Living in Southern California, in the heart of area code 909 (the motocross capital of the world), motocross clothing on high school and middle school kids has been a common site for several years.
It might become common just about everywhere before too long. With the announcement that Jeremy McGrath will wear the new gear line known as AST (manufactured by Thor, which is owned by Parts Unlimited), the prospect of motocross clothing in your local WalMart is upon us. Apparently, one of the stated goals of the AST clothing venture (which McGrath will partly own) is putting gear, such as motocross jerseys, in general merchandise retailers such as Walmart and others.
Is this good or bad for the sport of supercross/motocross? It depends on your perspective, I suppose. If, like me, you remember the days when stars like Ricky Johnson and Jeff Ward were easily approached after a race, the explosion of interest in supercross/motocross has taken something away from us. Nevertheless, the movement of motorcycling into mainstream media and mainstream retail outlets can only be good for the motorcycling industry as a whole. Of course, the hard core fans will always be a relatively small group — that will never change.
