International Design Excellence Awards 2017 applaud Hankook’s concept tires. 

Hankook Tire was recognized at this year’s International Design Excellence Awards for its futuristic Flexup and Shiftrac designs which took home the Bronze and Finalist awards, respectively.

Sponsored annually by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and judged by top design experts across the globe, IDEA is renowned among the world’s top three premier international design competitions alongside the iF Design Awards and the Red Dot Awards.

The Bronze-winning Flexup is a one-person vehicle that can tackle stairs, speed bumps and urban terrain in cities with narrow roads. The vehicle operates using driving treads that expand of contract, reaching a top speed of 35 km/h through city environments.

Shiftrac is a Hyper Agility-based tire concept, designed to perform smooth and agile driving within a mega-city through the use of block shifting and skating principles that push outwards, allowing for precision turns on corners and fast lane change.

Flexup and Shiftrac are products of Hankook Tire’s Design Innovation 2016 program—an exclusive sponsorship program that collaborates with students from the world’s most renowned design universities. Both of Hankook’s award-winning designs were created in collaboration with the University of Cincinnati for the purpose of navigating the mega-cities of the future with smart mobility.