Kumho Wins IDEA Design Awards for Smasher and Sealant Tires

Korean tire manufacturer, Kumho has won the prestigious 2016 IDEA (International Design Excellence Award) design awards for its Smasher and Sealant tires. By winning the IDEA awards, Kumho has now won all the three renowned design awards in the world including the Red Dot awards from Germany and the iF (International Forum) design award. This trio of awards points to the giant strides the company has taken in terms of its technological and design expertise.

The IDEAA awards are jointly awarded by Businessweek magazine and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). While Kumho’s Smasher is basically a futuristic concept tire that is notable for its employment of ultra-innovative technologies, the Sealant is a tire that has already been launched at the retail level in a few markets. This shows that Kumho is well ahead both when it comes to current and future trends.

Kumho designed the Smasher in collaboration with the SsangYong Motor Company and the tire had drawn significant attention when it was launched on the Tivoli at the 2015 IAA Motorshow. The tire has been customized for use in extreme conditions, and comes with innovations like grinder-shaped blocks and suction plates. While the suction plates can be employed to scale steep slopes by creating a vacuum between the tire and the ground, the grinder-shaped blocks make tackling even the toughest terrain easier by crushing uneven areas that could otherwise cause significant damage to the tires.

The Sealant tire can automatically seals itself when it is punctured by debris, and the before winning the IDEA award, the tire had already won the Red Dot, Good Design (Japan) and Good Design (Korea) awards.

Speaking about the company’s success at the IDEA awards, Chung Taek-Gyun, executive vice president at Kumho Tire and head of R&D pision said, “We are very proud to now have the top three international design awards under our belt, and will continue to build our capabilities in all areas of tire technology, including design, in order to open a new chapter for the global tire industry.”

At the Green Good Design Awards 2016 held in the United States last month, Kumho had won two prizes for the Eco Sense SE11 and the Wattrun VS31 making this the second year in which Kumho received the Green Good Design award.. These two tires were developed specifically for environmentally friendly and electric vehicles that have already been unveiled in Japan and North America respectively.