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Sometimes big ideas happen quickly, like the apple that supposedly struck Newton with a serendipitous thud, inspiring the concept of gravity. But let’s face it—this story is more of a fairytale. In reality, Newton observed apples dropping repeatedly. He noticed a pattern and eventually uncovered the forces behind it. Over time, the big idea methodically arrived.
Similarly, innovation often begins with observation. No divine intervention. No universal irony. Just the quiet recognition of everyday patterns. That tried-and-true scientific process is how BFGoodrich creates every tire, including the Trail-Terrain T/A tire, a trusted choice for Canadian drivers navigating both highways and rugged trails.
The key observer in this story is Brandon Sturgis, a Product Manager at BFGoodrich Tires. Brandon’s career began on the OE (Original Equipment) side of the company, where he regularly engaged with auto manufacturers discussing current trends and future visions. Through these conversations, a clear pattern emerged:
There’s a growing demand for an on-road tire with light off-roading capabilities.
Brandon recognized that if auto manufacturers saw the need, Canadian drivers—facing diverse conditions like icy highways and gravel backroads—likely did too. This observation evolved into a business case (presented Shark-Tank-style to BFGoodrich leadership) that led to the development of the BFGoodrich Trail-Terrain T/A tire.
So, how does rubber get realized? In just a few years-long steps.
Brandon’s business case was a success, securing the resources needed to bring his idea to life. These resources included a vast and experienced network of BFGoodrich tire designers, engineers, chemists, manufacturing leads, test teams, professional drivers, marketers, quality assurance experts, and more. Together, they formed a cross-functional team with one mission: to turn an idea into a capable and durable tire, designed to meet the challenges faced by drivers, including those in Canada.
Brandon played a key role in uniting these experts, ensuring their work remained aligned with the tire’s vision. His task was to form and maintain the connections between these various groups, inspire their work, and guide the project to completion.
“At least 200 people touch the project in some way at the company and the big thing for me is to make sure that all of those people are engaged with the project. It’s a big deal at BGoodrich; we work hard to make sure everybody's onboard internally, just like we do for dealers and consumers externally. This way, everyone on the team has a sense of purpose. This is a big part of my role. I have to make sure that everybody who's on the team agrees with the vision, is engaged with it, and is hopefully excited about it, too.”
Every project needs a starting point, and for BFGoodrich, the process begins with an internal reference tire—a former or current product whose design specifications are well-known. This reference tire becomes the baseline for the team’s work, and from there, Brandon and his team build a list of performance criteria the new tire needs to meet or exceed.
“I use an internal reference tire, and based on this tire, I communicate that I need the wet performance to be here, the snow performance to be there, the wear to be X percent better, the gravel performance to be Y percent better, and so on. It’s a list of criteria, some of which include a bit of give and take. I may say, ‘I need this to be better, but I'm okay with this other thing not being at the same level, or it could be worse.’ We treat it like a contract. It’s a very specific account of what I’m asking my team to deliver on.”
The list of criteria based on the reference tire culminates in a key spec document known as the CDC (Customer-Driven Criteria). This document is more than just Brandon’s vision; it’s the result of extensive research and analysis, ensuring the proposed tire is not only competitive in the market but also feasible to manufacture. The CDC acts as both a team-wide goal and a contract, outlining the tire’s required performance across various conditions, from wet roads to snow and gravel—critical for Canadian drivers who face a mix of seasonal challenges.
After the team reviews the CDC, they conduct their own feasibility tests to ensure the tire design aligns with practical realities. This iterative process refines the document, allowing for negotiations and prioritization until the CDC is finalized and ready to guide the team’s efforts.
“Design week is where things really start to happen. All the experts who could ask or answer any question go into a room and lock the door. It's people from the plant, materials experts, tire design experts, sculpture design experts, noise experts, industrial design people, everybody. They hash it out for one week and then come out with a design plan.”
During this intensive week, the team tackles two essential elements: the tire’s surface pattern and the rubber compound. Each can be customized in countless ways, with specific patterns and materials excelling in different scenarios. For example:
- Surface patterns can enhance traction on snow-covered highways or reduce noise on long road trips.
-Rubber compounds can prioritize cold-weather grip, wet-weather performance, or summer durability.
This is where the CDC and reference tire provide clarity, helping the team focus on designs that meet the tire’s intended purpose. For Canadian drivers, this means balancing performance across the country’s diverse climates and terrains.
The outcome of design week is a detailed design plan—a set of rigorous hypotheses that the team will test. It’s not a vague sketch or brainstorm; instead, it’s a science-backed blueprint for an intricate tire experiment. Through collaborative effort, the team narrows down the best possible options for the tire’s “sculpture” (its shape, rendered via computer) and compound (its chemical makeup). These hypotheses form the foundation for the next phase of development.
“With Trail-Terrain, we knew that customers were going to spend most of their time on-road, and that noise was going to be a big consideration. We also wanted this tire to meet all global noise regulations as the tire becomes available in those regions. So, there were two reasons that we had to really focus on noise. But this is also an all-terrain tire, and it had to have a certain aesthetic. This was one of the biggest debates we had throughout that design week. It had to look like an all-terrain, but at the same time be quiet.”
For Canadian drivers, the focus on noise is especially relevant for long highway drives, where quiet performance makes a noticeable difference. At the same time, the aesthetic of an all-terrain tire appeals to drivers who need confidence in navigating snow-covered streets or venturing onto rugged gravel roads.
Once the design week concludes, the team splits into their specialized areas to put the tire hypotheses to the test. Molds are created and sent to the appropriate manufacturing plants, where the first prototypes are built. These prototypes are then shipped to various labs and test tracks, where they undergo rigorous evaluations for wear, performance, noise, and traction.
At the same time, the manufacturing team addresses critical questions: “How easy will this tire be to produce at scale?” and “Can the production process be streamlined?” These considerations ensure that the final tire will be ready for widespread availability, including the demands of the Canadian market.
BFGoodrich performs three types of sound testing on tires:
For Canadian drivers, these tests ensure that tires like the Trail-Terrain T/A perform quietly during everyday drives, meeting both comfort and regulatory standards.
Wear testing is tedious but essential. Test vehicles equipped with the tires repeatedly drive a designated loop around the BFGoodrich test track. After each loop, the tires are meticulously measured and observed. This process is repeated hundreds of times, allowing the team to collect detailed data about how the tires wear over time.
This rigorous wear testing ensures that the tire is durable enough for Canada’s diverse conditions, from city streets to rural backroads, offering drivers peace of mind and long-lasting performance.
Snow testing for the Trail-Terrain T/A tire took place in Michigan, where consistent lake-effect snow provides an ideal testing ground. Two key tests are performed:
For Canadian drivers, these tests ensure the tire is ready to handle challenging winter conditions, making it a reliable option for regions with heavy snowfall, like Ontario and Quebec.
The Trail-Terrain T/A tire also underwent a variety of other performance tests:
Testing can take weeks, and after about six months of evaluations, the initial prototypes of the Trail-Terrain T/A tire fell short in one crucial area: noise levels. This factor, emphasized in the reference contract, sent the team back to the drawing board.
How do you make a tire quieter? By using the physics of sound to your advantage.
Sound travels in waves, and each wave has a mirror opposite. When these two opposing waves play simultaneously, they cancel each other out—a principle used in noise-canceling headphones. Tires produce sound through their tread patterns, with each pattern generating a specific pitch. By designing a secondary tread pattern that emits the opposite pitch, engineers can cancel out some road noise.
While the concept sounds simple, executing it without compromising performance is a significant engineering challenge. For Canadian drivers who value quieter rides on long road trips, especially on highways, this innovation directly enhances driving comfort.
The redesign phase added extra time to the project, but it was essential for creating the best possible tire. The tread pattern was carefully re-engineered, and the new prototypes met the noise specifications outlined in the contract. Subsequent tests confirmed the design’s success across other performance metrics, completing the development process.
For Canadian drivers, this meticulous approach ensures the BFGoodrich Trail-Terrain T/A tire delivers reliable performance, durability, and comfort, no matter the season or road conditions.
“During the testing phase, we’re only working on a couple of sizes. So once you get to that final sign-off on the tire design. When we know we can make the tires and meet the specs, the design becomes fixed, and we start working on replicating that design for all the different sizes we want to offer consumers. Often, over 40 sizes need to be optimized. In this phase, the project gets a lot bigger. More people come on board to create designs, molds, and pre-production tires for all remaining sizes.”
This phase was critical in preparing the BFGoodrich Trail-Terrain T/A tire for its 2021 release. Canadian drivers, with their varied vehicles—ranging from compact cars to rugged SUVs—benefit from the availability of this wide range of tire sizes.
Pre-production tires, one step closer to the final product than development tires, are created in three waves:
This rigorous process ensures that each tire size replicates the test results with consistency, meeting performance standards across all sizes. Once these tests are passed, the tire moves into full production, ready for launch in Canada and beyond.
After years of research, auditing, designing, testing, refining, scaling, and building, the BFGoodrich Trail-Terrain T/A tire was fully realized and introduced to the market in 2021. It’s ready to accompany a new group of drivers on their adventures—whether in Canadian cities, snowy rural landscapes, or gravel backroads.
This launch marked an exciting milestone for BFGoodrich, a brand traditionally known for tires that excel in off-road racing or on-road comfort. The Trail-Terrain T/A struck the perfect balance:
“BFGoodrich Tires is known for designing intense off-road products. When people think of us, they think about racing in the desert. But with Trail-Terrain, the design team is that same group of people who worked on those big off-road tires. But now, we want to bring people who are maybe not as extreme into our family. You can see that reflected in the tires themselves. Line them up and look at the shoulders. If you put Trail-Terrain next to the KO2 and the KM3, and the Baja, you will see the family resemblance.”
Join the BFGoodrich family and experience unmatched engineering by outfitting your vehicle with the Trail-Terrain T/A tire. Designed for Canadian drivers, this tire offers the confidence and performance needed to handle snow, rain, gravel, or open highways. Find a dealer today and start your next adventure.