What are the colorful stripes on a tire for?

This is made for those who know the secret. And the secret is that tires with colored stripes are better than those without them, especially if the distance between the stripes is more than 1.5 cm.

Of course, this is a joke, but there are such theories on the internet. Car owners concerned with purchasing suffer when choosing tires and comparing all the secret marks with a ruler on store shelves. There's no need to do this, as the colored stripes on the tread simply don't carry any meaningful load for buyers. They are needed for the manufacturer, and only for them.

The thing is that many production processes at the factory are closely intertwined. The rubber mixing department can assemble both winter and summer tires. Moreover, if summer tires are being produced, they can differ in segments - energy-saving or sports. How can production guarantee that it won't mix up similar-looking rubber strips? After all, until the workpiece enters the press mold, it doesn't have any distinctive signs - the tread pattern is not yet there. Therefore, some manufacturers mark different rubber mixes moving along the conveyor line with their own color or combination of colored stripes.