- There's only a few things
that really get people upset
when it comes down to pretty much
anything automotive-related.
It comes down to your brand preference.
It usually comes down to what you think is like
aesthetically pleasing, and then it comes down
to how you use your car
(engine revs)
and how you build it.
And usually when you go into one of these three segments,
you're gonna find a lot of angry people on the internet
that are arguing one way or another.
It's like somebody kicked their cat.
They're upset, they're angry, we're angry.
They just wanna be mean in the YouTube comments
which totally doesn't hurt my feelings at all.
(sighs)
But when it really comes down to it,
one of the biggest discussions that we get into
is the fact that, well, you know,
wheels have different designs, and a lot of times
they have designs that are similar to one another.
And the real question comes up as to
why rep wheels even exists to begin with.
When you look at the dawn of time, which is something
Mario hates when I say, wheels have been around
for quite a long time.
Especially when you consider how many times you can make
a five spoke, there's probably about 42 different variants
of a five spoke depending on which sort
of configuration you made.
At the end of the day
there's only certain designs that you can make
in so many ways until you start running out of stuff
or it just looks ugly.
You can look back 10 or 15 years and look at the 62 wheel
lineup in certain brands and 61 of them were pretty,
pretty fucking bad.
When you go into rep wheels though,
a lot of people get feisty.
There's companies out there that sell $4000 five spokes
and yet nobody seems to bat an eye.
But when the $400 set of five spoke wheels come out,
everybody loses their mind when it comes down to
if they're rep wheels or if they're even fake wheels.
So we're gonna go in today to decide if rep wheels
really deserve the hate,
or are they worth it.
It's something that a lot of people tend to fight about
in the comments, it's something that a lot of people
tend to talk about because they wanna understand
why somebody would spend $4000 on a set of wheels,
or why somebody wouldn't spend $500
on a set of used multi-piece wheels.
Because at the end of the day
the world is large.
You know, the night is dark and full of terrors
but you can get pretty much, like, anything on the internet
if you're willing to take a risk.
So, I'm Alex from Fitment Industries,
and let's just get right into it.
Also, the plug.
Fitmentindustries.com if you need wheels, tires, suspension.
You good, we're good, subscribe.
Did you hit the bell?
The thing, the thing?
Okay, so, rep wheels essentially came from, well,
a long time ago.
In the 70s and 60s rep wheels were one of those things
where when designs started to come out, especially in the
domestic market, there's only so many ways
you can design the wheel.
You can take a look back into the 70s to see that
rep wheels were a thing pretty much the moment that
aftermarket wheels became a thing.
You had the infamous torque thrust that had it's iconic
five spoke and then shortly thereafter somebody else
would take that same exact design, make it a little bit
wider, make the spacing a little bit bigger,
then they sold it as their own variant
of the torque thrust and people got mad.
Back in the day though they didn't have Facebook
so I would assume that, like,
maybe they had carrier pigeons that
they would send to the house, it was, like an owl
like Harry Potter and then like.
I don't know what happened in the 50s, okay?
I wasn't born then.
But really what it comes down to is that
there's always been something like that,
and as the automotive community grew in the domestic market
and the Japanese market and the European market,
all these wheels started coming in,
everybody was having a great time
and then people in America saw Japan designs
and they be like yo, why don't we do that.
Or Japanese designs saw American designs like,
yo why don't we do that.
And then the Europeans are over there like,
nah bro, we're just gonna smoke a lot of weed
and we're gonna come up with some crazy Euro designs.
Screw those other guys because Volkswagen Beetles
are just the way to go for life.
I don't know if that's actually how it went,
but ultimately what ended up happening is companies
started sharing a lot of these designs
started taking cues from a lot of different designs,
and then that's when the competition
really started to get fierce.
As really the decades progressed, it got easier and easier
to get into the automotive market.
You have to remember that when it comes down to
getting into factories, you pretty much
just need enough money or enough partners to go in and say,
hey please make this design.
Cast wheels don't cost that much at the end of the day
and unfortunately people know that,
so there's some people that are in it for the wrong reasons,
but they end up making these designs in these factories,
they come over here and then they sell them,
and then you're like, wait a minute.
I know what that looks like.
That looks like X wheel.
So why do people buy that rep wheel?
Now we're not talking about fake wheels,
but we're talking about rep wheels.
Rep wheels, I would say, are something that look pretty
darn similar to something but aren't trying to be
passed off as an exact copy.
That would be a fake wheel, that would be 885 wheels.
If you wanna get a coup go type that in.
It's a pretty fun time.
A lot of times people buy rep wheels is just pretty much
because they don't know.
There's people that will go out
and get their first set of wheels.
They don't know what they want but they drive a Nissan 350Z,
they wanna know what fits and they go out there
and they see these cool mesh style wheels
and that's what they pick up.
But then later, somebody tells them
that they bought some rep BBS RSs
and they don't know any better.
Sometimes they don't really care.
At the end of the day.
At the end of the day,
they want a wheel that fits them,
they want a wheel that's in their pocketbook
and they don't really wanna deal with a lot of the messes
and expensive price points of some of those original wheels.
But the third one is that honestly
anything can be really perceived as a rep wheel.
If you really break it down, there's lots of wheels
that are out there in the car community today.
If you look at different five spokes, different six spokes,
double seven spokes, double nine spokes, different
multi-piece spokes, you can look at different designs,
step lips, forage, configurations.
You can actually even find out
that there are a lot of companies that just re-brand
the same designs from private label companies.
At the end of the day.
At the end of the day,
a lot of these guys buy their designs from
some of the same people.
What are the cons of you running rep wheels?
Because at the same time there are some
pretty good points that you wanna be considerate of
if you're looking to buy a set of wheels,
and the first one comes down to is just the fact that
you're not getting the original wheel.
But a lot of times you're not getting the tech in
the real wheels, you're not supporting the real wheel brand.
A lot of times, people will say that, that you don't
support the real wheels, the ones that actually
brought it into the country, and to a point, they have,
you know, a pretty good, valid point to stand on.
And a lot of people align with OG companies.
A lot of people align with the original,
traditional companies because they're very prideful,
they're very honest, they take a lot of pride in their work,
and they're very truthful, they have a lot of technology
in their wheels and they want you to know that.
And then the people that buy these original wheels
want other people to know that.
And when they see somebody else completely
disregarding that, and they either don't know or don't care,
it can almost be like a slap to the face.
And that's why a lot of times, original wheel people
or people that like the OG stuff get very, very mad
when you're not buying that stuff
because at the end of the day,
at the end of the day they feel like
you're not taking a respect to where it came from.
And then finally, I would say the other thing is that,
I mean, if you really think about it,
original wheels are original wheels.
They are the one that are here and they've been here before,
and they'll likely long last,
last longer than a lot of rep wheels,
but is it worth it to you?
You have to remember that it comes back to what you want
and what is important to you.
Because at the same time,
if something that's important to you is getting a nice
set of new wheels for your car,
and it doesn't come down to what's rep and what's not rep,
you can find a lot of really good wheel brands
that aren't reps but aren't super expensive.
And at the same time you can also find,
if that's your thing, rep wheels on nice tires
to go bash them in at the drift track then go do that.
That's the whole joy of being in the car community
is that you can pick what you want.
And at the same time, if you're an original wheel guy,
then you can go get the original wheels.
It's not gonna be so black and white for everybody,
and that's where a lot of people have to understand,
because some people are gonna place a lot of value
on their wheels and some people are not.
They'd rather put their money into tires
because they're an adult
and that's what actually connects you to the ground.
Get yourself some good tires, guys.
I swear to God, if I see another set of 5000 dollar wheels
on some cheap-o tires I'm gonna lose my mind.
Just get some Neo Gens or get some N Vos.
I'm sorry, I just, this is a neutral debate topic
on rep wheels and not rep wheels.
Okay, so what it comes down to is this.
What do you want?
That's all it is, and if you're okay with understanding
what you want, then go get it.
But understand that a lot of times you can get flack
in either direction.
There are some people that'll laugh at those
that spend 3000 dollars on a set of wheels,
and there are some people that will laugh at those
that get designs that aren't the original designed wheels.
We're just here to help you guys figure out what you want.
Let us know in the comments section what you think.
Don't forget to subscribe.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
If you're looking for wheels, tires, suspension,
anything in between, check out fitmentindustries.com.
We have all of it.
I mean literally, you can check out our wheel wall.
It looks like a God damn Christmas tree over there.
We will see you later, peace.