Posted on: Sunday, November 23, 2003
Custom wheels give youth ads new spin
By Doron Levin
Bloomberg News Service
Sellers of beer, cigarettes, running shoes and other goods — always on the lookout for a way to catch the eye of urban consumers — have turned to shiny custom car wheels.
Devotees of hip-hop style who admire the pugilistic talent of Brooklyn-based welterweight Zab Judah, for example, seem to be equally smitten by the spinning, extra-wide wheels — spinners, they're called — on Judah's green Mercedes-Benz S500.
Spinners command attention because they continue to rotate even after the vehicle comes to a stop. Some have said they pose a safety risk to those who might not realize they could lose a finger by touching them while they're moving.
Judah's exploits, along with pictures of his cars and his own line of luxury wheels, are depicted in the latest issue of Dub magazine. The magazine is loaded with ads, including those for Kool cigarettes, Nike shoes and Miller Lite beer.
"Anyone who wants to sell to us should come to Dub," said editor Myles Kovacs, 30. Dub also is street slang for custom wheel.
Kovacs claims — along with a few others — to have invented spinners. He describes his ethnic background as "three-quarters Japanese, one-quarter Hungarian who grew up in east Los Angeles speaking Spanish."
Glittering status symbol
Custom wheels sell for as little as $800 and as much as $12,000 for a set of four, reflecting the vigorous demand for some limited-edition brands. They have turned into a glittering status symbol for hip, affluent urban youth, who choose to drive cars that are unusual and make an individual statement.
Going back to the hot-rodders of the 1950s, the U.S. automotive scene always had a youth anti-culture that tries to be outrageous in a way that usually requires buying some special gizmo — think fancy exhaust pipes — instead of the automaker's standard gear.
Youth also is a market segment much prized by sellers of package goods, food and clothing, thereby making the wheel business a logical venue on which manufacturers can train their sights.
Rosemarie Kitchin, spokeswoman for the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association, estimated last week at the group's convention in Las Vegas that about $3.2 billion worth of custom wheels are sold annually at retail in the United States.
Fragmented industry
The custom-wheel industry remains highly fragmented among hundreds of small shops, retailers and manufacturers, several of whom report that growth is frustratingly slow, if it exists at all.
In July, Toronto-based Noranda Inc., a mining and metal refiner that is top producer of custom wheels in the United States, with about a fifth of the market, posted a $15 million (Canadian) net loss. Derek Pannell, Noranda's chief executive, said in April the company wanted to make its American Racing Equipment wheel subsidiary profitable so it could be sold.
In August, American Racing Equipment president Robert Hange told the Los Angeles Times he intended to cut 300 jobs in Southern California and move most production to Mexico to cut costs. He said his company would not manufacture spinners "because of the potential liability issue."
American Racing and wheel sales represent "a very small part of our business," said Denis Couture, a Noranda spokesman.
Sports stars and gangsta' rappers aren't the only celebrities buying flashy custom car parts. Academy Award-winning actor Adrien Brody ("The Pianist") has been roaring around Hollywood, playing loud rap music from his black Hummer H2 equipped with oversized chrome wheels.
Silver Star Cadillac, a dealership in Thousand Oaks, Calif., offers in advertisements to "rebuild any of our Cadillacs to your specifications" with video-game systems, suede interiors and wheels up to 24 inches in diameter, compared with standard wheel size of 18 or 19 inches.
Kovacs, meantime, has graduated from custom wheels to media, popularizing "our scene" through Dub, his magazine.
"Whether it be cruising the boulevard or entering a local car show," he wrote in the latest issue, "the need to display the fruits of our labor is therapeutic for ourselves while entertaining for others."
Attired in the requisite baseball cap, baggy pants and earring, Kovacs is an entrepreneur who describes in rapid-fire cadence the deals Dub is pursuing with Pepsi, Nike and others.
Recalling the long hair, ragged denim and peace symbols of an earlier era, it seems Kovacs and his rowdy peers are evolving, despite their desire to shock, into a generation as commercial as any other.
Or as Alfred Sloan, the legendary General Motors chairman, might have said if he born a century later in east Los Angeles: "There is no room for slacking when it comes to competition, and if you're not up to par you're likely soon to be a forgotten memory."
