It's been the same way with tires for a long time. Back in the early 1980's when I worked as a curing press maintenance man for Armstrong Rubber in Madison Tennessee, we made 5 or 6 different brands of tires from the same molds, same rubber compounds etc. by simply switching labels in the molds. The "house brand" tires for Western Auto, some Sears models, and several others were all identical. "The names have been changed to protect the guilty"!
China seems to be the primary source for tires these days, particularly for big truck tires.
Jerry
