Who actually makes your tire
Three different things wear a tire brand name. A manufacturer's own brand, where Michelin make Michelin. A manufacturer's second brand, where Michelin also make Kleber and Riken in their own factories. And a brand with no factory at all, designed to a specification and built by somebody else under licence. All three are legitimate, and a product page will not tell you which one you are looking at.
The groups, and their second brands
Michelin also makes BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Tigar and Kormoran.
Continental also makes Uniroyal in Europe, Semperit, Barum, Matador, General Tire, Viking and Gislaved.
Goodyear also makes Fulda, Sava, Debica, Cooper and Avon.
Bridgestone also makes Firestone.
Apollo makes Vredestein. Sumitomo makes Falken. Cheng Shin Rubber makes both Maxxis and CST.
None of that is a secret and none of it is a criticism. A second brand is frequently the previous generation of a flagship compound built on the same machines, which is exactly the useful thing to know when the price gap is 40 per cent.
The one that moved recently
Dunlop is no longer Goodyear's in this market. Goodyear agreed to sell the Dunlop brand rights for Europe, North America and Oceania to Sumitomo Rubber Industries in January 2025 and the sale completed on 7 May 2025 for 735 million dollars.
Any guide still filing Dunlop under Goodyear is more than a year out of date, which is a reasonable way to judge how recently anything else on that page was checked.
Brands with no factory
Goodyear's bicycle tires are made under licence by Rubber Kinetics, a separate American company, rather than by Goodyear. The name is licensed; the compounds and the product are theirs.
Bontrager is Trek's house brand. Specialized and Giant have their own. These are specifications bought from contract manufacturers, often the same factories that make the named brands, and the good ones are genuinely good.
A number of import marques in both markets have no plant anywhere and no engineering staff. That is worth knowing before you compare them to a manufacturer on price alone.
What to do with this
Do not treat it as a hierarchy. The question is not who owns the name, it is what the specification is: the size, the load index, the speed rating, the construction class and the label grades.
Use it to spot value. A second brand from a major group, in the right rating, is frequently the best money on the page.
Use it to spot a gap. If nobody can tell you where a tire is made or who makes it, that is not proof of anything, but it is the point at which the published specification has to do all the work.
Common questions
- Is a second brand a worse tire?
- Different, usually older, and made in the same factories to the same standards. Check the label grades rather than the badge.
- Does it matter where a tire is made?
- Less than people think, and it is worth knowing. Major manufacturers run consistent processes across plants.
- Why do Maxxis and CST patterns look alike?
- Because they are the same company. Cheng Shin Rubber owns both.
Last checked 2026-09-22. Where this page and your own vehicle disagree, the vehicle wins.