2003 News
11.19.03 – Detroit News
Tire Totes Keep wheel changers clean 
11.19.03 – Detroit News
Specialty equipment show launches dreams
10.29.03 – Roadfly Magazine
SEMA 2003: Bigger! Badder! Better?
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Soup It Up
Tire Totes keep wheel changers clean
By Larry Edsall / Special to The Detroit News
LAS VEGAS -- The Emergency Tire Tote and the Seasonal Tire Tote make so much sense you wonder why nobody came up with the idea before.
The concept is simple: Create covers so people can carry and change tires without getting dirty.
The Emergency Tire Tote comes two in a box for $14.95 and includes a pair of yellow polyethylene tire covers, protective gloves, a kneeling mat, tire changing instructions and even a towelette, just in case you somehow get tire dirt or brake dust on your hands or arms.
The Seasonal Tire Tote, two for $19.95, is a polyester and nylon tire cover with a handle to make carrying and storing tires an easy and clean proposition.
The products are the brainchild of Gordon and Kitter Spater, who grew up in Vermont, where they often got dirty swapping out summer tires for snow tires on the family vehicles.
Gordon, now 33, graduated from Harvard Business School and Kitter, 30, and his buddy, Ryan Meers, 26, earned master's degrees in industrial design from Pratt Institute.
Meers and the Spater brothers took advantage of Pratt's new design incubator program to launch their company, Motivation Design LLC, which developed the Emergency Tire Tote and the Seasonal Tire Tote as its first real products.
Meers and the Spaters displayed their totes for the first time earlier this month at the Specialty Equipment Market Association show, an annual gathering of custom and performance auto accessory parts companies.
Their small booth attracted the attention of automakers and dealers. Off-roaders said the tote would be handy when they cut tires in the desert or on mountain trails.
Hot rod and classic car builders said the totes could be used to help keep grass clippings off tires when cars are driven on to golf course fairways for events such as the annual Meadowbrook Concours d'Elegance at Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester.
For more information, and to see other product proposals, visit Motivation Design on the Web at www.motivation-design.com or www.tiretote.com.
Larry Edsall is a Phoenix-based free-lance writer.
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Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Specialty equipment show launches dreams
Roush got his start in 1972 at event that drew innovators
By Larry Edsall / Special to The Detroit News
LAS VEGAS _ In 1972, a young engineer who had left a good job at Ford Motor Co. traveled to southern California to attend an automotive accessory and racing equipment trade show. In one arm, he carried an oil pan. In the other, a briefcase filled with parts he'd developed to improve engine lubrication.
But what Jack Roush really brought to the show were his dreams, one of which was to build race cars. To finance his passion, he resurrected other people's dreams.
"People started projects but didn't have the background or the time or the money to finish them," he said. "I would buy them, put the luster on them and then sell them."
Roush used the money he made to bankroll his racing. His specialty was building very fast and durable engines. At that trade show in 1972, Dick Moroso, whose company was known for its high-performance engine equipment, bought the rights to Roush's oil pan modifications and provided $15,000 in equipment for the engines Roush would build for the 1973 racing season.
Roush met with several other companies at the show and returned to Michigan with a lot of parts he used to build three cars and 12 engines that helped carry his team to the 1973 National Hot Rod Association championship in the Pro Stock category.
As was his practice, he sold those cars and engines to finance more projects and Jack Roush Performance Engineering grew into Livonia-based Roush Industries, a major supplier of engineering expertise and components for the international automotive industry.
Today's young inventors and entrepreneurs -- like Roush in the 1970s -- can still find a future in the growing $23 billion automotive custom and performance parts market, even as automakers, and some suppliers, are swooping in and stealing some of the spotlight from what was once a mom-and-pop industry.
The trade show that launched Roush's dreams was the Specialty Equipment Market Association's annual extravaganza, where makers of specialty vehicles, accessories and custom and performance parts showcase their products.
The show was launched in 1967 with 98 booths and five vehicles on display at Dodger Stadium. Earlier this month, this year's event overflowed three huge exposition buildings at the Las Vegas Convention Center. More than 115,000 people came to see displays from nearly 1,830 companies and 1,500 custom vehicles.
The show has become so big and influential within the auto industry that it has grown from a parts showcase into a major auto show, with huge displays and production and concept vehicle introductions by many automakers.
Major parts makers also participate. This year, Decoma showed a concept coupe based on the PT Cruiser; Bridgestone/Firestone announced Fuzion, a tire brand that launches next spring; and Procter & Gamble introduced the Mr. Clean car-washing system.
The automakers' presence can be a double-edged sword for entrepreneurs trying to gain or maintain a foothold in the industry.
The automakers have brought extensive media coverage -- and thus greater public exposure. But the attention tends to focus on the automakers rather than specialty companies.
There also are tensions between vehicle makers and accessory parts companies, stemming from concerns about the quality and fit of parts that don't come from the factory, how vehicle warranties are affected by the addition of bolt-on parts, even worries about intellectual property rights.
"We were regarded as someone who was bastardizing perfectly good automobiles," said Alex Borla, whose Borla Performance Industries produces exhaust systems that are featured as standard equipment on many high-performance vehicles.
"We create the stuff to add to the enjoyment and efficiency of those automobiles," he said.
In 1998, to improve relations with automakers, the association hired former General Motors Corp. public relations executive Carl Sheffer.
A once adversarial -- if not hostile -- relationship has been transformed to the point that some automakers now share computerized engineering information with custom and performance parts companies so they can produce products that fit and function properly and become available at the same time that a new vehicle goes into production.
With so much attention on the automakers themselves, can a young Jack Roush still go to the show and pursue his (or her) dream? Roush thinks so.
"Now we have the manufacturers looking at (accessory makers) and instead of being skeptical, they're forming partnerships," Roush said. Having automakers at the show provides access that inventors and entrepreneurs couldn't get otherwise.
"The movers and shakers are all here," he said.
Today's dreamers appreciate their presence.
Recent college graduates Gordon and Kitter Spater and Ryan Meers of Brooklyn, N.Y., trekked to Las Vegas this year with Tire Tote, the spare tire cover they designed. Tire Tote lets you carry and change a tire without getting dirty.
Before the first day of the show was over, they had already welcomed several representatives from automakers and auto dealers to their booth.
Maybe in a few years, the young partners' Motivation Design firm will find success like Tim Dexter's Westside Research.
Dexter was an engineer in a plant that produced containment vessels for nuclear bombs when the end of the Cold War also put an end to his job. He had previously worked as a sail maker, so he combined his sewing and engineering skills to create cargo holders to prevent groceries from rolling around in the back of his pickup or his wife's car.
Now his Orland, Calif.-based company is a supplier to DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group, Toyota Motor Co.p., Volkswagen and BMW.
Larry Edsall is a Phoenix-based free-lance writer.
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SEMA 2003: Bigger! Badder! Better?
COOL GEAR FROM SEMA
By Steve Litscher Editor-in-Chief
In addition to the great offerings that our sponsors had on display at SEMA, we selected a handful of "really cool stuff" to share with you. If you're looking for garage goodies, be sure to check out some of these cool new items.
Motivation Design: Tire Tote
After growing tired of dirtying their vehicles and themselves while moving snow tires from the basement to the garage, Ryan Meers and Kitter Spater designed the "Seasonal Tire Tote" and the "Emergency Tire Tote." These soft tire pouches take the mess out of changing, moving and storing your wheels and tires. The Seasonal Tire Tote is a one-size fits all, machine washable tire "bag" that comes complete with handles. It's designed to fit snugly around your tires and wheels, and protects your clothing, interior, or storage space from dirty tires. The pouches can easily accommodate large, low profile wheels and tires, and can even be private labeled by car clubs, manufacturers and associations alike.
Extremely practical and useful, these kits carry suggested retail prices of $14.95 (Emergency Tire Tote) and $19.95 (Seasonal Tire Tote (pair)). For more information, visit their website at: http://www.motivation-design.com.
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