("Cha Cha Slide")
- [Alex] Didn't want to do this.
I don't even think we should talk about it.
Didn't want to.
(deep breath)
Fine, fine, fine, fine.
You know, here at Fitment Industries,
we like to talk about wheels.
Especially wheel companies.
Neutrally, sometimes.
Today, we get to talk about none other than
the very controversial, very up and at 'em,
very up and coming company that you all know,
the most requested thing in the comments, WCI.
(upbeat music)
We're doing a giveaway.
Did you know that?
We are giving away a free painted wheel kit
from our brand new product lineup for car care.
If you comment and subscribe on Youtube, you get entered in.
If you share it on Facebook, you get entered in to win.
The more times, you comment, the more times you share,
the more likely you are to win this.
We'll talk more about this at the end.
WCI, or Watercooled Industries, was founded on
March 30th of 2011 by a man named Chris Bosgraaf.
Bos-bo-mmm.
Chris B.
And Chris B actually used to be involved in
Watercooled Industries within the European community
by selling brakes, suspension, and wheels
to anybody that really wanted them.
It wasn't until Chris really get developed into
the wheel game before he realized that there was
a lack of marketing into something that had
a higher service, better product, and just more creativity.
Especially coming into the wheel game.
So Chris and WCI in general decided to
launch their own wheel lineup.
And they started off like the typical American dream.
- America is great because America is good.
- So when WCI was first founded, they created four designs,
two renders, and one actual wheel that you could buy.
Unfortunately, as a new wheel company,
it was very difficult to convince people to spend
$4000 on a set of wheels that had absolutely no name.
WCI tried to fix that as much as possible by
just creating outstanding customer service.
Interesting that I say customer service and WCI
in the same sentence, but we'll get into that.
So the customers had to take a leap of faith.
("Sail" by Awolnation)
They could go with an established brand
that already had probably a lower price point,
which made sense, or they could try something different.
And if we know anything about the European community,
we know that they enjoy different.
("Be My Lover" by La Bouche)
So what happened?
WCI actually sold a couple sets of wheels.
It didn't take long for them to put on a couple Volkswagens,
and if you go onto their about us page,
you can actually see that WCI gives them a shoutout,
so that's pretty cool.
Once those customers took their leap of faith,
it actually didn't take long for
WCI to start growing a following.
Their Instagram account blew up,
their Facebook that they had at the time also blew up,
and it didn't take long for people to
start asking who WCI was and what do they sell.
I think within their first year,
WCI made five sets of wheels, maybe.
You have to consider that at $4000 a set,
they're making pretty good money.
But it became apparent that they
needed to expand their lineup,
because you can't just sell a $4000 piece of wheels.
That's just (bleep) lame.
In 2012, WCI began making their first
directional multi-piece wheel, the CC1.
And they actually claim that and tout that as being
the first directional multi-piece wheel in America.
And the CC1 wasn't a bad wheel.
It was different, it was original,
but it did have some flare to retro design.
There are plenty of color options and design options,
and of course you could make it to pretty
much whatever you needed for your car.
The CC1 was a huge success.
So, WCI began to grow.
They expanded past the multi-piece wheel game in 2012
and they came out with the CC10 which was a mono black,
BLQ one piece cast wheel that was ultimately extremely
successful with GTIs and other Volkswagen vehicles.
It didn't have that high price point,
which a lot of people, prevented them from buying.
But once they figured out that you could
get that directional cast wheel from WCI,
it was just another success.
So their first directional cast wheel was a success,
so what did WCI do?
- What?
- They made another cast wheel, directional.
MT10.
Came out and was a huge success because of
the fact that it was directional.
You guys have to remember that directional wheels,
for the most part, were exclusively a forged wheel
or multi-piece wheel only option.
So for WCI to offer that
directional wheel style was awesome.
So what makes WCI different than any other multi-piece
wheel company that's out there right now?
Well, they used to outsource that stuff.
They brought it all in-house,
and now they do everything from start to finish.
Chris, the owner, still takes a look at aired out vehicles
and sees what looks good on them in terms of overall design.
Once the design gets completed, it goes over to engineers
and designers to see if it's actually structurally sound.
Now, WCI, do they have great quality or not great quality?
Because the company is so new,
I haven't heard personally of bad wheels
coming out of the company, but, we're not, I don't know.
So what could go wrong?
You have an awesome company that's making directional cast,
multi-piece wheels, forged wheels.
They're doing everything right.
They've got a strong Instagram, Facebook.
They've got a strong car show presence.
So what could go wrong?
Nothing.
What could possibly go wrong with a wheel
company that is aimed towards success?
Well, you toss in a little bit of racism,
a little bit of jealousy, and you get what happened to WCI.
So, if you're ready, pull up a chair and let's
talk about this, because I've got nothing but time.
WCI has a Instagram account,
and it's a very nice Instagram account.
Has really pretty pictures on it and things like that.
The owner of WCI also has a girlfriend.
That's awesome, great, right?
And then the girlfriend works at a job, cool.
Working, America, great job.
And his girlfriend was speaking with another coworker,
flirtatiously, for awhile.
They found out, the owner, and he said, hey, stop that.
And so the girlfriend and the coworker decided,
yeah, we'll stop that.
Couple months later went by and the WCI official Instagram
account allegedly decided to put this person on blast.
So why is this a big deal?
Well, because WCI decided to message person X
on their (bleep) official Instagram account.
Not only that, but they decided to use every single
derogatory racist remark you could possibly imagine,
where it sounded like a 10 year old on Xbox live.
- Why would you cancel my Xbox live?
- Hang on, I'll transfer your call.
- For fuck's sa-
- You cannot imagine that the things that would be said on a
business Instagram account would be okay in any respects
or regards, and then not expect it to go viral.
It got posted everywhere you could possibly imagine.
Facebook saw over 800 shares.
There was countless YouTube videos that were posted.
Forums barred the website from even selling their wheels.
And it went on live television.
- [Reporter] Back here live at the Waterfront Village
with my friend the zombie, Johnathan, you're looking good.
Johnathan just got an awesome face paint job.
What do you think?
- I like turtles.
- Alright, you're a great zombie.
- It was absolutely terrible.
- [Reporter] Wednesday morning Dominick Lebron
woke up stunned, reading these messages
from Instagram, sent around four am.
- I just want people to know that racism is
still alive and it's still here in Holland.
And I just want to raise awareness
and try to change something.
- I think the worst part about this entire thing
is the fact that there was no official
announcement of what had happened.
The entire thing unveiled.
WCI didn't do anything.
They just let the whole thing roll out.
Nobody made an announcement, WCI didn't come out with
any sort of press report or anything like that,
and that's what I think truly, truly destroyed their name.
So we're doing another giveaway.
(applause)
But this time, it's brand new care kits that
Fitment Industries, we have built over the past year.
We spent a lot of time making this stuff for you guys.
And we want you to try it out.
So, here's what we're willing to offer.
We have 10 individual products and six care kits.
This is one of the kits, this is the painted wheel kit.
This takes care of your painted wheels.
We want to give this away this week.
What you need to do, if you're on YouTube,
is comment and subscribe, that's pretty simple.
If you're on Facebook, all you
need to do is share the video.
You can like it and comment too, but we want the share.
That's the most important thing.
Now, here's the bigger catch.
You'll get entered in one drawing if you share it or if you
comment and subscribe on YouTube, you'll get one entry.
But, between now and March 17th,
we're gonna be putting up videos like every single day.
If you share those, we'll actually keep track of that,
and you'll get another point.
So that is what we have for you guys.
We hope you enjoy.
Drop a comment on what you'd like to see next.
And check this stuff out if you want to.
Www.fitmentindustries.com/carcare is where you can see
all the products that we have available
like high foam soap and quick interior detailing.
That's the second part of our sales pitch.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
We will see you later, peace.