Seem to remember they were designed by the same guy that designed the classic maxis tyres (high roller, minion)
I’d heard a similar rumour too. They were “designed for” Cam Zink (who has since done really rather well with them so far!) who used to ride Maxxis too. If you look at the tyre, it’s got all the best bits of a Minion and HR tread pattern, with a compound 1/2 way inbetween Super Tacky and MaxxPro, and it’s way faster rolling than either too…
Shame the 2.4″ seems to currently escape import into the UK (as far as I can make out) as it would be an awesome Enduro tyre (the 2.25″ is a good width, but probably more trail than Enduro sized).
The high roller 2s are very good, prefer it to the spesh butcher up front. Went up tubeless very easily too.
Had an HR2, the Triple compound EXO 2.3″ version. To be honest, I wasn’t impressed with it. I loved the original HR, but I felt the HR2 had a more prominent transition from centre knobs to edge knobs (not lesser), and it was too big for a 2.3″ IMO.