and I can vouch that water shedding still happens fine with them backwards. is it better when forwards? maybe. but I never had any problems with either Michigan or Georgia downpours. it feels more like a scammy "upsell" design than anything else (we got them on sale so I figured why not). if they truly were that much better than normal tires, they'd all be that way by now instead of a tiny, tiny fraction of tires being that way.