James sees a gap in the market in Tokyo for high-quality, reasonably priced carbon wheels.

Tokyowheel begins operating from a small office in Shibuya, Tokyo.

James begins to import and distribute a brand of wheels that are made in the USA.

Wanting to improve the finish on the product, James asks the US manufacturer to send parts to Japan.

James opens a small wheel building factory in Tokyo to complete manufacturing locally. This dramatically improves the product, and enables people to customize their orders.

James’ father falls seriously ill, prompting him to take leave from the business in Japan to spend time with his family in the US. He needs to modify the business to allow him to work remotely.

Location independence becomes an enduring part of the Tokyowheel business model from this point.

Sales in Japan remain healthy with hundreds of retail and wholesale customers all over the country.

James decides to sell wheels outside of Japan.

James searches out and finds the best manufacturing partners worldwide, and has the first generation Tokyowheels made from the best pre-existing components.

The first generation Tokyowheel launch goes really well and sales increase month on month.

Experience and community feedback inform development of the next generation of wheels.

The Epic and Elite product lines are born.

Worldwide free shipping, guaranteed zero customs tax, and the 110% moneyback test ride are first introduced.

The Epic and Elite wheels prove incredibly popular and sales far exceed expectations - wheels are sold in 49 countries before the year is out.

Core team members Kane, Augusto and Cy are brought onboard early in the year to deal with the growing amount of work.

James and Cy begin engineering the third-generation wheels.

In order to make the third-generation Tokyowheels a reality, new manufacturing partners are sourced, and Alicia is hired to manage those relationships.

An intermediate generation 2.5 Tokyowheel is released, utilizing the more advanced manufacturing technologies used by the new supply chain partners.

TJ comes onboard to increase bandwidth prior to the release of the third generation wheels.

Engineering finishes on the Tokyowheel Epic 3.4 (The first of the new 3 model product line).

Articles on our engineering process are published by Simscale and Desk Eng magazine.

The EPIC 3.4, 5.6, 7.10 goes into production, and ship out to customers.

The Disc versions of the EPIC 3.4, 5.6 are released, and ship out to customers.

The popularity of the new EPIC wheels, puts the whole team into a demanding production mode.

Matt Fritsche joing Tokyowheel as the Head of Total QUality Management, and Product Testing. His job is to break things and make sure they don't break like that again.

Tokyowheel CORE Carbon Mountain Bike wheels are released.

Tokyowheel begins following the ISO 9001 quality managment system.

Tokyowheel begins offering a limited number of wheels that are Hand Built in the USA.

Tokyowheel begins selling separate carbon rims. Customers are now able to buy Tokyowheel rims and build custom wheels with the components of their choice.

James commits to bring a new technology focused brand of products to market for existing Tokyowheel customers, using the Tokyowheel infrastructure. Work begins on VUIU.

James designs a new VUIU product line to extend the Tokyowheel product line.

James realises that the only way to make the next generation of low-cost, high value, Tokyowheels is to build a new in-house vehicle factory in Thailand. Work begins on the factory.

 

2022

Tokyowheel is sold to longtime carbon supplier, Xiamen Shengyilong Composite Co.,Ltd. . James Ferrer is no longer affiliated with Tokyowheel. The new owners continue producing the longtime popular Tokyowheel products, and plan to introduce new products.