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Reach new markets with technology you already have

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You've already paid to engineer your core technology. Selling it into a new market brings in more revenue from that same investment, but only if the new product fits what buyers in that market want. My team first researches what buyers in the new market care about most, then designs the new product around the core technology and components you already have.

|CASE STUDIES|SHOWCASES|ALL
J.W. Speaker Double 90 / Model 93 agricultural and off-highway lighting

THE COST OF STARTING FROM ZERO

If you supply parts to the aftermarket or to vehicle OEMs, you have components that work: optics, circuits, housings and mechanisms your engineers have proven in the field. When a new market opens, it can look like a new engineering program. New parts mean new tooling, new testing and a long cycle before anything ships, and for a smaller market, suppliers often decide it isn't worth it.

The opportunity is large. Accessory and performance parts sold $52.92 billion in the United States in 2025, and SEMA's director of market research put the reason plainly: "people love the look and capabilities" that upgrades bring to their vehicles [1]. SEMA's research also shows what waiting costs. Crossovers now make up 27% of the vehicles on the road, yet SEMA's 2026 Future Trends report finds them still underserved by the specialty aftermarket. With more than 100 crossover models, many built in low volume, "it's hard to justify tooling-up for fitments or creating products" [2]. Meanwhile the market keeps moving. More than 1,300 products competed in SEMA's 2025 New Products Showcase [3]. A supplier who waits for a full engineering program to reach a new market will often find a competitor already there.

The surest route into a new market is a new product built around your core technology. That core technology is the engineering that sets you apart and the hardest part to redo, and you already have it.

A NEW PRODUCT FROM THE TECHNOLOGY YOU ALREADY HAVE

In 2016, JW Speaker, a family-run frontal lighting manufacturer that sells to OEMs and the aftermarket [4], made a family of 90mm LED lamps. Each lamp did one job: a high beam, a low beam, a daytime running light with turn signal, and a daytime running light with fog light [5].

JW Speaker's project engineer wanted something new: one lamp that combined two of them, mixing their optics and circuits into a multi-function product, with a mount that could carry over to other new lamps. Working with Solberg Design, KAIA designed the Double 90 with a new cast housing, mount, and bezel around the optics it already made.

We explored widely: sheets of sketches, from a shared housing for both lamps to finned cans, a single lens over the whole lamp, and a range of mounts. The refined design paired a low beam and a high beam side by side, each in its own bezel ring, joined at the center by one pedestal, with fins wrapped around a die-cast housing.

JW Speaker introduced the Model 93 to the trade press in 2022 [6], calling it "the new standard for 90mm lights" [7]. It's a new product built from the core technology JW Speaker already made, and JW Speaker now sells it for 13 uses, including agriculture, construction, mining, motorcycles and rail [7].

WHAT THE MODEL 93 SHOWS ABOUT AGRICULTURAL AND OFF-HIGHWAY BUYERS

Farm, construction and mining equipment works in dust, mud and rain, and it gets washed down with high-pressure water. Owners and the companies that build or outfit those machines need a light that survives that, mounts where their machine has room, and does more than one job. JW Speaker rates the Model 93 to IP67 and IP69K, the ratings for dust, immersion and high-pressure washdown. It combines a low beam, a high beam, a daytime running light, a front position light and a turn signal in one 90mm lamp, so one light can replace several. It comes with single and double pedestal mounts, and JW Speaker notes that the brackets "can be positioned at 90° intervals for maximum mounting flexibility" [7].

JW Speaker sells the Model 93 to OEMs, to companies that outfit vehicles, to fleets and to individual owners. That range of buyers is what reaching a new market looks like when the product is built around technology that already works: the same optics and circuits, packaged into a form each of those buyers can use.

THE SAME APPROACH, IN FOUR MARKETS

KAIA has worked with JW Speaker to reach into new markets multiple times.

HEAVY TRUCKS

JW Speaker had a heated lens that clears ice and snow with no action by the driver. For its Model 8800 truck headlight, we designed heated bezels around that lens, with the same face as the rest of the line. That took the same headlight to fleets that run in ice and snow, and the face also fits classic vehicles built for the same 4x6 opening [8].

MOTORCYCLES

JW Speaker's adaptive headlights came in round sizes, and Victory touring bikes use a diamond-shaped headlight. We designed a bezel for that opening around JW Speaker's existing adaptive optics. The result was the first dynamically adaptive headlight made for Victory's diamond shape, which took JW Speaker's technology to riders the round lamps couldn't reach [9].

OFF-ROAD AND JEEP

For the Trail 6, an off-road light pod for 4x4s, UTVs and ATVs, JW Speaker set three brand principles: power density, rugged and high tech. Its goals were to expand its market and raise the price without raising manufacturing cost. We designed the housing, bezel and finishes for three versions built on the same manufacturing method, with accessory rings owners can swap. JW Speaker launched it at SEMA in 2018, and a two-light Trail 6 Sport kit sells for $403.30 [10].

MATERIAL HANDLING

For forklifts, we designed a low-profile housing around an LED assembly JW Speaker's engineers had already finished. JW Speaker already sold lights to forklift makers, so this wasn't a new market. It shows the method, though: nothing inside changed, and the new product was built entirely on engineering JW Speaker already had. It sells today as the Model 710 [11].

HOW WE FIND THE MARKET

Every one of those products started with the market. You know your current customers well. A new market is different, and research is how we learn what its buyers actually want before anything is designed or tooled.

We start by ideating the markets your core technology could serve. Then we research them up front to test our assumptions: who buys, what they compare you against, and what matters most to them. When a market doesn't hold up, we pivot to a submarket, or move up-market or down-market, and test again. On the Double 90, we studied the vehicles the lamp could serve before the first sketch.

DESIGNING THE PRODUCT THE MARKET WANTS

Once we know what a market values, industrial design develops the product itself. We decide which components to combine, give them a form, and build in the features and aesthetic that market wants. A product that merely fits a market competes on price; a product built around what its buyers care about most gives them a reason to choose it.

Integration is part of that work. Every vehicle market fits a light differently: where it sits, how it mounts, how much room it has, and how it suits the lines of the vehicle around it. On the Double 90 we drew the pedestal under the lamps and above them, with the same housing either way. On the Victory headlight, the bezel shows how the adaptive optics work. On the Trail 6, the finishes and swappable rings carry JW Speaker's rugged, high-tech principles. We also put the options in front of leadership side by side. On the Double 90, we drew the single-lens idea JW Speaker's leadership liked next to the alternatives, so the choice was theirs, in one meeting.

This is the work my team has done for 30 years, designing products for manufacturers. My own degree is in industrial design. The KAIA team has brought 223 products into production, won 11 design awards, and has designed products for JW Speaker in several of its markets.

LESS TO BUILD THAN A NEW ENGINEERING PROGRAM

Because the core technology is already proven, the work goes into the product around it: the form, the fit and the features the new market values. The parts that took the most engineering stay as they are. The research, the concepts and the choices are made early, while the product can still change.

You get new customers for engineering you've already paid for. JW Speaker took its LED engineering to truck fleets, motorcycle riders, off-road owners and forklift makers, with a product designed for each of them.

YOUR NEXT PRODUCT

KAIA designs each product to stand out in its new market and to fit its vehicle exactly.

See how JW Speaker reached new markets with technology it already had: heavy truck, powersports, material handling and agricultural.

If you're going after a new market, let's set up a 30-minute call to walk through that market, what it values, and the components you already make.

Jon Levy, CEO, KAIA

REFERENCES

  1. THE SHOP, "2026 SEMA Market Report: Aftermarket Sales Hit $52.92 Billion in 2025," July 1, 2026. https://theshopmag.com/news/sema-market-research-off-road-aftermarket-consumer-spending/
  2. Chris Main, "SEMA's 2026 Future Trends Report Shows Optimism Despite Global Headwinds," THE SHOP, May 27, 2026. https://theshopmag.com/features/sema-2026-future-trends-report-automotive-aftermarket/
  3. THE SHOP, "SEMA 2025 New Product Award Winners Announced," November 5, 2025. https://theshopmag.com/news/sema-2025-new-product-award-winners-announced/
  4. JW Speaker, "About JW Speaker." https://www.jwspeaker.com/about/
  5. JW Speaker, "Advanced LED Lighting Solutions for Commercial Vehicles" (DOT brochure, 90mm models by function), December 4, 2017. https://www.jwspeaker.com/wp-content/uploads/J.W.-Speaker-brochure-led-products-for-commercial-vehicles-dot-version-12-4-17.pdf
  6. Trailer/Body Builders, "JW Speaker introduces Model 93 5-in-1 headlight," June 29, 2022. https://www.trailer-bodybuilders.com/equipment-parts/article/21245320/jw-speaker-introduces-model-93-5in1-headlight
  7. JW Speaker, "90mm LED Headlight, Model 93." https://www.jwspeaker.com/products/90mm-headlights-model-93/
  8. NAPA, "JW Speaker Low Beam Headlight 0551371" (Model 8800 Evolution 2). https://www.napaonline.com/accessories/j-w-speaker-8800-evolution-2-led-headlights/2a257d61
  9. JW Speaker, "Adaptive 2 Motorcycle Headlights" (brochure pages), May 2, 2018. https://www.jwspeaker.com/wp-content/uploads/05-02-2018-JW-Speaker-Adaptive-2-Motorcycle-Brochure-Pages.pdf
  10. JW Speaker, "Round LED Off Road Lights, Model Trail 6 Sport." https://www.jwspeaker.com/products/round-led-light-pod-model-trail-6-sport/
  11. JW Speaker, "Warehouse LED Work Light, Model 710." https://www.jwspeaker.com/products/forklift-work-light-model-710/

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