Press release

LS Insight: Advancements in Tire Technology

May 25, 2025

The Facts

Americans live and drive in a wide variety of climates and conditions, but their tires may not be optimized for their circumstances. For example, drivers along the Pacific Northwest Coast frequently encounter wet surfaces, but most manufacturers don't consider this when designing and producing tires en masse. In such regions, wet-traction performance is a key consideration for consumers when selecting tires, making wet-handling capabilities an important area of focus in our tire design.

ALL vehicle owners want value - which can mean different things to different people. The best possible quality and performance for the money are what consumers want. The longer their tires last without sacrificing traction or handling, the more peace of mind they’ll have on the road, and the less they have to spend replacing them over time.

Most tire retailers simply sell tires from major manufacturers. Les Schwab has designed and engineered its own tire brands since 2017. These brands have been a little-known aspect of what we do at Les Schwab Tires, as we have perhaps been humble to a fault about the value of brands and products that we have carefully developed ourselves. Over the past 70+ years, we have built a good understanding of what our customers need for the conditions they drive in.

That’s Why…

Les Schwab is leaning into our practice of designing tires under our owned brands that are developed with specific improvements for our customers’ unique driving needs. Given our customers’ high level of trust in Les Schwab Tires, it hasn’t been our practice to highlight any tire brands on our website or in our stores. Now we are changing that, and we are beginning to attach “Design by Les” labels to our owned brands.

It’s unusual for a retailer like Les Schwab Tires to employ engineers as part of an in-house product-development team, but that’s what we do. This group conducts original research and works closely with top-of-the-line manufacturers all over the world to design and produce custom tires that are optimized for our customers’ road and driving conditions. After more than seven decades in business, we understand what customers need depending on where they live and drive. By developing tires ourselves, we can offer customers high-quality, custom solutions while ensuring they have access to the best options at every price level.

We work exclusively with top global manufacturers that meet our high standards, and we direct them to build original tire and tread designs to our specifications. And we don’t rely only on their assessment of the quality of our tires. We do our own extensive third-party testing at world-class, industry-leading track facilities and against competitor products. We put our tires through the wringer and gather reliable data and facts about how they work. It’s important to us to have unbiased evaluations of how our products perform.

We’ve been doing this a while, and that means several of our exclusive tire lines have been improved multiple times over years of development. It takes up to three years to develop a new tire. Once it’s released, we learn from our customers and stores about how it’s working, and we examine thousands of tires that have been driven in the real world to truly understand how the tire is performing. That enables us to continue improving it and releasing new versions over time.

For example, right now we are rolling out the Caldera Confidence All Season (AS) tire, which improves on its predecessor, the Confidence C3. Customers in milder climates get a lot for their money with this entry-level tire. It’s designed for top performance in temperatures above 45 degrees and outperforms competitors - often considerably - in wet conditions, noise, dry handling and wear.

In addition, coming soon are updates to our Dean Road Control and Mazama Reputation tires, both of which surpass best-in-class competitors with outstanding performance based on independent testing results. The Road Control 3 meaningfully shortens braking distance and extends wear over its predecessor. The Reputation 2 has exceptional endurance and performance in wet conditions. These new products have the added benefit of providing a range of price points for customers, from entry-level to premium.

Offering a range of best-quality owned tire products at a full range of prices enables us to do something we’re very proud to do every day: provide customers with the best possible product for the money, tailored to their needs and budget. Our stores match customers with the most appropriate tire for their vehicle and conditions - not necessarily the most expensive one.

Les Schwab Tires invests in building tires based on our understanding of what our customers need, going well beyond just selling products that serve our own interests. This fact has been a “best-kept secret,” and we want more people to know about it.

Our company has a 70-year history of earning customers’ trust, and this is part of that. That’s what it means to get more from Les.