Gabriele Mazzarolo | The Visionary

Gabriele Mazzarolo | The Visionary

Alpinestars is a name that is synonymous with motocross as the brand produces the most popular boots in the sport and has recently expanded its line to include everything a rider needs from head to toe. Launched in 1963, the Asolo, Italy, based brand has been run for over 25 years by Gabriele Mazzarolo, son of founder Sante Mazzarolo. A racing fan like no other, GM spends almost every weekend of the year at the racetrack, whether it be off-road or street, for two wheels or four, and he is well known for his pursuit of excellence in everything Alpinestars produces. Last year, Alpinestars debuted the all-new Supertech 8 and 10 helmets, as well as an all-new Tech 10 motocross boot, and we were fortunate to be invited to the unveiling. This year, Astars had a similar launch event ride day for its complete line of redesigned riding gear. We jumped at the chance to spend a few minutes with Gabriele to chat about the Alpinestars empire. 

Gabriele, I know that 2019 was a big year for Alpinestars with the SM10 helmet and the new Tech 10 boot. Now we are at the 2020 launch, but can you talk about the 2019 new products and how they were received from the motocross public.

Since we are a motocross company, we started doing motocross in the ’60s. It’s been the main focus for the company of course. So we started with boots, then gear for about 20 years, then protection, and helmets more recently. The helmet was on the market starting in the middle of 2018, but we’ve been working on helmets since 2010. We also have different teams working on different products like gear, protection, helmets, footwear, and even electronics, like the airbag. We are always dedicated to product development and technology.

Do you sometimes sit there and think, “What can I create next? What is the next thing I can do to make this sport safer?”

All the time! I am at races literally every weekend of my life, so I think about that constantly. We are always anticipating what our racers might need, whether its road racing, motocross, or formula one. I have the fortune of working in a department where I can make things for the future. I have an amazing job.

Is there anything in the development of the work for motocross that is just crazy? Can you bring the airbag technology to off-road?

We can! The airbag technology is there for sure, we have it in the car where the speed is very high. The algorithm we have for motocross as well, active protection.

Personally, I loved the new Tech 10 right from the get-go, but some people thought it was too stiff. I know that you are always further developing boots, and I have noticed that the newest pair of Tech 10s I’ve gotten are indeed a bit more flexible…

We had the boot on the feet of our racers in the fall of 2017 and we went to the market a year later in 2018, so our top guys had it already for a while. We do listen to them for the market and for production we went with more flexibility because we knew some of our guys did not like it the first time. So we went with more flexibility but still kept the protection within the product.

I was really intrigued by the technology in the heel of the boot…the crush zone. Have you had anyone crash in the boot like that yet?

We have had that in the boots of our guys for many years. So it has been with our guys for a long time before we gave it to the market. So I’ve seen some come back compressed and then we can fine-tune future versions before they go into the market.

I got to try the new 2020 Tech Star apparel, which is my favorite. It feels like Tech Star jersey is more ventilated now, and a bit thinner…

You’re right, for the market we have to have a lot of durabilities. We want good performance with good durability, so we have the most ventilation and breathability as well as experience. It’s easy to make a product comfortable or durable, but having both is difficult of course. That applies also to jerseys, pants, protection, and so on. That’s why we do the development we do and every product we make goes through so much testing in our lab for durability as well for top performance for the customer.

Remember when you only wanted to pro racers and test riders to all have white boots, and then you started making lots of wild color combinations, as well as limited-edition versions. Did that change in strategy boost sales?

At the beginning, I really loved the white boot, it was our opening color. The guys at the time loved it, too. Eventually we went to different colors as well, but white is our color for our racing products. It’s cool because white became popular. Riders could feel like the pros in white boots!

I think the limited edition is a really good strategy for you guys.

It’s good because we are 100% performance, so when we bring the excitement of colors, our guys like Barcia or Anderson and Tomac…they debut the new colors and are always excited about what we have next.

Can you give me some insight on the Cactus Plant Flea Market collaboration? That was pretty exciting and a lot of people didn’t understand it, but the people who knew what it was were super excited about it.

I decided to leave it the way she designed and I had the last call where I could’ve toned it down a little, but decided to leave it the way the artist did it because it was really different. That was the point of the whole collaboration. We should do things that are different.

It was cool when Pharrell posted a picture of himself in it. Do you have some new collaborations coming up in the near future?

Yes! You’ll see them soon. One for Monster Cup and others coming as well.

I liked Barcia’s gear at Fox Raceway, the crazy Jimmy Paintz guy.

That was new. It’s cool to have artists who are really into motocross. When we do a collaboration it is important to have someone who loves the sport, which is easy for Alpinestars because we have so many outsiders who bring their own ideas. And they know it’ll be something different and will be well done because it’s coming from Alpinestars.

One thing that is so cool about your brand, is that you guys constantly improve stuff. If you buy a Tech 10 in January and another in September, the one September one is going to be better…

The one in January is great, but the one in September could be greater! As I said, our top guys had a full year with the Tech 10s before we went to the market. We have teams who are so dedicated who make the product as good as can be because with more production, we get more feedback that we can improve on. The current Tech 10 is the fourth full generation and very different. Each year we have a substantially better product.

The new fourth-generation boot, how many small changes have there been? 

Oh yeah for sure, every season there are improvements. We have teams at the races, every National, every Supercross. Every feedback we get on Sundays, we improve the product constantly. As far as major changes, they come every year.