I kind of like that anyone can design a wheel now; in the long run, I think it will lead to more cool stuff. But right now, it does get old with all the marketing hype. Vossen is probably the biggest offender simply with their volume. But look at how many forged wheel companies are out there now and I'm not talking about the established guys like HRE, Cor, I-forged, DPE, Asanti, etc. You've got AC Forged, ADV.1, AZA Forged, BC Forged, B-Forged, D2 Forged, Forged 1, Forged Specialties, Hyper Forged, Interad, ISS Forged, Lusso, Morr, Nessen Forged, Nutek Forged, Rotiform, Strasse Forged, SV Forged, Velos Forged, and the list goes on forever.
All of these companies popped up in the last few years around the time 360 hit it big. They all pretty much have the same style of rims, all variations of 5, 6, 7, 10 spoke wheels. Other than the center cap, I usually can't tell who made what. There's nothing like the TE-37 where you know immediately what it is. The cost of entry is so low now, you don't even need your own mill. You can just create a CAD design and shop it out to a company who can make the face for you. And the barrels are only made by a few established players like HRE and COR. So really, buying any of the current forged wheels out there is just buying marketing hype, no wheel is better than another since they pretty much all start with the same blanks.
The most important thing in starting a wheel company now is renting a supercar like a Ferrarri or Lambo, then slapping a set of your wheels on and taking as many pictures as you can to put all over Instagram.
It kinda sucks how just about anyone can design a wheel pattern on a computer and get it manufactured in Asia and sell it. Every time I look at wheels it seems like I see almost a lot of similar designs from different brands. I can't take Vossen seriously anymore with how hard they cram their stuff on social media, and how 75% of the G's I see (on the rare occasion I find myself at a meet/show) are on Vossens.
