I am curious as to why Zipp and HED wheels seem to be in sync for innovation. I have been serious into cycling for almost 2 years. When I started both companies used a toroidal shape wheel and the wind tunnel data had both companies way ahead of the rest in aerodynamic from the competitors.

My understanding was that they also shared the patent on this shape wheel. Not exactly sure how they came to sharing the patent. If one licensed from the other.

Then about a year ago there is a new shape wheel. Not sure what you call it. But it is even wider and first used by the HED stinger line. Now Zipp uses relatively the same shape with the Firecrest wheels. This is right after, I believe, the Toroidal patent expires.

It looks like this new shape keeps Zipp and HED ahead of the rest.

In an industry close to the one I work in there are three companies that provide a service. One company actually develops the intellectual property (IP). The other two license it. The IP developing company is not the biggest or best known company. One of the other two is the marketing juggernaut. But it is not really made public that they license the IP.

Curious if this is going on here but just not made public. Could HED be developing the IP and Zipp licensing but Zipp the marketing guru?

I have no problem if this is going on but just curious.