Spinner (wheel)
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A spinner (sometimes spinna or spinnaz or spinnerz) is an automotive accessory, popular with the hip-hop community.
Spinners are wheel covers which spin independently of the wheel itself when the brakes are applied. This is achieved by using a roller bearing. Typically, the spinners are attached onto existing custom wheels, but there are a couple of exceptions; Dub Spinners and Omega Spinners are the most notable. Being an attachment to the car's rim, spinners operate by using a roller bearing to isolate the spinner from the wheel, allowing it to turn while the wheel is at rest. The spinner's own momentum helps it overcome what little friction is transmitted through the bearing. When the car is in motion, the small amount of friction transmitted through the bearing gets the spinner in motion.
The invention of the spinner is attributed to David Fowlkes Jr. Fowlkes graduated from Rufus King High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin before moving on to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design when he was 17. With a sketch and a prototype Fowlkes created the first spinner for a design project in 1990. The prototype then remained stored until 1998 when Fowlkes was working at Reebok and met his future business partners, Hank Seemore, and Ian Hardman. Together the three formed Davin Wheels with a $250,000 loan from the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp.
Spinners were then introduced to the public at the Los Angeles Auto Show. When Davin Wheels was unable to obtain a booth at the Auto Show, they were invited to join another vendor at the show, Latrell Sprewell's Sprewell Racing (Coincidentally, Sprewell is a Milwaukee native). For this reason spinners are sometimes also called "Sprewells".
Davin Wheels holds the only patent (U.S. Patent 6554370) for the spinning technology, called the continuous motion wheel.
Spinners were popularized by the 2003 Three 6 Mafia single "Ridin' Spinners," and other popular songs by Nelly, 50 Cent, Master P, DJ Quik, Redman, Baby and Big Tymers. Multiple music videos have featured the use of spinners. Spinners have also been features in many television shows including MTV's "Cribs," ESPN's "The Life," BET's "How I'm Living," and "NBA Inside Stuff." Spinners have been further popularized by many celebrities who use them including, Latrell Sprewell, Hulk Hogan, Shaquille O'Neal, Busta Rhymes, Donovan McNabb, and Allen Iverson.
The prestigious Rolls-Royce Phantom has anti-spinners — the 'RR' logo in the center of the hub is mounted on a spinner with an offset weight designed to ensure that the logo is always the right way up when the car is parked. Several odometers for large trucks use the same principle.
In late 2004, special basketball shoes called Sprees, by DaDa Footware, featuring a miniaturized spinner rim became available.
Professional wrestler John Cena also made his own customised versions of the WWE United States Championship and WWE Championship belts during his reigns, both of which featured spinners on the belt.
The monster trucks Escalade and Annihilator use spinners specially designed for their large wheels and to take the large amounts of abuse which monster truck wheels take.
[edit] Spinners historically
The term "spinner hubcaps" has been in use since the 1950s, but describes a different item from those used today.
These classic spinner caps feature a rigidly mounted propeller-like center element, usually with two or three projecting "blades", intended to simulate the knock-off hubs that were used on vintage racing vehicles and classic sports cars.
These spinner hubcaps were most often an optional appearance upgrade to the standard equipment hubcaps or full wheel covers that attached to stamped steel wheels.
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