Falken Tire is a brand of passenger car, light truck, and medium truck

tire A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a Rim (wheel), wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide Traction (engineering), t ...

s owned by the Japanese company

Sumitomo Rubber Industries is a global tire and rubber company based in Japan. It is part of the Sumitomo Group. The company makes a wide range of rubber based products, including automobile tires, golf balls and tennis balls. Sumitomo brands include Dunlop Tyres (in cer ...

(SRI). It was launched in its native country of Japan in 1983, and was introduced to the North American market two years later and in Europe in 1988. Falken has now become a stand-alone brand that focuses on UHP (Ultra High Performance) products while utilizing professional

motorsport Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...

s to further develop and improve products for worldwide distribution. Sumitomo Rubber North America, Inc., formerly known as Falken Tire Corporation, is the corporate headquarters in

Rancho Cucamonga, California Rancho Cucamonga ( ) is a city located just south of the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and Angeles National Forest in San Bernardino County, California, United States. About east of Downtown Los Angeles, Rancho Cucamonga is the 28th ...

, with a West Coast distribution center in

Ontario, California Ontario is a city in southwestern San Bernardino County in the U.S. state of California, east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino, the county seat. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire metropolitan area, ...

. Additional Falken Tire distribution locations include warehouses in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. In June 2015, Sumitomo and Goodyear announced that they would dissolve their worldwide partnership. As part of the deal, Sumitomo bought Goodyear Dunlop Tires North America, which included a manufacturing plant in Tonawanda, near

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. The plant, rebranded as Sumitomo Rubber USA, began to produce Falken Tire-branded tires in January 2016.

History

Timeline

* 1983: The Falken brand is created as a high performance brand of OHTSU Rubber & Tire in Japan * 1985: Started Falken Motorsports & U.S. Distribution * 1988: Team Falken wins the Mirage Cup International series * 1988: Falken introduces the Sincera Tire * 1988: Falken Tyre Europe GmbH is founded in Offenbach am Main, Germany. * 1990: The N1 6hour Endurance Sugu 400 km GT-R R32 class winner * 1991: Falken supports the BNR32 that dominated the Super N1 Taikyu Series in Japan * 1991: Team Falken participated in the Kenya Endurance rally * 1991: Opened U.S. Headquarters in

Rancho Cucamonga Rancho Cucamonga was a Mexican land grant in present-day San Bernardino County, California, given in 1839 to the dedicated soldier, smuggler and politician Tiburcio Tapia by Mexican governor Juan Bautista Alvarado. The grant formed parts of pr ...

, U.S. * 1993: Sponsors teams for the Paris to Dakar Rally Championships * 1996: The first Ziex branded tire is launched: Ziex ZE502 * 1998: Began a successful campaign with Mine's Falken BNR33 which won the 98'-00' Class 1 Series Championship * 1999: Team Falken began competing in the ADAC 24th Rennen Nurburgring * 2000: Falken Tire participates in Rally Australia 2000 * 2001: AZENIS Tire line is launched with AZENIS ST115 and AZENIS RT215 * 2001: Team Falken wins Super Endurance Class 1 Series Championship * 2001: Falken sponsors the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb * 2003: Falken supports the first U.S. Drift Showoff in Irwindale, Ca * 2003: Falken sponsors the drivers at the first D1 Grand Prix Pro Drift Competition in the U.S. * 2005: Falken team driver Calvin Wan takes 1st place in an Infiniti G35 at the Formula Drift sanctioned event. * 2006: A Consumer Reports Top Pick: Falken ZE912 * 2007: Falken moves into corporate office in Fontana, CA * 2010: Falken wins first Formula Drift Championship,

Vaughn Gittin Vaughn Gittin Jr. (born September 20, 1980), commonly known as JR, is an American, self-taught, professional drifter from Maryland who competes in Formula Drift in a Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D sponsored by Monster Energy, Nitto Tire, and Ford ...

Jr. * 2010: Falken introduces the Wildpeak A/T Tire to reinvigorate the all-performance SUV and Light Truck segments. * 2011: Falken wins another back-to-back Formula Drift Championship with

Daijiro Yoshihara (born December 24, 1978), more commonly known as Dai Yoshihara, is a Japanese professional driver with experience in Drifting, Road Racing, Time Attack, and Hill Climb. Background Before entering professional driving, Yoshihara enjoyed drifti ...

. * 2011: 2 ALMS GT Class wins at Mid-Ohio & Baltimore * 2012: Team Falken takes another ALMS win at Baltimore Grand Prix * 2012: New Falken Tire headquarters located in

, CA. * 2012: Falken / Savvy Off Road wins the King of the Hammers Every Man Challenge. * 2012: Falken drift team driver Lars Verbraeken became a Guinness World Record holder after achieving a new speed record for drifting. * 2013: Falken wins again at the King of the Hammers Every Man Challenge * 2013: Team Falken takes first place in GT at ALMS Petit Le Mans * 2015: Falken becomes the Official Tire of Major League Baseball * 2016: The Sumitomo Rubber USA factory in Tonawanda began to produce Falken Tire-branded tires. * 2016: Falken partners with the Qantas Wallabies as a sponsor. * 2017: Falken became a sponsor of

English Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

team

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...

* 2018: Falken became a sponsor of German Basketball League team EWE Baskets. * 2018: Falken Azenis FK510 wins the Wheels Magazine Tyre Test in Australia.

Motorsports

Falken Tire Corporation has participated in many motorsport activities, including the Tudor United Sports Car Championship

IMSA The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive direc ...

, the former American Le Mans Series

ALMS Alms (, ) are money, food, or other material goods donated to people living in poverty. Providing alms is often considered an act of virtue or Charity (practice), charity. The act of providing alms is called almsgiving, and it is a widespread p ...

, British Drift Championship, Irish Drift Championship, Drift Allstars European Series with driver James Deane, Formula Drift Series

Formula D Formula Drift (also known as Formula D) is a United States-based motorsport drifting series. Formula Drift, Inc. was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that int ...

, ADAC 24 Hours of Nürburgring and International Drift Series. Drivers for the IMSA GT Class were

Wolf Henzler Wolfgang Henzler (born 5 April 1975) is a former German Porsche factory racing driver. He began racing in 1991 with a win in the German Junior Kart championship. Born in Nürtingen, Baden-Württemberg, he won one time the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2 ...

and

Bryan Sellers Bryan Sellers (born August 19, 1982 in Daytona Beach, Florida, Dayton, Ohio) is an American racing driver. Sellers won the title in the U.S. F2000 National Championship, U.S. F2000 in 2002 and later competed in the Atlantic Championship and in r ...

, in which they co-piloted a Porsche 911 RSR. Sponsored drivers for the Formula Drift competition were Daijiro Yoshihara, Justin Pawlak, James Deane, Piotr Wiecek, Matt Field, and Aurimas "Odi" Bakchis. Current drivers in the

British Drift Championship The British Drift Championship is a drifting series held in the UK. It is the highest level of competition drifting in the UK. The series began as a feeder series to the European Drift Championship. However, the partnership between the BDC and ...

competition are Matt Carter, Paul Cheshire and Alan Green. Drivers sponsored in 2010 International Drift Series were Remmo Niezen, Lars Verbraeken and Lennard Wanders. Falken has sponsored racing series such as ALMS and domestic championships like Super Taikyu series,

24 Hours Nürburgring 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

and drifting series such as

and

D1 Grand Prix The , abbreviated as D1GP and subtitled ''Professional Drift'', is a production car drifting (motorsport), drifting series from Japan. After several years of hosting amateur drifting contests, Daijiro Inada, founder of ''Option (car magazine), O ...

. Falken was previously the title sponsor of the

until 2010 when

Maxxis Tyres Cheng Shin Rubber Industry Co. () is a Taiwanese and the ninth largest tire company in the world. Established in 1967, in Yuanlin City, Changhua County, Taiwan, by Luo Jye. Maxxis Tyres and CST tires are wholly owned subsidiaries of Cheng Shin. ...

became the title sponsor. Since at least 2009, Falken Tire have also a team of spokesmodels that attend to all of the

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' hea ...

and

Formula Drift Formula Drift (also known as Formula D) is a United States-based motorsport drifting series. Formula Drift, Inc. was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that int ...

motorsport events.Models
at Falken Tire

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.falkentire.com
Falken European Website

Falken Middle East Official Website
Sumitomo Group Companies based in Kobe Automotive companies established in 1983 Tire manufacturers of Japan Japanese brands