Wheel Pros (aka Hoonigan) could be filing for bankruptcy as soon as… well… today. (Source – Reorg.Stage) Yeah – this is the same Wheel Pros that very awkwardly changed their name to Hoonigan last year. The Chapter 11 filing comes after Wheel Pros / Hoonigan missed what we can only assume was a huge interest payment in July. First lien lenders (aka: debt secured by collateral) will likely gain majority ownership of the company. And more money will likely be injected into Wheel Pros / Hoonigan as DIP financing (priority to all other debt). Of course everything is up in the air & under negotiations. At S3, we don’t pretend to be financially-fluent in these matters. But what we do know is:
Wheel Pros was on an absolute spending spree during the pandemic…
They bought-up many cool independent aftermarket companies like it was a Monopoly game. And if we’re being honest – they ruined & diluted most of them quite frankly. At least from a heart & authenticity & innovation standpoint. Now – inflation has curbed the wild customer spending of the stimulus/Covid years. And Wheel Pros, who gobbled-up all those aftermarket brands, is in trouble. Wheel Pros / Hoonigan is backed by Clearlake Capital, which is also invests in battery technologies for electric vehicles.
Some of the Wheel Pros / Hoonigan brands include…
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Interesting. I’ve been a big fan and supporter of the Hoonigan brand for several years. Will this affect the Hoonigan apparel company, the one Ken Block helped create?
Thanks for the article!
Brandon
Yeah – Hoonigan already changed honestly. Ken Block sold it a few years ago (to Wheel Pros), and it began losing its edge… but Ken was still involved. Then about a year ago Wheel Pros took the Hoonigan name & started using it for Wheel Pros…. but in a very corporate & cringey way.