goodyear and Firestone,
and General Tire all trying to make a buck
while competing with BFGoodrich.
But the BFG name essentially got established,
and from there, they knew that if there was anything
that they were gonna have to do
is gonna have to grow with the technology
of other companies coming out at the time.
If you think about, the automobile industry
was relatively pretty fundamentalist.
Especially when you got into the discussion
about carriages and different motorized systems
to help push some wheels along some roads
with people inside them.
Back in the day that was pretty much
the most progressive thing you could get to,
and if you look at cars then versus cars now
there's quite a bit of difference.
BFG essentially established a research center
right in the beginning of the late 1800s,
so that they could get started by keeping up
with the technology that was ultimately
following this really cool, motorized,
horsey, non-horsey carriage system thing
that they were calling the automobile.
In fact, it was doing so well
that BFG essentially became the tire partner for,
you know, the one guy, maybe you've heard of him,
Henry Ford, and the Model A.
But cars weren't the only thing
that were really taking off in the early 1900s.
That's a pun, I would be excited
but I'm tired as all (bleep),
so I'm just gonna explain it
like I would if I was Clarence.
Wow, that was really mean. (laughs)
I'm so sorry Clarence.
The aeroplane, you're looking at aeronautics,
or, what the word is, aeronautics, aero-nautics.
Airplanes were taking off, literally,
and figuratively in the early 1900s,
and there was a lot of demand and technology behind them.
Most importantly were the actual tires
that were going on these airplanes.
A lot of the time people were using downforce
and things like that to essentially slow down
the airplane when it came down to it
when they were landing and of course taking off,
but tires at the time were very fundamental
and didn't provide the traction
and necessi, necessary grip for, you know,
the planes to essentially land and take off safely.
So BFG really spent a lot of time in the early 1900s,
the 1910s, the 1920s, perfecting tires
for the airspace division
because, I mean, if you look at it now
it's a pretty big department,
and it was just another thing
that the research department of BFG was trying to do,
so that they could make tires
and other sort of rubber stuff
that you would need to just be a business
in the early 1900s.
BFG was getting involved in other things
besides just tires.
In fact, they were breaking records.
In 1914 and 1915,
they won two successful Indy 500 races using their tires.
It was the first time a company had ever done that.
Not only that, but they were getting involved
in creating suits for high-altitude flights
and other things that were helping the aeroplane,
aerospace, aeronautic division,
I might still be saying that wrong,
and I'm sure the comments will let me know,
just like I said odd wrong, or epitome.
Those are two words, alright, sorry.
I make mistakes every once in awhile.
Can you, can you, can you, can you,
just give a man a break, okay?
You can tell me in person actually,
because we'll be doing a meet and greet
on Tuesday at SEMA, 4 o'clock
in the outside AccuAir booth.
If you guys wanna come by and say hi.
That is the only plug that we have at this time.
But yeah, 4 o'clock,
Which is not Central Standard Time,
I think it's like western standard.
I don't even know what they do over there.
It's like 2 hours earlier, 4 o'clock, Tuesday,
AccuAir booth, we'll see you there.
And if that's not enough,
the BFG scientists actually invented
vinyl back in the late 1920s.
It was something that was iconic,
and it's something that we use still to this day.
A lot of the BFG history from the 1920s to the 1960s
is littered with history, it's littered with success.
In fact BFG was one of the first tire companies
to actually introduce the tubeless tire,
which if you really think about it,
when we bring up tire companies,
there are always companies that say that they invented it
but they really didn't
or like they created a version of it
or like an adaptation.
BFG was actually the first one to really actually do it.
And from there a lot of their success took off
across every different market,
whether it was airplanes, cars, or just synthetic rubber.
They introduced synthetic rubber
as an option for their product,
and it was something that allowed them
to stay current still to this day.
First tubeless tires,
still a system that we use to this day as well,
and BFGoodrich has essentially grown into that
in the current day and age,
as being one of the most active
and currently technology researched,
developmentally inducing creative exciting companies.
None of those words make sense at all,
but if I just keep saying em,
I'm hoping that you'll forget that I said some of them.
But they're just really trying hard
to stay relevant and to stay on top of the game.
Because as you know,
there's tons of companies out there right now
that are introducing all sorts of crazy tires out there.
That last forever, that never, you know,
have any sort of tread ware,
that don't have any sort of age,
or don't dry rot and things like that,
and BFG's doing the same thing.
Except, they've been doing it, pretty much,
since they've been in business.
And in 1988 BFG was acquired by Michelin Tire.
And now they sit underneath that umbrella
and they're partnered and all that good stuff.
Which means a whole lot of different things.
But in terms of like a whole,
if you wanted to know
the tire manufacturing industry as a macro,
is actually hold onto by a very few select companies
depending on what you look at out there.
So, there's a lot of companies
that you may not like and you may love,
and you'd be surprised to find out
that they're actually owned by the same people.
Kind of like Axe and Dove.
Everybody hates Axe
because it's a man wash,
but then they love Dove
because it's all about female empowerment
and that sort of stuff and that's super cool,
but they're ran by the same company.
It's the same, almost the same marketing.
It's weird.
I don't get it, you guys don't get it, we don't get it,
you probably don't get it in the comments,
but BFG is now underneath that name,
but that hasn't stopped them from continuously growing.
And in the early 2000s BFG got involved in truck tires,
which they're one of the first ones
to introduce a 24 inch tire.
If you didn't know, that was around the same time
that Nitto was getting involved in the truck market,
and when they came out with the Dune Grappler,
Mud grap, all that sort of stuff,
and so this was BFGoodrich's answer
to essentially combat that
and put them in the market as well.
Ever since the beginning BFGoodrich
has been a company that's been involved
in a lot of different things.
They've been involved in the car race,
and have done very well.
They were doing the Indy 500,
and they were doing very well.
They're involved in airplanes, and this and that,
and everything in between,
and even though they were acquired by Michelin,
they're still a great company
and they still make some really good tires.
If you go out there to pick up a set of BFGoodrichs
for pretty much anything,
there's really not a whole lot of bad out there.
Now, every single wheel company
or tire company has their specialty,
but in terms of BFGoodrich,
they really aren't a slouch by any means.
And the best part about them
is they're not like the super high-end,
super-expensive tire,
they are a great price point
for what you're getting for the value.
Which, in case you're somebody like me,
it's really hard to spend a ton of money
on tires when you plan on
trying to break them down over time,
and you just do burn outs and things like that.
They, you're not gonna be necessarily
very nice to your tires to begin with.
BFGoodrich is a great brand,
and if you're looking for history
on something that was just here in the Americas,
in the good ol' tire capital of the world of Akron,
A-kron, Ohio, BFGoodrich is your tire.
And at the same time, they have a lot of history.
They're one of those companies
that just has always been relevant,
and they don't seem to be going away anytime soon.
In terms of fluctuations, they really don't have any
because the company has just done well.
They don't have a big up and down and sweep side to side
because, well, they've never had to.
So, if you guys are interested
in picking up some BFGs
you can actually check out the links below
or look at fitmentindustries.com.
We have wheels, tires, suspension,
Air Lift, Eibach, Silver's, Tein,
all of that sort of stuff.
And of course please don't forget to subscribe,
so we can keep making awesome videos like this.
But I'm Alex from Fitment Industries,
and if you're still here,
SEMA, Tuesday, 4 o'clock, meet and greet,
I won't have a headache probably at that time,
unless we go out Monday night,
which I'm not gonna do
because that's the responsible thing to do.
Alex from Fitment industries, peace.