In its 120 years of existence, Goodyear has manufactured tires for everything from Henry Ford’s Model T to Formula 1 race cars and NASA’s Mars rover. But the company’s very first product was a bicycle tire back in 1898.
Goodyear returns to those roots now with a new line of performance bicycle tires developed over the past two years with Rubber Kinetics LLC, a company led by industry veteran Luke Musselman with a team based at Goodyear’s headquarters in Akron, Ohio.
“The inventions and technologies that have come out of Goodyear allow us to bring a premium line of bicycle tires to market," Musselman said during a recent media launch at the Southern California facility housing Goodyear’s iconic blimp.
All of the rubber compounds for the new performance line are developed in-house — no other tire brand has them. And the compounds are made specifically for each tread pattern.
“We can design a great-looking tread pattern, but if the compound doesn’t work with the knob size and doesn’t interact with the ground the way it’s supposed to, that tread pattern will not work," said Musselman, Rubber Kinetics’ president.
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The line launches with more than 100 SKUs spanning four categories: road, transit, all-terrain/gravel and mountain, plus Goodyear’s own tubes and tubeless sealant. Musselman said he expects the line to grow to three times that size in the next 18 to 24 months.
“For us, this was a big opportunity," said Pat McGinnis, Hawley’s vice president of commercial. “What’s really cool is you have an iconic worldwide brand that’s made the decision to be part of our industry, which I think is really important in how it can bring recognition to other people in the industry. The second thing is that with the exclusive arrangement, it’s a really good opportunity for us to provide an important category that can truly be profitable for our dealers. It can be a tough category to have good margins and good profit. So those two things tie it together."
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Retailers and consumers will get to see the full line this month at Sea Otter, where Hawley representatives will be manning Goodyear’s booth. That will be followed by a major program push in May, Hawley’s McGinnis said.
“We’ll offer a Goodyear program and some opportunities in and around POP, and we’ll give dealers some discount and dating incentives to buy into the brand," he added.
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