As the race for wheel domination continues in the world, ADV1 is ready to position itself for the ultimate expansion. The critics continue to rave that ADV1 keeps growing while maintaining high quality standards, and that their popularity has surpassed the competition by a mile, but how can one contain such growth and continue to grow properly with such demand and such little time. One of the biggest drawbacks of fast growth is the expectation you set for your clients, which constantly want improvement and makes it difficult sometimes to outdo the competition, especially when the competition is “YOU”. We sit down with Jordan Swerdloff to hear more about his business strategy and what he has in store for ADV1 Wheels as major change is rumored to be on the way.
When we last spoke you introduced us to the partnership that ADV1 created with German tuner ATT Tec. You are now expanding the brand across Russia, China and Japan? Can you explain the strategic reason behind the Asian expansion? How do you plan on competing with such a new wheel in such a saturated market like Japan?
We’ve actually seen a high demand for ADV.1 since it’s inception all over Asia which was surprising to me since as you mentioned it is a saturated market. As explained previously, the reason for the International expansion is really simply due to International demand. Customers find ADV.1 and ask their local retailers if they can get it, eventually we build relationships with multiple dealers in a particular region and we’re able to weed out the good from the bad and typically this results in an Exclusivity agreement between us. It’s in our best interest to have a solid, reputable dealer as our Exclusive distributor for every major region. This eliminates price wars and helps build more of a demand for the product, especially if the company is well routed and capable of marketing the product properly. This is what we look for in an Exclusive Dealer, the ability to create awareness of the product, market it correctly and most importantly conduct good, reliable business with us. We really don’t base the agreement on who’s placing the largest buy in, instead it’s based on who we work best with, and who we feel we’ll have a good long term relationship with.
As for competing with other brands, I honestly don’t plan ADV.1 around competing with others, I feel that this intent would influence the design and image of the company, since you’re designing to do better than someone else, as opposed to designing what I really want to see. This is something I’ve always stayed away from, I try not to even look at other trends or companies for that reason. So to answer your question, I don’t plan on competing : ) I have already won !
There seems to have been new wheel designs released by ADV1, what is the deep concave Flowspec program? How does it differ from an existing concave?
Flowspec is something we’ve been working on since last September. It’s our cast program, which is a lower priced, higher volume version of our 1 piece forged wheels. The cast models are excellent quality, but cost much less to make as they’re made in substantial volume runs of the same exact wheel and use a high pressure casting system as opposed to individual machining and engineering. The downside is the wheels are not customizable as far as offset, pcd, or center bores so they’re only available for the vehicles that they’re designed for as our forged wheels are machined and engineered individually for each vehicle, and to the customers specific fitment taste and style. We’ve designed several molds for some of our popular applications and we’ll continue to develop more as we progress. They offer a great looking alternative at a much lower price, as long as your vehicle is one we’ve developed the Flowspec line for such as a BMW M3, or Mercedes SL. They’re not as light or strong as our forged wheels, but for normal street use and / or weekend club racing they’re excellent. We’ve based the price point to be in the sub $3k range, so it’s a great alternative if a forged wheel at $5-6k+ is out of the budget. So far we’ve sold out of all initial inventory, so it looks like it’s going to be great.
We haven’t noticed a lot of new pics from ADV1 this past month? Any super hot projects cars for this month you guys have outdone yourselves on?
With the new site about to launch, I’ve kept everything under wraps for the past couple months to add to the epicness : )
I will say that there’s some pretty insane stuff I’m hiding! Maybe not too many super exotics like the Reventon we did, but some absolutely sick setups and ET’s on some “Normal” cars like our project Murcielago, a pair of TT LP640’s we did with SP, maybe a little deep concave SLR somewhere in their, some deep concave step lip setups on M3’s, CLS, and Z06’s, a little matte black E63 on deep concave’s, maybe some 22″ Deep concave step lip action on the Bentley GT SS…Should I go on?
We hear you are relaunching your site? its already one of the hottest out there…what can one expect from ADV1wheels.com after September 1st? A rumor has it that secret will be on there?
The new ADV1wheels.com is launching 9.1.10, and let’s just say I got kinda bored of the old one…
I’ve redesigned the new site to be not only a complete up to date catalog of ADV.1, but also as an online database of epicness. A site anyone can go to and spend hours reading and looking at this small community of modified exotic vehicles that for most people are unimaginable. Kind of like a constantly changing, daily updating news and image gallery that can be used as a reference tool for what’s setting the pace for the industry. We’ve put alot of time into it, and it involves constant upkeep but the end result will be incredible. Aside from all that fun stuff we’re also integrating a private client only forum where members can check the daily progress of their orders, get inside information and see the latest projects and behind the scenes action before anyone else. Overall, the International source for the newest exotic modifications by ADV.1 and our partners, including Secret Entourage obviously! “This is what Secret Calls innovation, always thinking ahead and leading instead of following”
In a very short period of time, you seem to have grown larger and better than ever before, but many know that growing quickly is something that you are no stranger to. What steps are you taking to sustain growth and not be overwhelmed by it?
Good question. Really everything about ADV.1 and it’s initial setup was designed to be properly prepared for exactly that. Every flaw previously experienced was analyzed and taken into consideration during the setup and planning period to ensure that WHEN it takes off we would be prepared for it. Obviously it’s been bumpy at times and we’ve had to make changes along the way in order to keep up, but overall we’ve handled it well and I would say that as of right now we’re prepared for even more additional volume. We’ve increased staff in Miami and California and our production manager Terrence in Garden Grove has absolutely taken the companies internal production to another level. We’re currently running on an average lead time of 37 days, which isn’t as fast I would like but I’m very happy with it right now and I know it’s getting better. We’ve grown about 300% since January organically without any major effort to increase sales, instead I’ve made it a point to let it grow on it’s own while we focus on production efficiency and organization so that when I say it’s time to push it we’re all prepared. You’re about to see that happen very soon : )
Any plans of expansion in terms of manufacturing facility?
I wouldn’t say expansion as far as size or equipment, but we have made a lot of improvements in that department. We have a great relationship with our partners at MHT who machine our wheels and work with us on a lot of manufacturing aspects. Originally we started as more of a “private label” of theirs but we’ve grown to be much more than that with our own ADV.1 staff, CNC machines, assembly, inventory, engineering, finishing, etc which we’ve set up in Garden Grove. We’ve built a great relationship and they’ve really been a big part of ADV.1 since day one, so I’m glad that we’re returning the favor and keeping them busy. As far as future plans, as of right now we’ve just completed some major improvement projects so we’re pretty well set up for a substantial growth, however I’m sure as we progress we’ll continue to do whatever we need to do in order to keep up.
Well guys, that’s all we bring you this month on where ADV1 stands as a small preview of whats to come next month as we unveil and deep dive the in the world of ADV1 with the launch of their newest website, newest projects and perhaps something else unique that will have to be seen to be believed but we’ll leave that to next time…
Check out ADV1 full wheel lineup at ADV1 Wheels
