We are at races and tracks often and it can start to feel like you only see one or two gear brands as they are good at marketing or really popular in the amateur ranks at the time. I remember the adult regional in 2023 at Spring Creek it felt like 90% of the people were wearing one gear brand, it was probably more like 50% but that is still some massive saturation. Also just because a brand has good marketing or they have signed some impressive pro athletes does not mean that translates into the everyday rider ranks.
This left us with the idea of has anyone ever looked at what percentage of the market each brand has at a given time. I’ve not seen this that I can remember and this would not be an easy experiment because it’s unlikely that any or many of these brands would release their sales numbers. So the next best thing was to look at what was present at a big amateur event and Loretta Lynn’s 2024 was that event. Next, we had to figure out how to compile this data as there was no easy source for it at these races either.
Our strategy was to figure out the total number of entries, which was 1,511 for 2024. Then, we need to remove any duplicate entries as some percentage of riders would be racing in a second class, and we didn’t want to count them twice. So, the number of unique riders was 983. Note these numbers could be off by a very small number, if there was a father and son with the exact same name and didn’t use junior or II in the name, it would look like a duplicate. But that’s a tiny number and would not skew the results, so we forged ahead.
Once we had the list worked down to the real number of riders we needed to get to work and find out who their gear sponsor was or who they wore during the race. Not everyone even at this level would have a gear sponsorship or did not list them. So we went through the rider’s profiles on the official website and noted if they listed a gear sponsor and entered into our data. This still left us with probably 70% of the riders with no gear data yet, so we had to use one of two methods to uncover the rest.
To find the missing data we had to do some good old-fashioned investigative work and dig into photos and Instagram accounts. We first compiled a list of riders missing gear info and then set off to see if they had Instagram accounts. And if so did they have photos from Loretta’s and did it clearly show the gear they wore or listed as a sponsor? There were a decent sized amount we could not find accounts for or that had private accounts so then we had to move to our final option. This was to figure out what class they rode in and what their number was and go digging into our photos to see if we had any. If we found them then we looked to see what gear they wore and added it to the data. Even with all these methods there was still a small amount of riders left that we could not identify the gear or we did not have photos of. But the number was small enough that it should not skew the totals.
Ok enough about the process lets look at the results and see if you guessed right or are totally surprised by any of these.
The most popular gear worn at Loretta’s
The gear brand that dominated Loretta’s this year was FXR. From a Google search, it looks like the brand started selling Motocross gear in 2001 but sold snow gear for a number of years before expanding into Moto. It really does feel like the last five years or so have been an explosion for the brand in how often you see their vibrant colors and distinct design the brand is known for. At least in the mid-states and at amateur nationals, it’s hard not to notice just how many riders wear FXR at the races these days. They took first place with an 18.5% share of the field of riders at Loretta’s. That’s almost double second place, I would be curious how that stacked up against 2023 and if they begin to shrink in the amateurs as they are steadily having more of a presence in the professional ranks. Notable big names that was wearing their gear were Mike Brown and Brandon Haas (ClubMX owner).
Second place
The second most popular gear brand was Fly Racing at Loretta’s. Fly Racing was founded in 1998, which was around the same time that FXR was founded also, but most would say Fly has been more of a recognizable brand until recently. They have had a number of riders in the pro ranks wearing their gear at the highest level and recently added Cooper Webb to their list. The biggest name that was riding at the ranch for them was Andrew Short, pictured below. They secured second place by pulling in a 9.7% share of the field.
Third place
The third place is probably the most surprising to me going into the week at Loretta’s, but not after spending a few days watching races. We are based in the Midwest and don’t see a lot of 110 riders up here, but do cross them at larger events. The team at 110 Racing founded the company in 2021 and has obviously been working hard to build a base that put them solidly into third place. They had a 7.3% share of the field in 2024. You can see from the team photo below that they had a big turnout, and it was spread across most of the field of classes. They seem to have an important focus on the mini-classes, and it was noticeable in some of the races where it looked like they had a big chunk of the field.
Notable 4th through 10th places
Rounding out the remaining spots of the top ten are a who’s who of the top gear companies. These are spots four to ten with Fox holding down the fourth spot and Alpinestars wrapping things up in tenth. While these numbers probably mean nothing in the grand scheme of businesses and their profits and strategies, it was a fun exercise to see where things stood on the amateur scene. These numbers may be driven by various programs, sponsorships, and discount programs that mean less to larger brands that sell more at full prices. That would be an enlightening discussion to have with a few brands sometime to hear their strategy. The rest of the list was made up of other known names and probably a dozen that we had never heard of before.
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Fox (6.5%)
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Seven (5.7%)
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O’Neal (5.3%)
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Fasthouse (4.8%)
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Troy Lee Designs (4.7%)
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Thor (3.9%)
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Alpinestars (3.8%)
The smallest percentage goes to We Big Moto Co with a single rider. But that rider was Jeff Emig, so it had a big amount of weight and Jeff is good at promoting the brands that he works with.
All photo credit: N. Suhr