sesto elemento wrote:
I know this won't be a popular perspective but.....berkley any company that makes their living knocking off other people's hard work and cheapening everything they worked hard to create. Berley rota, berkley xxr, berkley all those brands. And berley the people who support them. When I was younger my family company designed and brought to market a product that was a Huge success, and quickly some e36m3bags in china knocked off our product and put us out of business. I've seen the damage these shiny happy people can do to good creative people and have zero respect for anyone who can't create their own products with original design ideas or anyone who buys this garbage.
I'm sure it's a very popular perspective on a lot of forums (in fact, I know it is as a former moderator of the wheel/tire section of a Nissan forum). Wheel afficianados always say exactly what you just said. And I see what you're saying, but have never thought it was a very valid argument. First of all, because Rotas are not "the same" as anything. If they were, they would get sued left and right for patent infringement and wouldn't be able to sell in places like the US, which have fairly strong copyright/patent laws. They may look similar to other wheels, but there are enough changes that they can always be distinguished by anyone who knows wheels. Plus they're cast, not forged like many wheels they "copy". SSR or Volk didn't invent wheels with concave spokes, or 7 spokes, or 5 spokes, or polished lips, etc etc.....all wheel designs are derivative of something else, with changes. Don't fool yourself that the guys in the Volk design house are creating totally original designs that nobody else has ever or possibly could think of.....I mean, are they paying royalties to cave men or carriage-makers who invented the ROUND wheel? lol...
As to the stealing sales part.....well....
I have Rota SDRs 17x7 1/2 about 16lbs. They look similar (but not identical) to the Prodrive P7 (which are 17x7 and about 20lbs.). My Rotas were $150 each new. Prodrive P7s (which aren't even forged, I don't think), run $300-400 each (if you can even get them anymore, which I'm not sure of).
I wasn't gonna buy the Prodrives regardless. Too heavy, too narrow, too expensive. Me buying Rotas took NO money out of Prodrive's pockets. Not one cent.
Likewise, the guys buying the Rotas that look like $500 SSRs or $500 Volks......they're not gonna buy the real things anyhow. If the Rotas aren't available, they'll (I'll) just buy some other inexpensive brand (Enkei, Kosei, etc). Chumpcar guys aren't gonna take $500 wheels to the track to get bashed up....
The real people who are really getting butthurt here are the car-show-queens who have real Volks so they can show off how cool they are in the parking lot. And then some guy drives by with some Rotas that look the same and everyone thinks that guy is cool too (but wait, he's not! He has fake Volks!!!! OMG!). THat's who gets upset.
If the "big" high-end wheel companies were getting financially hurt by Rota, I'm pretty sure they'd be taking legal action constantly and Rotas wouldn't be widely available in the USA.
I personally say berkeley those companies that sell overpriced wheels. Clearly they can be made for less (see: Rota), but they want to seem exclusive and charge top dollar, and won't make affordable cast wheels. So I'll buy Rotas. If Volk or BBS or SSR make some $150 cast 17x8s....I'll go buy those instead (but they won't ever do that....)
