Musical Distributors - Hamann
Although this happened awhile back, I feel compelled to write on it since Hamann hits close to home for me. As an integral part of the Hamann fanfare back in 99-01, I found it pretty disheartening to see Wheel Power Inc. “lose” it’s distributorship last year. Granted, it was played out by 02-03, the initial launch and designs of the Competition Kits and PG3 wheels really pushed a then small BMW tuning community into the next level of the aftermarket spectrum. Wheel Power & the infamous tUNINGwERKS were a vital part of the popularity of Hamann products at the time. I’ll be the first to say that the boyz at WP were not the most “ethical” when it comes to product sales (hell, even I was pissed when I found out the actual pricing) but if you think that doesn’t go on at any other tuners/dealers, I want to smoke some of what you have. Additionally, the initial rights to the distributorship of Hamann f/Wheel Power are legendary - the story goes that WP patented Hamann in the US so even Hamann didn’t have a choice of who to distribute to intially- tough business move (similar to RD Sport/Electrodyne) - needless to say, apparently karma came back around. I don’t know the exact details around the loss of Hamann, but I’ve heard it has to do with the initial licensing agreement expiring as well as lackluster sales. All of this may be a blessing in disguise for WP as Hamann hasn’t done well in the US for several years now.
3TMotorsport (3TAssociates) is the now “Official” Hamann distributor for NA. The guys over at 3T have a great business sense (their core business) but as for tuning and aftermarket, they really need some guidance. Picking up Hamann may have been an “opportunity” to boutique a brand, but their loss of Sportec and lack of a decent website (I’ve been telling them to fix that for 4 years now) will continue to hurt them. They rolled DEEP with some badass Hamann cars at last years SEMA, but I suspect the ROI was not nearly what they expected. Todd, if you’re reading this - let’s have lunch.