We’ve been in business for 10 years, and we’ve stuck with one supplier in China. We chose them because they already had the equipment to Flow-Form which was rare back then, and their primary customers were big OEMs and other Japanese wheel manufacturers. What’s kept our relationship strong has been their willingness to further increase their QA standards at our request, and to support our extensive crush testing despite our low production volumes.

I can’t speak with any certainty on where another wheel is manufactured, but if they have a history of being soft and low quality, then it’s almost certainly not from our supplier as we’re definitely paying a premium to get the quality we require. As flow-forming became popular, a lot of other manufacturers have popped up offering similar services. If a vendor doesn’t come to a supplier with any of their own standards, and they’re just looking for a wheel, then there are a lot of suppliers out there now that are happy to cater to vendors just looking for another thing to sell.

For anything manufactured overseas, real world testing and independent checks are required to ensure you get quality out of a supplier. Done right, you get an iphone. Done wrong, you get exploding hoverboards. This is where the biggest differences start to reveal themselves in the wheel industry. It’s clear that most brands don’t even understand how to keep their suppliers in check as they’ll claim JWL and VIA on product that clearly haven’t been tested. We can tell they’re misrepresenting their products because there is a database that contains all the supplier names, wheel models, and test related data for every wheels that’s ever been certified by the VIA. Most wheels aren’t on that list as they’ve never been tested. Some vendors are novices that and assume they’re tested or they work with suppliers that tell them they’re tested, while others purposefully skip it to save costs. Both make you really worry about what other corners are being cut or missed.

After multiple computer revisions and FEA, we run real world impact, load, and crush tests for every unique wheel spec. Even if the offset change is only 1mm different on a new size, we still do the tests. Since all of this testing is done in-house, we need to keep our supplier in check. When they’re done we send wheels to the VIA in Japan which is a government testing organization. They real world crush test our wheels again and provide 3rd party validation that corners aren’t being cut.

This thorough testing gives us the confidence that we’re producing quality product that’s worthy of being driven at the limits on track. The last 10 years of customers beating on our wheels is proof that we’ve accomplished just that.

We understand where you’re coming from. It’s all talk until there is some proof to back up our claims. We’re sickened by the number of companies claiming they’re VIA/JWL certified when in fact they are not, so we always welcome a discussion on the matter. We encourage enthusiasts to do their due-diligence before making an educated wheel purchase as we’re all aware of the failures that can happen.

Posting a video doesn’t prove anything as we’ve seen them already from other manufacturers that lie about their certification(s). Each factory has the equipment in-house to conduct tests, but it doesn’t mean everything is tested or tested to the same standards as what the VIA requires. To us, in-house testing is just like taking a practice SAT test. The only score a college will care about is the officially sanctioned test you took, not the one you did at home on your own. These in-house tests and videos are conducted without regulation, subject to false load quantities, and used solely for marketing purposes. This is where the catastrophic on-track failures occur and the biggest differences start to reveal themselves in the wheel industry.

The VIA in Japan runs the JWL test and there is only one way to conduct that test so a manufacturer can’t game the system. SAE J2530 testing conducted in the USA by some manufacturers can be manipulated. We got into a spat with a competitor many years ago that claimed JWL/VIA/TUV certification. They only did SAE testing and that test allows them to pick any load rating to certify. That brand only tested to 1200lbs when VIA requires 690KG (1521lbs) for the 5x120 bolt pattern. A trend we see lately is brands that use tricky terminology such as “exceeds JWL/VIA”. Translated, that means they have no third party official evidence of anything, they want you to trust that they conducted a legitimate in-house test, and for some good reason they decided not to take that last step.

So how do you know we’re the real deal? There’s two ways to check. One way is online. The VIA maintains a list of every single manufacturer, wheel model, and size that has been certified. Unfortunately, they require a login to view that list which we find odd as we believe that should be a public database. The other way is by looking at the certified test reports that are mailed to them by the VIA.

Although we don’t have a video of the test being run, we noticed the older reports did include a photograph of our wheel in an impact test machine which we’ve attached below. The new reports just include a photo of the wheel on the ground which is not as interesting.
The only things we’ve hidden in these images is our source’s name.