Our Vision
Originally published in Summer 2020 Truck Hub (Volume 1, Issue 1)
Welcome to the premiere issue of Truck Hub. We hope you like what you see. For fans of our sister publication, Wheel Hub, the product before you should seem very familiar. Truck Hub doubles down on everything you know and love about Wheel Hub—premium imagery and premium articles printed on premium paper in an oversized format—but with trucks. For those unfamiliar with the Hub experience, please take a look around and soak it all in. We know you’re going to love it.
From the moment you pick up Truck Hub and flip the first page, what you’ll notice immediately is how different the look, feel, presentation and overall execution is from the typical car or truck magazine. If we need to point out specific features—like page count, trim size or cover coatings—we’ve failed miserably. The Truck Hub experience should be so much better than the status quo that it needs no explanation. It should simply put a smile on your face.
And that’s exactly why we’re here, to show off the coolest trucks the great truck builders and enthusiasts in our industry have to offer. The staggering growth of the truck market means that there simply isn’t enough space to fit them all into the pages of Wheel Hub. Trucks warrant a magazine all their own, and truck fans deserve a premium publication that honors and pays tribute to the countless hours invested into each and every one of these machines.
Creating that publication isn’t easy and there is no magic formula. Anyone can easily knock off trim size and cover coatings, and competitors have tried exactly that, but what they can’t replicate is the passion and fanatical craftsmanship that goes into producing every single page of Truck Hub. We answer to truck enthusiasts, not bean counters. Our commitment to you is to pour as much of ours hearts and souls into this magazine as you do into your beloved trucks. Ultimately, talk is cheap. We prefer to let the product speak for itself and let the market decide if it shares our vision for what a truck magazine should be. We have absolute confidence that it will and we welcome you to join us for the ride.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. No one should spend a penny on Truck Hub until we adequately explain why we brought it to market in the first place, which requires a brief history lesson. Back in January 2018, three ordinary car guys—Robert McGaffin, Rodney Hutcherson and I—teamed up to start the ultimate automotive publication, Wheel Hub. With zero funding and even less experience running a publishing company, let alone starting one up from scratch, we brashly set sail into the tumultuous waters of print media and entrepreneurship. It’s been one hell of a ride but it’s also the most gratifying journey we’ve ever traversed.
Who would have guessed that 120-hour work weeks could be so rewarding? Two and a half years later, we’re chomping at the bit to leverage the success of Wheel Hub and bring the same Hub experience into a different segment of the market. As an independent publisher with no investors, executives, board of directors, or other assorted corporate hacks to report to, we pride ourselves in putting the needs of the industry before our own. That’s why we’re putting our money where our mouths are.
Thanks to the support of every day hot rodders and the aftermarket industry, Wheel Hub has grown by leaps and bounds. Its readership, revenue and influence continue growing at a staggering rate. As tempting as it is to pat ourselves on the back and pay ourselves a nice bonus, we’re reinvesting that capital to launch Truck Hub. That’s how much we believe in it. Instead of taking our families on fancy vacations, ordering up a stack of parts for our own project cars or buying momma a new pair of shoes, we choose instead to create a truck magazine of the people, by the people and for the people. Maybe we’re too dumb to know any better. Or maybe we just love what we do.
The crazy train has left the station. We hope to see you on board.
Stephen Kim
Editor/Publisher/Co-Founder