- You should imagine what it's like having a man cold
cause I don't know, I don't get sick often,
but when I do, the world ends.
I can't breathe, it's all up in here.
I can't eat, I can't sleep, it's just a terrible time.
I want to do stuff but I can do nothing
so then I pass out for a day, wake up,
and they hire another person named Alex
and just completely replace me
which is just super cool.
There's nothing wrong with that except the fact
that it's really, you know, just rude.
But, you know, what am I, who am I to say anything?
I mean it's just, it's just my job.
Every once in while we go into the comments section
and we listen to what you guys want to say because
you guy always have a lot of opinions
and it's a good thing, you know, this is America.
2018, we're talking about things and comments
and Youtube sections and Facebook threads
and Facebook is burning down to a crisp
and Twitter is taking the reigns
and Instagram CEO founders are quitting
and what's-his-name, Elon Musk,
doing all stuff with the board of directors.
And you've got Teslas crashing
and trucks flying around the place
and pirate ships and Space Force.
The world is an interesting place here in 2018
and every once in a while,
we get into the comments section,
just get to learn how diverse our target market really is,
which is a good thing and a bad thing.
You can decide for yourself
if you're the good part or the bad part.
But either way, it doesn't come down to the fact that...
You know, it really comes down to the fact
that you guys have asked us a million times
about this new company,
a company not even we have heard a whole lot about.
So we decided to reach out, dig through the forums,
call up some people, ask them for some wheels,
talk about some things to learn about a few more things
to discuss the history of none other than ESM Wheels.
ESM Wheels was founded in 2002 in none other than,
just like all the other companies,
just like every other company,
southern California.
I mean, when you really think about it,
almost all wheel companies in the United States
were founded in southern California
because that's where the craze
of the automotive aftermarket industry began.
But it would just be nice, it would be nice if somebody
was like, "Yeah, we started this in Minneapolis, Minnesota,"
or something like that. Just to give us a fresh face.
Just to give us something different.
I mean, it's whatever, we'll just be up here
in the -20 degree weather as ESM Wheels makes wheels.
But, founded in 2002, ESM Wheels was essentially
brought in as a company that wanted to make 15 and 16 inch
German style wheels for automotive enthusiasts.
Now, back in the day, 2002, we were talking about
neon under glows and the grace scene
in The Fast And The Furious and all the other stuff
that we probably cringe at 16 years later.
ESM Wheels on the other hand, realized that there was not
a market for this company.
I mean, when you talk about European wheels,
when you talk about having a flat faced look
back in the day, German designs were extremely limited.
You didn't really have a lot
of German heritage style wheels.
You had, of course, your typical fighters like BBS
but I mean, in terms of a mid-level price
or even a low-level price point there was really
nothing out there besides you know, maybe some used wheels
here and there.
So, ESM really go founded and started because they wanted
to offer a Germanesque style wheel in a 15 by 16 inch
in a low offset.
They wanted to get to zero offset so you can get a lift
or a step lift or anything any between
or your Volkswagens and things like that.
And so, over time they began to develop these wheels,
15 inch or 16 inch were a hot craze,
they were a hot commodity.
And now, EMS has a million wheels
and we can't even go into all the wheels
because of how many wheels they have
but what you do need to know is that they have wheels
from like 15 to 22 inches now which is pretty darn neat.
But, with all wheel companies, almost all wheel companies
that are older and younger, that doesn't make any sense.
With wheel companies,
they almost always have a parent company
whether they want to admit it or not,
they're either owned or partnered or subsidiaried
something other big word that you are probably
going to write in the comments section
that I spelled incorrectly, that they're, you know,
a part of.
And, well, ESM Wheels is a part of another company too.
But the cool thing is, that it's not another wheel company.
EMS Wheels is owned by another company
called DTM FiberWerkz
which is the largest BMW fiberglass, after market
body panel company
[Gasp]
in the United States of America.
So DTM FiberWerkz is company that got started
by making those panels and things like that
and the whole internet broke.
Everybody loves DTM FiberWerkz.
So, fiber...
Fireworks...
FiberWerkz.
DTM is just one of those companies that is out there,
they do a lot of good stuff.
They provide a lot of different parts
for mostly, predominantly BMWs,
and we're probably going to hook 'em up with our 318-I.
You know what I'm saying?
ESM if you want to hit us.
DTM FiberWerkz is a company that got established and started
in the same area and started doing the same things
so that they could essentially get the money needed
to make the wheel company that we now know as ESM Wheels.
And they do hoods and trunks and bumpers and body panels
and things like that, I mean typical stuff.
So you, if you had a 1991 BMW 318-I
that was in desperate need for body panels
and things to make it look wide and really stance-y
you'd probably reach out the company and ask them
if they'd like to partner with for media sponsorship
and content, if you wanted to email, you know.
Just talking about who ESM Wheels essentially got involved
in doing things right the first time.
So, ESM Wheels was starting to provide
options sizing, PCDs and offsets in the sizes
that people wanted.
A lot of old-school German wheels essentially
didn't have the sizing for newer wheels
and ESM did.
Do, ESM hit a market with a relatively, you know,
competitive price and it worked out
very, very well for them.
So, now the cool thing about ESM Wheels
is that they do partner with the manufacturing plant
that makes and produces the wheels.
You're looking at a manufacturing plant
that's been around for 40 years,
which is pretty interesting when you think about it.
In terms of getting into manufacturing plants
that are established is extremely difficult to do.
To see a newer company get involved in that
is pretty cool, especially when they are
JWL and VIA tested.
Now, that doesn't mean that they are fully-forged
or anything fancy because a lot of what ESM does
is for their styling and integrity,
so they really just want the wheel to look nice
and just be useful and not be anything above and beyond.
It's not a race wheel, okay?
Not every car, not every wheel's gonna be a race wheel.
I'm sorry Youtube, that's just not how wheels work.
But, ESM really got involved and started to do that
with a company and manufacturing plant
that's been around for four decades.
It's the same company, they also get involved in
that private label's OEM Wheels.
So, when you really think about it,
they're not doing bad.
I mean, they're doing pretty good.
And so, what makes ESM Wheels, I guess,
a little bit different?
ESM Wheels makes different cast variants
and they used to get involved with
2-piece and 3-piece forged wheels
which we will probably see going into 2019
because that's what everybody like Joe and Jane
and me and Mario and Gels want in this world
are multi-piece wheels cause they're really cool.
I mean, why not?
Mutli-piece wheels are the future
and ESM is getting involved with it.
But for now, ESM is just doing what they are good at
which is making a variant, a cluster of different wheels
that you can run in almost any different size finish
and offset because that's what they want to do.
They've been doing it very, very well.
They've actually been doing it so well that EMS Wheels
has become extremely popular in the last, like,
five or ten years,
especially when you consider the European market.
ESM is made up by car enthusiasts.
And you can see that with their partner company
being another automotive company.
It's not like a group of brokers
and investment insurance agents that will sue you
if you talk about them in a wheel video
that was posted four months ago on Youtube
because why would you do that?
That's not fun at all.
But apparently there are people out there that do that.
And ESM price point is like 500 to 1,200 a set.
So, when you really think about what you're getting,
you're pretty, I mean, you're entry level, boom.
What more do you want?
You're 16 years old, you get your Mark IV,
you get your Mark III, you're looking to ball out,
you get them 19 and S20s, you pop them on some ESM Wheels
and you dump it the ground on some TEIN coilovers.
And you're like set for three years.
You can get like $5,000 on Instagram.
You can drive around town, you look cool.
Now ESM Wheels is getting involved in different
variants of wheels,
but for the most part, their focus is,
and has always been, German style wheels.
So, you're probably going to see a lot of their designs
having had German styling behind them.
Now, it's up to you to determine whether you like
the ESM Wheels or not
because we're just here to tell you,
they sent us a whole bunch of stuff,
like information,
because nobody thought to ask ESM what their,
you know, what their story is.
Which is super cool, I mean, when you think about it,
everybody wants to know about BBS and Work,
but nobody wants to know about new companies like ESM.
So, we thought we would indulge you,
we would delve into the history of ESM Wheels
and we hope that we did just that.
Now, in terms of the future plans of the company,
they plan on just doing more stuff.
Because, you know, it's almost SEMA.
They're probably busy, we're really busy.
I'm sure that they saw our email and were like,
"They want more information? Really?
"I mean come one, bro, like we sent you all that."
Anyway, ESM Wheels is a company
that you're gonna see on the site
as well as you're gonna see us talk a little bit more
as we go into wheel samples and things like that.
But, of course ESM Wheels is for an entry level person
looking to get a German style wheel that comes
in a bunch of different finishes and colors.
Now, if that is what you think you want,
you can head over to FitmentIndustries.com
and check out ESM Wheels right over there.
And, if you're looking to get something else,
maybe you're looking for something a little fancier,
or something that's more expensive.
I mean, we don't judge.
FitmentIndustries.com.
Wheels, tires, suspension, airlift, all that good stuff.
Let us know in the comments section
what you'd like us to talk about next,
next the wheel company you'd like us to discuss,
or if there's just something else
that you want us to talk about,
because I have no problem talking.
If that's not apparent, I don't know what to tell you.
And of course, we're going to be at SEMA this year.
So, the biggest thing that we want you guys to know
is that we're going to be at SEMA.
If you're going to be at SEMA, drop a comment below.
We want to do like a meet and greet or something like that
We'll be doing videos that whole week.
So, if you want to meet up, now is the chance,
you get to see me talk, ah, not as fast.
That's all I got.
I'm Alex for Fitment Industries and we'll see you later.
Peace.