Omni taps Italian firm to design Radar tire line

DALLAS—Ask athletes what brand of apparel they are wearing and there's a great chance they'll know whether it's Nike, Adidas, Under Armour or something else.

You probably know what brand smartphone you use, whether it's an Apple, Samsung or Google.

And that watch on your arm, purse on your shoulder or shoes on your feet, well, it's a good bet you can name what brand you overwhelming prefer.

Tires? Hardly.

For most consumers, if it's round, black and fits the vehicles they're driving, brand is about as important as that yellow light you encountered this morning: You may think about it at the moment, but once you've made your choice, it's long forgotten.

Several studies have found that the majority of customers who enter a dealership needing tires don't have a particular brand in mind. And of those who do, only about half end up purchasing that brand.

According to Consumer Reports, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of respondents to a recent survey said their tire brand is different than the one they previously had on their vehicle. An additional 10 percent had purchased the same brand of tire but a different model.

GS Sareen has taken a step to change that.

Sareen, founder, CEO and president of international tire distributor Omni United Pte. Ltd., has formed a partnership with Italian automotive design house GFG Style to produce lines of his company's Radar-branded tires.

The first, the Renegade-X, is expected to roll out in five sizes in the second quarter of the year. The product, designed to compete in the mountain-terrain category, debuted last fall at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. In the months since, the product has gone through some engineering tweaks while being tested at venues throughout North America.

Eventually, the off-road-optimized product, which features a "stealth" inspired tread block design combining aesthetics and performance attributes, will be available in 40-plus sizes, covering rim diameters of 16 to 30 inches.

The endeavor, however, goes well beyond just the launch of the tire. Sareen is hoping that one day the Radar brand can develop into a brand not only recognized, but also requested by aftermarket consumers.

"Why not build Radar into a brand?" Sareen told Tire Business in an exclusive interview. "It does have a good pedigree of attributes. It's designed well, it's functionally working extremely well, it's liked by the people."

And, he said, dealers seem to love the product.

"With all of those things happening, why not build this up?" he asked. "A consumer doesn't know a brand. Why not introduce that to him? Because for him, a big brand or small brand, he doesn't know either. It just depends on how we communicate the brand to him."

Design is an important aspect of the concept. That is the overwhelming reason Omni chose to work with Turin, Italy-based GFG Style, founded in 2015 by father-and-son duo Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro. The pair has created more than 300 standard production automobile models and more than 200 research prototypes for several OE manufacturers.

GFG Style has done work for auto brands such as Aston Martin, BMW, Bugatti, Ferrari, Lotus, Maserati and more. Today, the company focuses on the conception, design and development of new vehicles and products, which aligns well with Omni United's end game.

"I think they are the best in the industry in terms of design," Sareen said.

In 1999, the Global Automotive Elections Foundation named Fabrizio Giugiaro the Car Designer of the Century.

Fabrizio Giugiaro said GFG Style is excited about the partnership, which is mutually exclusive for both entities.

"This is a collaboration where both Omni and GFG Style bring their respective expertise and experience to create products that offer a unique aesthetic as well functionality," he said. "Over the next few years, we are looking to create a series of unique and ground-breaking products."

"Ground" is a key aspect to the product: many of the creatures that inhabit the ground are an inspiration for the design and functionality.

"You can't just bring a random design and just to be different present a non-nonsensical concept," Sareen said. "It has to be functional. There's nothing more functional than nature itself. Nature provides you with the best designs."

Nature, he said, has always intrigued him.

"When you look at wet conditions, can we take some inspiration from nature on that? The way you look at gripping ... can we take inspirations from nature on that?"

He rhetorically asked how a snake can crawl in all kinds of weather conditions.

"I don't think we need to reinvent the wheel," he said. "There are enough great designs that nature has provided. But I need some expert to help me convert this into a functional design. That's where the Giugiaros can really help us, in bringing functional design.

"They are not driving geniuses — they're designers — but they are one step ahead in designing of a concept I have in my head."

This isn't the first time Sareen and Omni United have attempted to increase brand recognition for one of its products.

In 2011, Omni United struck a deal with Sears Holdings Corp. to begin stocking Radar-brand tires at the 867 Sears Auto Centers in operation then. At the time, Omni United enhanced the Radar line by purchasing the VSP brand and melding some of that brand's tread designs into the Radar lineup.

Of course, the last of the Sears Auto Centers closed permanently earlier this year.

Three years after the Sears trial, the Singapore-based tire distributor started a collaboration with footwear company Timberland L.L.C. to launch three lines of Timberland-brand premium passenger and light truck tires. At that time, Omni United said its goal was "to bring fashion into the tire market."

Part of the collaboration called for a take-back strategy, whereby retailers and tire recycling firms would collect worn-out Timberland tires and process them into crumb rubber for use in Timberland boots, rather than to be used in other less sustainable ways, such as fuel, export or landfills.

That aspect of the partnership did show some early legs, so to speak. In May 2016, Timberland and the tire brand beat out fashion industry firms Reformation, Levi Strauss and People Tree Ltd. to win the WGSN Futures Award in sustainability design.

However, in 2018, the Timberland venture was put "on ice," according to Sareen, derailed in part, he said, because the products were priced too high.

"The Timberland concept was brilliant," he said, but pointed out that the product was made in the U.S. — Timberland is based in Stratham, N.H. — and was more expensive than some of its competitors.

The companies talked about reviving the concept, but the pandemic kept things on ice.

"I'm very confident that I would like to see it come back to life very soon," Sareen said. "We are in a much stronger position now and understanding how this is to be done."

He said Omni has considered partnering with other brands, too.

"The object," he said, "is to make a success of what we started with one before jumping to another one."

In the meantime, Omni United will focus on expanding the Radar brand, first with the mud-terrain product that will replace the current Radar offering in the lineup.

Sareen said the company considered its options for the portfolio, given the substantial investment in the new product design. The old Radar product will become an associate brand, he said, while the new Radar product line will become a flagship brand.

Development has begun on the next product, an all-season passenger tire, followed by light-/heavy-truck offering.

Omni United sources its tires from 11 factories in five countries: China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan. Sareen said the company distributes more than 2,000 SKUs, marketing brands such as Agora, American Tourer, Corsa, Patriot, RoadLux and Tecnica. It sells products in more than 50 countries.

"We follow all the protocols and all the process that a decent-sized manufacturer would,'' Sareen said, including field testing, lab testing and individual testing.

He said some products are tested by a well-known firm that does testing for Tier 1 and Tier 2 products.

"They were quite surprised that I was approaching them," he said.

The key, he said, is to build dealer confidence in the product while staying within a reasonable price point.

"We should be able to give customers amazing designs and great products at reasonable prices," he said.

Sareen said the digital revolution has made it far easier to communicate a brand name to a consumer.

"In the past, only your media presence dictated as big as you are," he said, "but things have changed. We can create a brand much faster, much more scientifically by the tools that are available in the marketplace."

So the Omni United CEO has made it his company's mission to put the Radar brand on consumers' radar: a design-driven tire that offers safety, performance and sustainability.

"You know the shoes you wear," Sareen said. "Why not know the tires you drive?"