Tire Profiles was formed in 2008 as an offshoot of a railway diagnostics company called ImageMap. From the early 1990s, Roger Tracy and his team of engineers at ImageMap developed diagnostic measurement systems for railway infrastructure and rolling stock. Complementary systems were also developed to measure different properties of the rail car wheels. These systems became widely used throughout the world for measuring rail track conformity on North America’s heavy haul railroads, in China’s vast railway infrastructure system and on the high speed railways of Europe. ImageMap rail equipment is used today to measure track at up to 200 mph (320km/h).
At the same time, ImageMap also developed systems for use in the tire engineering labs of major tire manufacturers to measure tread depth and sidewall deflection of tires under load. The cutting edge technology of these “TireMap” systems formed the seed of what would become Tire Profiles. An early version was engineered for the Formula 1 racing circuit to measure the wear patterns of their grooved tires. This development was what gave birth to the tire replacement industry products Tire Profiles sells today.
In 2013, Roger Tracy teamed up with auto industry veteran David Boyle to help develop these products for the automotive industry. As Tire Profiles’ first president, David Boyle’s experience in building and running large technology based companies with products designed specifically for the automotive repair market has been instrumental in shaping Tire Profiles into what it is today. In January 2014, Tire Profiles officially launched the TreadSpec brand of products to meet the needs to the automotive, new car and aftermarket segments. Later that year, a prototype of what would become the Groove Glove won the best new technology product award as SEMA. With two products, TreadSpec and Groove Glove, Tire Profiles is the industry leader in tire and alignment measurement and diagnostic systems and instruments.
