▲ KUMHO TIRE CI


▶ A concept tire dubbed ‘the Smasher’ and ‘the Sealant Tire’ won the IDEA Award, proving Kumho’s excellence in design.


 Kumho Tire (CEO: Lee Han-Seob) announced on Monday that two of its products have received the International Design Excellence Award for 2016 in the automotive and transportation category. With the world’s top three design awards under its belt now – the Red Dot Award and the International Forum Design of Germany, and the IDEA Award of the United States – Kumho has its design and technological capabilities recognized by the industry as a whole.

 IDEA is one of the world’s most prestigious design competitions co-sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and BusinessWeek magazine. Kumho’s winning entries for this year’s IDEA are the Smasher, a future-oriented concept tire equipped with innovative technologies and the Sealant Tire with self-sealing features which is currently on the market - a feat that is seen as representing Kumho’s versatility that encompasses both the present and future of tire design.

 The Smasher, designed in collaboration with Ssangyong Motor, attracted significant attention when it was unveiled mounted on the Tivoli at the IAA Motor Show 2015. The tire is optimized for driving in extreme road conditions with features such as suction plates and grinder-shaped tire treads. The suction plates of the tire enable the vehicle to climb steep slopes by creating a vacuum state when the tire grabs the ground while the grinder structure embedded in the tread block allows for safe driving in any road conditions including rough roads by crushing uneven portions of the road that may damage the tire.

 The Sealant tire, also known as the “self-sealing” tire, prevents the air inside the tire from leaking out by automatically sealing the damaged part when debris penetrates the tire tread. This year’s win of the IDEA Award is yet another recognition of Kumho’s excellence in design following last year’s feat of receiving the Red Dot Award of Germany and the Good Design Award of Japan and the Good Design of Korea.

 “With the winning of the IDEA Award this year, we now have all of the top three international design awards under our belt,” said Chung Taek-Gyun, Executive Vice President at Kumho Tire, Head of R&D Division, “We will continue to build our capabilities in all areas of tire technology including design in order to open a new chapter in the global tire industry.”

 Last month, Kumho Tire won two prizes at the Green Good Design Award 2016 held in the United States. The winners were the ‘Eco Sense SE 11’ and the ‘WATTRUN VS31’ - tires designed for environment-friendly and electric vehicles that hit the market in Japan and North America, respectively. By winning the annual award that honors environment-friendly design concepts for two consecutive years, Kumho has been recognized for its contribution to sustainability, innovation and future environment.