of the multiple sub-models, color options and licensed engraving choices. So with your manufacturing process, it must be pretty customizable in a short period of time. Mike: We have built a system that is very flexible, very fast and very efficient. We are really proud of that. And since we have everything in house, once we do the development, we have full control over the quality, and it also helps us turn around any custom choices that the customer wants quickly. Let’s talk about the customization for a second, what are people wanting in customization? What’s trending? Mike : It’s interesting. Probably the biggest customization we do is color matching. Say somebody owns a specific vehicle, like maybe a sunburst orange Corvette, they’ll often order the factory logo engraving because it matches their car. But they will also do a color match where we paint the caliper covers with an automotive paint that is an exact match to the color of their car. That is probably our highest customization request. After that, people want a custom engraving. We do that as well, but it’s all over the board. It costs an extra $150 for a custom engraving, so that’s not as popular as the painting but we still get requests to do a lot of it as well. A good example are car clubs. Their members like to upload their club logo to our website for their custom engraving and from time to time we will get some incredible custom designed artwork uploaded to be engraved from individu- als as well. The custom engravings are fun and the custom- ers love the result! With the painting, are customers looking for the calipers to disappear in the color of the car or are they looking for them to stand out? Mike: Actually, in most cases they are looking for the covers to stand out. For example, if you take that Corvette again, if it’s orange, they may have chosen silver or black wheels. You put the orange caliper covers on the car so it really stands out and it looks like it’s a part of the car. It works the other way too. If a customer has wheels that are the same color as their car, orange again for example, they can choose black, matte black or even carbon fiber to stand out behind the bright colored wheel creating a nice contrast that flows well. I’m sure you have some great back stories on some of the customizations you have done. But you also do some charitable work for non-profit organizations. Breast cancer, for example. Mike: Every year we get requests from some of these great organizations. Two years ago, we got the opportunity to do a full military car. We were asked to do the marines on one corner the army on another, and the navy and Air Force on
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MAY 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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