Haris Nadeem leverages youth to lead USA Wheel & Tire Outlet
Haris Nadeem embodies the energy, optimism and ambition of a 25-year-old CEO. But he’s more than the beneficiary of his youth and intelligence. He grew up in the tire industry, watching his father build Dallas, Texas-based USA Wheel & Tire Outlet Inc. into the company he leads today.
Haris says his father has “one of the best work ethics I've ever seen. And, I tell people all the time, ‘If I have 50% of (his work ethic), then I'll be happy. If I can do 50% of what he's accomplished or be 50% of the man that he is, I'll be happy with myself.’ That means I've accomplished a lot.”
Humble beginnings
Haris’ father immigrated from Pakistan at 16 years old. He worked multiple jobs after high school to pay for his sisters’ education before finding a home in the tire industry at his uncle’s retail tire store in Sacramento, Calif. Then, in his early 20s, he opened his own store, the original USA Wheel & Tire Outlet Inc., in 1996, with his cousin. He handled the accounting and his cousin took on the labor.
The shop grew as Haris’ father leveraged the mail-order business model, but shipping costs from the West Coast to the East Coast pushed him to consider selling larger quantities in a more strategic location.
By 2005, Haris’ father decided to open a wholesale business, desiring a base of operations that would be more centrally located within the United States. He originally wanted to set up shop in Chicago, Ill. However, Chicago’s weather changed his mind.
“He didn’t even leave the airport,” says Haris. “He said it was too cold.”
Fortunately, a layover in Dallas, Texas, on his way to Chicago gave him a second location to consider and in 2006, he started his wholesale company in the Texas metropolis, using the same name as his original retail store.
“Nowadays, it's much harder to start a business and create an empire the way my pops did it. But I think it has a lot to do with his integrity and his honesty and relationships.”
Today, USA Wheel & Tire Outlet boasts a million square feet of warehouse space and nearly a million tires in stock. While most of the company’s operations are in Texas — with two warehouses in Dallas and two in Houston — it also has warehouses in California and Georgia and plans to keep expanding. From all of its distribution centers, USA Wheel & Tire currently services around 3,500 tire dealers.
Haris has been managing the company’s day-to-day operations for nearly a year-and-a-half as its CEO, allowing his father to take a step back and focus solely on its purchasing as president.
“My dad has worked his whole life and I kind of wanted to help him out,” says Haris. “When I was growing up, I always thought of myself. I didn't want to get into the tire industry. I didn't want to be under my dad's shadow. I wanted to do my own thing. And then when you grow up and you become a little bit more mature, you realize, ‘OK, my dad did this for me. He did this for me and my brothers.’”
Paying his dues
At 25 years old, Haris may look young for a CEO. He may even be mistaken for someone without the tire industry experience to run a sizable wholesale operation like USA Wheel & Tire Outlet. But assuming he doesn’t know the industry would be a mistake.
“I went from unloading tires to stacking tires to selling tires as a sales guy and then into marketing. I used to go to all the trade shows for the company. I used to travel the whole country and I still do, visiting customers.”
Haris’ first job was unloading tires part-time from a container at the company’s Mesquite, Texas, warehouse, which moved to Wilmer, Texas, in 2024, when he was 16. He also started attending dealer trips with his father, where he met many of the customers he does business with today.
Haris originally planned on becoming a doctor and was working towards an associate degree in science. However, he completely changed courses after earning his associate degree. He joined USA Wheel & Tire full-time at the age of 18 and instead of pursuing a medical degree, he enrolled in online classes via Texas Woman’s University (TWU) — one of the better nearby options for an online degree — focusing on business and sociology. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business with a sociology minor from TWU in 2022.
He changed courses for a lot of reasons, “but really the main reason was because I wanted to continue my dad's legacy. I kind of came to a realization that this is what my dad has built and I should try to expand on what he's built. Thankfully, I think we make a lot more than most doctors (earn) now.”
During his schooling, Haris took on more responsibilities within USA Wheel & Tire. He worked his way up by proving he could do every job at every level. “I think that's very important in any company for any leadership position to be able to do sort of anything in the company,” he says.
After mastering all of the jobs within the warehouse, he took on sales and marketing roles. He became the company’s director of brand development for its high-performance XM Wheel line in 2018. In 2020, he was promoted to vice president of USA Wheel & Tire, a role he held for four years. He also served as sales manager for two years before being promoted to CEO in 2024.
“My father and I had a conversation and I think he thought that I could take more responsibility on. And the company needed somebody young, who was ready to handle all the changes very fast.”
Now, Haris works a minimum of 12 hours a day, spending eight hours in the office during regular business hours and catching up on calls and emails in the evening while at home. He’ll also meet with customers on Saturdays. But he saves Sundays for his wife and 2-year-old son.
Growing up, while his father was building the company, Haris recalls days he didn’t even see his father. But he understands the sacrifices his father made. Much like his father, Haris finds that “it's really hard to not work. Every opportunity I'm thinking about work. (My father will) actually tell you that I don't work enough,” says Haris, jokingly.
Facilitating growth
Since Haris became involved in USA Wheel & Tire Outlet Inc., it has scaled up considerably, entering the Houston market about eight years ago and gaining a foothold on the East Coast with its Atlanta, Ga., warehouse in 2021.
The Atlanta warehouse, in particular, became a model for scaling up. Not only did USA Wheel & Tire add 200,000 square feet of inventory space to its portfolio, but it also captured several East Coast markets and expanded its offerings.
“Atlanta did help strategically because it allowed us to have brands we didn't have access to in Dallas or other markets,” says Haris.
In some ways, it also taught Haris valuable lessons about the challenges of opening new distribution centers farther from headquarters. Initially, it was more difficult to manage day-to-day operations. However, training and working with his warehouse managers in Dallas for two years before sending them to new locations built trust and that was invaluable for Haris as things got settled in Atlanta.
He says COVID-19 ended up being the biggest hurdle to clear before getting the Atlanta location established.
“It was a bad time to move because of COVID,” says Haris. “It took us a while to kind of gain ground in Atlanta. But now, I think we're doing pretty good in Atlanta.”
Since finding success in Atlanta, USA Wheel & Tire has continued to stack more warehouse space. Most recently, USA Wheel & Tire increased its capacity in Houston. It opened its newest warehouse in Houston in early December. The 160,000-square-foot space will replace two older distribution centers that the company outgrew a couple of years ago.
“This was a necessary move and ... we're planning to open up two more warehouses across the country, with undisclosed locations as of yet. But we are planning to open up two more warehouses in the next year or so.”
The warehouses that Haris plans to add will also be strategic moves to capture new markets and reduce USA Wheel & Tire’s import expenses.
“We've been doing a lot of importing over the last couple of years, so one of the new warehouses will be close to a port just to reduce the price of tires from overseas for us. Then there are some areas — for example, the Northeast — (that) we haven't been able to cover with our Atlanta warehouse ... (and) we're looking to target.”
USA Wheel & Tire’s increased warehouse space is expected to open doors for continued growth. Acquiring more space will allow the company to increase its inventory, carry more brands, expand its distribution network and introduce new programs to its dealers.
Haris says the company is increasing its space by three to four times and will eventually expand its inventory threefold. “We're getting very aggressive.”
USA Wheel & Tire currently sells more than 30 tire brands across all of its warehouses. Ultimately, Haris wants to offer his customers at least three options for every tire size, carrying tier-one through tier-four brands.
Recently, Haris has been selling more economical options as the rest of the industry moves towards selling lower-tier tires, too. “We like to offer our customers a variety of options, but we also understand the economy right now, as well as tire sales moving to tier-three and tier-four. So we try to be the lowest.”
As inflation and tariffs have impacted the domestic tire industry, USA Wheel & Tire has focused on gaining access to more tier-two, tier-three and tier-four tires to meet consumer demand by sourcing from different countries.
“We've had to look at other countries we've never thought of looking at before,” says Haris. “My father was just in Sri Lanka. We finalized a deal with a manufacturer there. We've started buying tires from so many different countries. Before, obviously, it was always China or Thailand. Now, it's India, it's Sri Lanka, it's Africa.”
USA Wheel & Tire has been able to offer competitive prices to its customers by sourcing from all over the world, effectively negotiating with manufacturers and increasing its distribution channels and purchasing volume.
“The reason we're able to provide a better price is because, with all the new space we have, we're able to buy a lot more volume — a lot more quantity,” says Haris.
In recent years, USA Wheel & Tire has amassed enough inventory to sell to other wholesalers and it has expanded its reach to sell tires to customers in Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Canada.
“(We want to) be the best one-stop shop for our customers, so they don't have to shop anywhere else.”
Along with increasing its inventory, USA Wheel & Tire plans to service more dealers, more frequently, increasing once-a-day delivery routes to twice a day and weekly routes to daily routes. “We're really trying to provide better service to our customers and better value, as well as a better selection,” says Haris.
Finding new markets
USA Wheel & Tire Outlet is applying the same logic it used to scale up its wholesale tire business to diversify, create new revenue streams and enter new tire, wheel and related equipment markets.
This year, the company wants to expand its offerings from passenger and light truck tires to include TBR tires, too. Haris anticipates adding OTR tires to USA Wheel & Tire Outlet’s line-up in 2027.
“We have to focus on both because we believe we can cover a lot of markets from our warehouses,” says Haris, who is also in the process of acquiring another brand of wheels and considering manufacturing a forged wheel line in the United States, to complement USA Wheel & Tire’s XM Wheel lines, which his company started manufacturing in 2016.
Currently, XM Wheels, XM Offroad and Xtreme Mudder brand wheels have given USA Wheel & Tire Outlet a presence in the aftermarket off-road segment, but Haris is interested in entering the luxury wheel space this year. “It's a very niche market and a very expensive market,” he says.
XM Wheels, which are patented in the U.S. and China and are made in China, are manufactured by USA Wheel & Tire and sold through the company’s distributor networks, reaching markets in Brazil, China, Indonesia and a few other countries, in addition to the U.S. Haris is considering facilities in Colombia and Mexico to move manufacturing closer.
USA Wheel & Tire also recently started offering tire equipment to its retail partners as the official Corghi distributor of Texas.
“We’re always looking to grow with partners,” says Haris. “We service every size of retailer, from small to large to wholesalers across the country.”
Taking care of people
Alongside scaling up in intelligent and strategic ways, Haris believes fostering relationships with his dealers and those within the industry sets USA Wheel & Tire Outlet apart from its competitors.
“We like to think of ourselves and how we can improve ourselves. We've been doing business with some of the same people for over 20 years and that has really, really helped us grow,” adding that he wants USA Wheel & Tire Outlet to one day become one of the largest independently-owned tire distributors in the U.S.
Haris met many of his customers on the dealer trips he started taking with his father at 16 and he considers them family. “A lot of our relationships circle around the tire industry. I mean, it's kind of what I grew up in,” he says. “I call all these people family,” likening them to “uncles and aunts.”
He feels the same way about his employees or as he likes to call them, “team members.” The majority of his workforce has been with USA Wheel & Tire for more than five years and “some of them have been with us for 10-plus years — longer than I've been part of the company — and I like it that way.”
Haris says he has also benefited from being surrounded by industry veterans, calling the opportunity to learn from those within his company “invaluable” and recognizing that the experience and connections that they have are an important part of USA Wheel & Tire Outlet’s success.
“My father has obviously influenced me throughout the years and I think the most important thing he's taught me is that relationships are more important than money. For example, you don't have to make money off every deal, but money will come. If you take care of people, money will come.”
20th anniversary
On April 16, USA Wheel & Tire Outlet will celebrate 20 years as a wholesaler. The company is taking its vendors, 10 of its dealers and many of its employees to Belize to celebrate the milestone at the end of March.
“It's funny because 20 years is, I think, a major milestone. It's something that I don't know if my dad ever expected to accomplish — being 20 years (old), as successful as we are. We've thankfully ... been able to grow every single year.”
Last year, the company grew 20% year-over-year and in the next couple of years, it's looking to grow its revenue by 200% to 300%.
“I'm extremely happy to be a part of the growth. And my dad just turned 50, so I think he's extremely happy, as well, that we've been blessed to be around for 20 years,” says Haris.
Despite a big first year as CEO, Haris still feels nervous sometimes and says he still feels like he has a long way to go.
“I still have the jitters about what I have in front of me because our ambitions and our goals are extremely big. I am a go-getter and I'm very ambitious myself, but in 2025, like I said, we grew 20%. We've done a good bit of acquisitions, as far as warehouses, and we have a long way to go. We have a very long way to go with the company — (and) with myself, with my own personal growth. I have a lot to learn and thankfully, I'm around a lot of good people in my company and also I have a lot of mentors in the tire industry.”
Haris’ biggest mentor remains his father, who has been integral in helping him transition to CEO. With a shared vision for the future of USA Wheel & Tire Outlet, they speak daily. No matter where he is in the world, Haris’ father is always available to help him regain his footing.
“I call him whenever I need help. He's never not been there for me. I'm extremely grateful to have him in my life. I have him on speed dial. Just a couple of rings and he'll pick up. Any issue I've ever had — with employees, with vendors, with customers — he always has an answer.”
When Haris considers the future of USA Wheel & Tire, he lights up about the possibility of his son one day becoming the third generation of family ownership. But he wants his legacy to be what he was able to do for humanity, as a result of running a sound business, and to continue to be charitable in his communities in Texas and Pakistan.
“I truly want to be a role model for this generation because I feel like there aren't enough good role models out there anymore. I want to show them that you can work hard and accomplish your dreams and be a good member of society and give back to the community and also be successful.”
About the Author
Sara Welch
Managing Editor
Sara Welch is Modern Tire Dealer's managing editor. She is an award-winning journalist who covered agriculture in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia for 10 years and sports for five years before coming to MTD.