We Are One Composites - Bringing Carbon Manufacturing to Canada

Press Release

There's no shortage of carbon rim and wheel options out there, with prices ranging from "maybe one day" to "maybe if I win the lottery,'' but the majority of them are manufactured overseas to try and keep margins up and retail costs from rivaling a week-long vacation in Monaco. Instead, they only cost as much as two-week vacation Mexico, which is a little better, I guess. We Are One Composites is a new player, and they're doing things a bit differently by building their rims in their Kamloops, B.C., facility in Canada using only fiber that's been sourced in the United States.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that approach would add up to a set of 'lottery wheels' with a sticker price around or above the $2,500 USD range, much like ENVE's wheels or Bontrager's new US-made Line XXX wheelset. But you'd be wrong - We Are One's Agent wheelset goes for $1,625 USD, and an Agent rim costs $430 USD. Yeah, those are still much higher numbers than an aluminum wheelset, but they're also pretty impressive for Canadian-made carbon components with materials sourced in the United Staes.

There's an interesting narrative behind We Are One Composites and why they're taking a route that's arguably more difficult in many ways than sourcing an overseas-made carbon rim, and we'll be visiting their factory soon to tell that story. For now, though, you can read about their first products in the press release from We Are One Composites below. - Mike Levy

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We Are One Composites is growing 'The Movement,' the movement towards manufacturing in North America and re-firing a shrinking local industry. By starting up Canada's first carbon fiber rim manufacturing facility in Kamloops, B.C., we are going to challenge industry norms and bring a whole new level of product and customer service to the market. Below, we peeled back the layers to show you some of the changes we have brought so you can learn more about our "built in-house" policy.





All of our rims began with extensive FEA design process. We utilize the software to engineer the layup design, and precise ride characteristics we want to achieve from the rim. The analysis allows us to pinpoint the initial layup design and use it as a baseline for testing and confirming if we are on target. With the design of The Agent, we worked for months on our model's just to come up with a baseline for where to begin and before any molds were even cut. This powerful software allows for inputs like resin characteristics, fiber type, and orientation. All of this data was used to fine tune the Agent rim's layup.




The largest portion of any carbon manufactured part is the mold machining and the post-cure labor. We have a full machine shop in-house that allows for precision mold making. Having complete control over the molding process has cut the need for 90% of the post-mold labor and has created the ability to produce perfect naked parts. That means no fibers are disturbed by additional sanding or touch ups. Lean manufacturing is also implemented throughout our entire process.




While We Are One is trying to be as transparent a company as possible, there are some things we need to keep behind the factory doors. What we can share is that our layup consists of fiber that is made in the USA by a supplier that known for their aerospace expertise. We Are One has signed contracts with our provider and must not sell any fiber to outside countries, and this raw material is not available outside of North America. The advanced engineering that our supplier brings to the table has provided some great insight on many elements of the layup design. The rest is, well, "Mum's the word!"

We Are One Composites offers a lifetime policy for original owners of all We Are One product. This policy will help any problems that are not covered by the warranty. This is a no questions asked policy.
There are times where we have done our homework and cannot possibly make our products to withstand issues outside of the norm. There is a large amount of safety factor engineered into our rims, and we understand stuff happens.
These mishaps are covered by us offering all of our original customers a 50% discount off of MSRP listed on our website. This only covers product, and we do not cover parts or replacement product outside of what we manufacture.

www.weareonecomposites.com