Hankook Tire wins the Red Dot Design Award 2021 for its Ventus S1 evo Z

- Recognized as the winner in the Product Design category at the Red Dot Design Award 2021
- The winning-product, Ventus S1 evo Z, maximizes driving performance, grip power, and dynamic cornering of high-end sports car

Seoul, Korea, March 29, 2021 – Global leading tire company Hankook Tire & Technology has once again proved its excellence in design, winning at the Red Dot Design Award 2021. Its Ventus S1 evo Z was named as the winner in the Product Design category for high design quality. The Red Dot Design Award is given out each year to industry leaders who have designed the best and innovative products of the year.

The award-winning Ventus S1 evo Z is a tire specially designed for high-end sports cars, maximizing the driving dynamics performance of the vehicle. Its asymmetric tread pattern along with minimized contact area boosts grip power and cornering performance. Moreover, its expanded shoulder width and center rib block ensure ultra-effective water drainage while the high-grip full-silica compound assures powerful performance and superior handling for sports cars.

Ventus S1 evo Z is equipped to various ultra-high performance cars exworks including the premium car brand Mini’s limited-edition MINI John Cooper Works GP. The tire will be first introduced to the European RE (replacement equipment) tire market during the second half of 2021, followed by other regions around the world.

"We are honored to be recognized with the Red Dot Design Award once again. For us, tire design is more than aesthetics. Our design extends to performance and quality as well as the safety of our passengers,” says Jimmy Kwon, Vice President of Hankook Tire’s Brand Lab. "So we will continue advancing our design capabilities based on innovative technologies and further strengthen our premium brand asset.”

The Red Dot Design Award, whose origins date back to 1955, is an award ceremony organized by the Design Center Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany to appraise industrial products in three different categories: Product Design, Communication Design, and Design Concept. Along with Germany's iF Design Award and the U.S. IDEA, Red Dot Award is considered one of the world-renowned top three design awards. Various leading global automobile, electronics, fashion, and architecture companies are participating.

Since 2001, Hankook Tire has been winning a series of awards from the Red Dot Award. The studless winter tire, I FIT, and the futuristic concept tire Dyna SYNC were recognized at the Red Dot Award at 2017 and 2016. In 2015, Hankook Tire’s Boostrac concept tire was designated as the ‘Best of the Best’. In 2019, UHP Ventus S1 evo 3 was recognized as the winner and in 2020 multiple products, including i*pike RS2, Dynapro AT2, and Dynapro MT2, received awards. With the addition of Ventus S1 evo Z to the winner this year, Hankook Tire’s innovative tires have achieved significant accomplishments.