Interview Alpinestars CEO Mazzarolo

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Interview Alpinestars CEO Mazzarolo
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Interview Alpinestars CEO Mazzarolo

Alpinestars CEO Gabriele Mazzarolo in an interview with MOTORRAD
“As safe on a motorcycle as in a car”

The clothing specialist Alpinestars celebrated its 50th anniversary. Company boss Gabriele Mazzarolo (51) turned his father’s cobbler’s shop into a global company. MOTORRAD spoke to the Italian who lives in the USA.

Peter Mayer

11/21/2013


Interview Alpinestars CEO Mazzarolo


Alpinestars

Alpinestars CEO Gabriele Mazzarolo in an interview with MOTORRAD.

Alpinestars is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. No need to ask if you are proud of the company’s history or not?
To be honest, I hardly deal with the past of our company. My thoughts revolve so intensely about the present and especially about future projects that there is no time for the retrospective. What a pity.

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Alpinestars CEO Gabriele Mazzarolo in an interview with MOTORRAD
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They have Alpinestars taken over by your father. Also the enthusiasm for motorcycles?
My father is not very interested in motorcycles. He is a shoemaker and at that time made hiking boots and ski boots. But the boom in off-road sports began in Italy in the 1960s. My father realized that suitable boots were needed and quickly specialized. In 1963 he founded Alpinestars, from 1965 he only produced motorcycle boots.

So you developed your penchant for motorcycling yourself.
You could say that. We went to a race every weekend for business. Motorcycles were just part of my world.

Nevertheless, at the age of 23 you decided to emigrate to the USA?
Not nevertheless, but because of it. I saw that the USA was leading the way in motorcycling, especially in the off-road scene. In 1986 I founded the American subsidiary of Alpinestars in California, and in 1993 I took over
my parents’ entire company.

So you manage Alpinestars from the headquarters in the USA?
Basically yes. But I fly to the main plant in Italy about every ten days to stay up to date there too. The contact to our offices in Bangkok and Tokyo is a little looser.

In the meantime, Alpinestars has developed from a cobbler for off-road boots into a clothing manufacturer with a wide range also for road motorcyclists. Boots are still the core product?
We produce 400,000 pairs of motorcycle boots a year, 150,000 of which are motocross boots. Nevertheless, conventional motorcycle clothing now generates the greater part of sales. Boots are in second place, followed by our leisurewear.

The motorcycle is currently in crisis, at least in the USA and Europe. The sales figures are stagnating or declining. Still, you are confident about the industry?
100 percent. Motorcycling is a matter of the heart. The people who are enthusiastic about it will always ride a motorcycle. In times like now you may wait a little longer to buy a new motorcycle or new clothing, but you will not turn away from this passion. I am deeply convinced that motorcycling has a bright future.

In this case, the wish is not the father of the thought?
No, I experience this great feeling of driving a motorcycle almost every day. I own the full range of motorcycles. Everything: from the travel enduro to the trial motorcycle. I ride my motorcycle to my company, and on the weekends I go off-road trips with my enduro bikes. And whenever possible, I also use my motorcycle for business trips. My previous record was six appointments over eight days, the distance in between was 6000 kilometers. Going on such a trip by car is boring. It’s an experience on a motorcycle.

That may be the case in California, but in the Central European climate, motorcycling also has its downsides. You freeze, get wet …
You see, this is exactly where we want to hook up with our developments. Motorcycling has to be as comfortable as driving a car. And so sure too. That is the goal of our developments. People shouldn’t sweat or freeze. and
they shouldn’t hurt themselves at all.

A pious wish that will remain unfulfilled for the foreseeable future?
Not necessarily. We have been offering a leather suit with an integrated airbag since 2011. For the MotoGP riders we support, this suit has already prevented injuries or at least reduced their severity. And this technique is still in its infancy.

But then security is also a question of money. High-quality functional suits have long since cost more than 1,000 euros, and their leather airbag suit costs 6,000? Euro called. This development contradicts the idea that motorcycling should become more popular again, or not?
At the moment, the high prices are also due to the low number of units. With greater acceptance, the price level will fall rather than rise in the future. Of course, safe motorcycle clothing can never be cheap. But if the value is right, people are willing to pay for it. You have noticed this with motorcyclists for a long time. People are also becoming more safety and quality conscious when it comes to other leisure activities such as skiing.

Where do you see your company at the 60th anniversary celebration?
Closer to the goal of having mastered these challenges. Motorcycling will then be more pleasant and safer. And it’ll be just as fun too.

From hiking boots to airbag combos


Interview Alpinestars CEO Mazzarolo


Alpinestars

As proud as Oskar: company founder Sante Mazzarolo (born 1929) with award-winning boots.

The Alpinestars history

You don’t have to be a motorcycle fan to be successful in the motorcycle world. 50 years ago the shoemaker Sante Mazzarolo produced his first cross boots.

Schuster, stick to your last – if Sante Mazzarolo had followed this proverb, Alpinestars would probably never have been founded. At least not as a manufacturer of off-road boots. Because the history of the family business from Asolo – located about 80 kilometers northwest of Venice – began with the production of hiking and ski boots. But because at the beginning of the 1960s plastic was increasingly displacing traditional leather as the basic material in skiing, the beginning boom in off-road motorcycling Signore Mazzarolo came at just the right time. Two years after he had sewn the first motocross boot, the entrepreneur completely switched to the production of off-road kicks in 1965.

Alpinestars, the literal English translation of Stella Alpina, the Italian term for edelweiss, became the reference for motocross boots, even if the shoemaker is still not wholeheartedly enthusiastic about motorcycles. Ultimately, it was son Gabriele’s enthusiasm for motorsport that initiated Alpinestars’ decisive step towards becoming an internationally important company. At the age of 24, Mazzarolo Junior founded Alpinestars USA in Torrance, California in 1986. From there he heads the 500 employees in the United States, Italy, Japan and Thailand to this day. Like its competitor Dainese, Alpinestars – as the second manufacturer in the world – has brought a leather suit with airbag to series production. Incidentally, Mazzarolo Senior now teaches shoemaking in developing countries.

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