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- So, today we're bringing you something different.
We're gonna be talking about different,
just automotive things that you guys have been asking about.
Now, we have brought you the 'This or That',
where you got to ask us questions about
which one things we preferred.
But you guys have been asking more about,
like the automotive wheel culture
and just the things that lay behind the scenes.
And one of, probably, the most common ones
we get asked about is like,
'What sort of wheel trends - Wheels.
- are happening right now?'
So we have started a new series called, 'Let's Talk About'.
And this is our first episode.
We're gonna be talking about wheel trends.
So, of course, I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
- I'm Andrew, hello hello.
- And we're just gonna just jump right into it.
I was gonna say 'delve', but we're not delving.
- Yeah, we're gonna chat a little bit more.
So we, actually, we enjoy the tangents on
the 'This or That' series, so we decided to pick one topic
where we can actually talk a little bit more
about our own opinions on things and, you know,
what's happening in the automotive scene scape.
- Yeah, and there's a lot of stuff
that is happening behind the scenes,
if you guys didn't know.
And we wanted to, kind of, bring that education to you
so that you could, hopefully, know a little bit more
about the wheels that you buy before you pick up a set,
hopefully, at FitmentIndustries.com.
But if not, at least you watched a cool video
and you subscribed, which helps us out a lot.
- Indeed.
- So, we're gonna talk about a couple wheel trends.
Now, the first thing that I think I notice,
when we're talking about wheel trends,
is just like, how popular rotary forged wheels are getting.
Right? - [Andrew] Absolutely.
- [Alex] Like, every single wheel company
is offering rotary forged.
- There's a lot of options.
And, of course, if you guys go back,
I did do a video on this where we covered that.
Alex is gonna do another one
where we go a little more in-depth.
But, we started noticing that a lot, at SEMA, I think.
- Yep. - Last year.
There's a lot of companies that initially started off
doing cast wheels, now they're doing flow formed options.
So, flow formed, or flow forged, basically the same thing.
But it's crazy how there's a lot of companies now,
that are kind of coming out of the woodwork
to jump on that technology.
- Yeah, it's crazy to see though, too,
because a lot of times, you would see,
with rotary forging, very limited options for offsets.
Really, the only company that was out there
that offered a whole bunch of offsets, was TSW.
And not everyone was always a fan of TSW's styling.
It was always just a little bit different.
Well, now Rohana's coming out with rotary forging.
ESR's coming out with rotary forging.
Konig got rotary forging, I mean,
they're partnered with Aachen,
so they've got a lot of tech that they're using now.
But, like, not just rotary forging,
but how comprehensive cast wheels have become,
in terms of, like, wider wheels.
Cause everything's wide.
Now they have, like, lower offset cast wheels, too.
- Yeah, and I think the cool thing with flow formed is,
you'll notice this too, with some of the brands,
a lot of them do start at 20 inch.
So, if you don't need big wheels,
there are a couple brands that do the smaller ones.
So that's, like, where Konig, like you mentioned,
they come into play, cause they start at
17 and 18 inch applications.
So, you know, you don't have to get the big massive 20.
You know, not a lot of people are gonna run those.
But it's interesting how they're doing that.
Cause even 3SDM, with the zero point five zero.
- [Alex] Yep, yeah, the SF, yeah.
- [Andrew] Yeah, so that one starts at 20 inch.
So, interesting.
- Another cool trend that we're seeing a lot of,
in case you guys were wondering, is now,
obviously, multi-piece wheel craze is huge right now.
But, there are cast wheels now that are coming out
in lower offset ranges.
Probably, one of the biggest ones that we've seen recently,
kinda taking the market by storm, would be Cosmis.
- [Andrew] Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, and we first got to see a lot of the Cosmis wheels.
I've seen a few of them, at some shows around here.
And then when you saw 'em at their booth at SEMA, last year,
it was just kinda like, whoa,
like these guys are killing it.
So, of course, kind of originated from the drift scene.
And now, they actually do a lot of technology,
into a lot of different measurements and things.
And they're doing vehicle-specific offsets.
Like, they do the one for the Focus RS, RS or ST.
The Focus Fitment, Mustang Fitment, Scion,
so FRS, BRZ-type stuff.
So, they're doing the measurements,
giving exact staggered fitment options,
which makes it a lot easier.
Cause, you know, years ago it was kinda like,
the guessing game of offsets.
And now, it's like, specific.
This is what you need, front and back, staggered options.
A ton of 'em available.
- And, just in case you guys are wondering,
how aggressive you can get.
Now, if you haven't watched anything about offset,
remember that the lower the number is,
the further the wheel's gonna stick out of the fender.
The higher the number, the further barrel,
essentially gets sunk into the fender.
The popular craze right now, are lower offset wheels.
Meaning, the wheels stick out farther.
They have a deep lip.
Or they have heavy concavity.
But, Cosmis is one of the few that
actually offer a cast wheel.
You can pick up, like an 18 by 11, with a plus five offset,
which is actually huge,
considering it's a one-piece cast wheel.
- [Andrew] That's crazy.
- [Alex] It gives you a huge lip.
And it also gives you some concavity, at the same time.
So that's pretty cool to see.
- Cosmis definitely has their own look,
you know, all the cool milling,
in a bunch of finishes, which kind of segways
into another point, of course, is custom finishes.
- Yeah yeah.
- Now, years ago, it was kinda like,
you were the odd man out if you're doing
custom powder coating.
And, of course, now a lot of the wheel companies
we deal with, they do custom powder coating in-house.
So, whether that's something you can request
when you purchase your order from us,
we get it through them or through one of our sources.
But the crazy colors are coming out of the woodwork, man.
- And the crazy colors are coming back.
Because one of the next trends that we're seeing,
is the amount of customization options
that people want with their wheels now.
A time ago, it wasn't the case.
You just didn't do that.
Well, now it's all about the wheels.
It's all about the fitment, for a lot of reasons.
And that's going into the multi-piece wheel game.
Now, what's interesting, is because there's been
so much competition in the multi-piece wheel game,
that all of a sudden, there's a lot of
entry-level companies, not entry-level to be rude,
but entry-level companies coming
into the multi-piece wheel game.
I think we're...
I'm looking at one right here.
And I know Conceptone is not too old, either,
when it comes to the multi-piece wheels.
- Yeah, Conceptone, and even Klutch Wheels.
Klutch has three different designs.
Once again, I hate to keep bringing up SEMA,
but of course that's where they debut all the cool toys.
And I was blown away.
Cause I used to run Klutch KM20's and cast.
And we roll up and see these Conceptone
and these Klutch wheels.
And I'm like, "Damn, these guys are crushing it."
And ESR is absolutely massive, too.
I mean, when we unbox these five different wheels,
you know, we're like freaking out.
Like, "What is this?"
This is a cast company that was a little lower on the radar.
And now these guys are doing their own CNCing.
I mean, everything is all in-house, built-to-order,
just absolutely beautiful wheels.
So it's pretty impressive.
And, I think another one, Radi8.
- [Alex] Yep, Radi8's offering the multi-piece forged wheel.
Which, in my opinion, I would almost say,
every single one of their multi-piece wheels
looks better than their cast alternative.
They look absolutely insane.
- Yep, I run Radi8 cast wheels on my car.
And once they dropped the forge line, my draw dropped.
Just absolutely insane.
And those guys are pushing the envelope
for really cool, contemporary designs.
Like, they're not worried about doing a lot of stuff that's
kind of replicated, or similar to old styles.
They are absolutely just doing crazy stuff.
The R8's HS9, I believe it is, really crazy looking pattern.
I showed you that one a couple days ago.
It's like, "What is that?"
It's something that's totally new.
- Which kinda goes into, like,
another thing that we're seeing that's extremely common.
You guys remember, probably almost a year ago now,
we talked about what was going to be trending in 2018.
And we talked about hot colors.
We talked about multi-piece wheels.
But you are going to see so many retro styles
coming out of the woodwork that...
Almost everything that you see right now.
Rotiform is like, in my opinion,
the king of trendy, retro wheels.
Because every single thing that they're coming out with,
right now, is an homage to older retro-style wheels.
The turbofan stuff.
Yep, all that old school Bbs motorsport-style wheels.
I mean, you're gonna see that almost everywhere.
Whether you're looking at something that's like
the sporty multi-piece work-style
or the turbofan retro-style, I don't think there's
gonna be a whole lot else.
- There's the new aero disc, that one's crazy.
That's the one I showed you on the white Audi.
It's really cool that they're taking
a lot of the old school design elements,
putting a little bit of a contemporary twist on it
and kind of reintroducing that into the market.
And of course, Rotiform's doing that.
- Yeah, that's what they're known for.
- I mean those guys are absolutely pushing the edge.
The DIA is kind of the old school Diablo wheel
with the five circles.
Absolutely beautiful wheel.
So it's cool to see that stuff coming back.
Because, I mean, that's old school supercar,
you know, technology and looks
that they're kind of bringing back.
- And it's weird, because a lot of times,
when we talk about multi-piece wheels,
people usually drop in the comments like,
"I don't have all of that money.
I don't wanna spend eight grand, six grand,
on a set of, you know, AG's, or something like that."
And what's interesting is,
because there's so much competition
going into the market right now,
is that it's actually driving prices down.
So you're gonna notice that there's a lot of
multi-piece wheel companies that are
actually offering full sets
for what rotary forged wheels used to cost.
You can buy multi-piece wheels with your basic hardware,
basic finish, for right around like, $3200-$3500, right now.
Which is pretty insane.
You're gonna see a lot of people starting to
more go towards that, than just picking up
your standard wheel, I think.
At least for this year.
- I think, you know, that the fact that
people are wanting to customize.
Everyone is getting so wild, with the look on their car.
The over fenders, you know, the glow is coming back,
the massive spoilers, all that stuff.
So people are needing, you know,
aggressive staggered fitments, you know, specific offsets.
And that's where you can really be creative
and just be the artist with your wheel
and step up to the plate.
And ESR is certainly one of them that's doing that.
Now, the price point on the Radi8's,
I know is a little more up there.
Their stuff is a little more, I hate to say high-end.
I would put these guys in the same playing field.
But ESR, I think, is doing a little bit lower price point.
Because they're offering more of,
kind of an entry-level build.
You don't have to go crazy.
Of course, the carbon fiber one we talked about,
you know, a week or two ago.
- Does that one really count? (laughs)
- [Andrew] That wheel was, like in a world of its own.
Which would lead us into carbon fiber.
- [Alex] Yeah.
- Carbon fiber is an absolutely, you know,
massive, trendy thing right now.
You know, I saw it introduced a couple years ago.
It was on some of the lips, you know.
Then it's on a lot more of the spokes and things now.
So it's like the dry carbon, the prepreg,
and then it's molded over the T6 aluminum block.
You know, on the spokes.
If you're looking to tie in your accents,
that you have on the car, to have a carbon fiber lip,
a carbon fiber duckbill spoiler.
Maybe some mirror caps and, you know,
a splitter or something like that,
to tie in the lips of your wheels.
Like, that's just money in the bank.
- Yeah. - That's awesome.
- Yeah, it's cool to see that, really what it comes down to,
is that there's such a change in the price point
for a lot of different wheels.
But there's still a market for almost everything.
So, with like the market trend right now,
I feel like there is a group for the multi-piece.
Then there's the entry-level, and then there's the high end.
And you're seeing a lot of companies offer multi-piece
cause that's just where the trend is going.
And you're gonna see that continue to go that way,
for probably the next few years.
But then you also have companies, like Cosmis,
that are sticking to true to what they think
a lot of people want, which is that high aggressive offset,
or low-aggressive offset, with wide wheels, casts,
you know, kind of like a mid-level price point.
But then you still have companies that are still like,
"You know, we're just gonna keep doing
the sport, compact-style wheels."
Like Konig, and stuff like that,
where they're offering a smaller wheel,
you know, rotary forged.
- [Andrew] Yeah.
- [Alex] Still not breaking the bank.
They're still like 800 dollars for a set of four.
And they're insanely light, you know, it's crazy.
Then you have obviously, companies like Rohana,
that are offering the rotary forged, as well,
on the bigger sizes, I mean.
It's crazy to see these wheels that are coming out
because everybody seems to be pushing the envelope
in some way, shape or form.
- Yeah, everyone has really stepped up to the plate.
And it's just shocking to see that, once again,
the companies that started cast went to rotary formed.
And now, it's like, "Boom, we're gonna jump into
the three-piece market."
And, we forgot to mention, even Rohana, with three-piece.
I wanna say, they have three or four
different faces to choose from.
Same thing, when we saw those at SEMA last year.
It was like, "Dude, these are killer."
They have the floating spoke face.
Just, once again, they've got the brushed face,
flat-lip, step lip, whatever you want.
You know, once again, all custom build, you know.
So it's impressive, what these guys are doing now.
You can just pimp your wheels out to the max.
- Now, if you're talking about wheel trends,
one thing that you're probably gonna wanna
just keep an eye out for, is that
there is some stuff happening, behind the scenes,
with just metal and aluminum alloy and forging,
and all that stuff as a whole.
I mean, I've noticed that there's some tariffs
coming into the cities and states of
the wonderful country of The United States of America.
So you guys will actually wanna keep your eyes peeled
on any sort of market trends.
Cause if the tariff actually hits,
here towards the end of the year,
you are gonna see wheel prices go up.
Which is something that I know you guys probably
don't care a whole lot about,
but some people like to know
what's going on behind the scenes.
A lot of metal comes from overseas.
There's a lot of companies, right now,
that are actually hoarding metal overseas,
in their factories, that they're not releasing overseas,
until after the tariffs hit,
so that they can get more money,
- [Andrew] Makes sense.
- [Alex] On the metal.
So, you're gonna be seeing more back orders,
more stuff like that, probably hit a lot of,
I would say almost, entry-level to mid-level wheels,
solely because they just can't get their wheels in time.
Cause once that tariff starts, I think it's gonna be
third quarter of this year, pricing on a lot of wheels
are gonna go up.
So, just something to keep in mind
if you're taking about wheel trends.
That's probably one of the biggest ones
that we're taking about behind the scenes.
- Right, yeah that's something we're looking out for.
- So those are the wheel trends
that we've probably have seen, I would say,
in the last few months.
Let us know what you'd like to see next, I mean.
- Yeah yeah, drop a comment.
Let us know what you guys think of this series.
We'd like to chat about stuff.
And we can certainly dive into other elements, too.
Whether it be suspension tires, things like that.
So, definitely, drop your feedback,
and we will try to get to you guys.
- And don't forget to subscribe.
And if you're looking for wheels, tires, suspension,
head out to www.fitmentindustries.com
And, of course, no matter how analytical,
or how much stuff you want us to talk about,
we're always here so we'd love to hear your feedback.
So don't be afraid to drop a comment for real.
But, I'm Alex, from Fitment Industries.
- I'm Andrew, catch you guys next time.
- See ya. - Peace.