Goodyear maintains military business amid Trump troubles

Arlington, Virginia — Goodyear remains a supplier to the nation's military despite the recent dustup with president Trump, who urged consumers to boycott the brand.

A spokesman for the US department of defense (DoD) confirmed the company continues to supply tires.

"DoD has not received direction to discontinue the use of Goodyear tires," DoD spokesman Chuck Prichard said in a 26 Aug email to Tire Business. "Government terminations are governed by DoD accounting regulations. No terminations are being discussed."

Goodyear, based in Akron, sells tens of thousands of tires to the US armed forces each year, one of more than a dozen tire companies with government work, the DoD said.

"Goodyear supplies approximately 90,000 aircraft and ground vehicle tires a year in support of the DoD ‘global tire program’ (GTP) for an average yearly contract amount of $48 million," Prichard said.

"This volume is subject to change due to operational tempo of the DOD and its Foreign Military Sales partners. This data is based on an average over the past five years.

"DLA has 16 tire supply contractors, including Goodyear, that consist of a network of manufacturers and dealers," he said.

The federal government contracts with Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) to provide tires to the military from a variety of manufacturers and dealers. SAIC uses long-term contracts to order tires on behalf of the military and handles the supply chain.

This includes inventory management, storage and warehouse operations, distribution and transportation, packaging, management of obsolete products, data management and customer support.

SAIC also oversees scrap tire and retread requirements, the federal Defense Logistics Agency said.

"Note that while DLA provides a majority of DoD tire requirements, some units and OEMs purchase from local industry or directly through a tire manufacturer," Prichard said. "There are no directives impacting DLA'S ordering of Goodyear products."

The president went after Goodyear on Twitter 19 Aug after a slide shown during a presentation at the company's Topeka, Kansas, plant specifically forbade the wearing of Trump's ‘make America great again’ slogan on apparel.

The rule is part of a larger push that prohibits all political messaging at Goodyear and caught the president's attention because his slogan specifically was mentioned on the slide.