18 Brands Like Alpinestars for Motorsport Enthusiasts
Your Alpinestars jacket has survived four seasons and you want the rest of the kit to match, then you price up a full refresh and stop. Or you have swapped track days for gravel, and a road-race cut no longer suits the riding you do. Alpinestars makes protective gear across motorcycle, MX, auto racing and mountain biking, and it lists 328 motorcycle jackets alongside Tech-Air airbag systems priced from $699.95 to $1,099.95. Wide as that is, it leaves gaps.
These 18 brands fill them. A few match Alpinestars on price and engineering, a larger group undercuts it hard enough that a new rider can get kitted out for less than a Tech-Air system costs, and the helmet specialists here are worth pairing with gear from anywhere else on the list.
Quick comparison:
- Closest premium rivals: Dainese, REV'IT!, Spidi, Held (road and track gear at Alpinestars money)
- Touring and textile jackets: Klim, Rukka, Olympia Moto Sports
- Dirt and motocross: Thor Moto, Fox Racing, FXR Racing, Acerbis
- First kit on a budget: Joe Rocket, Sedici, Bilt, Icon
- Helmet specialists: Arai, HJC, ScorpionEXO
| Brand | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Dainese | Jackets from $219 | Leathers and airbag vests |
| REV'IT! | Jackets $199.99 to $789.99 | One jacket for commuting and touring |
| Klim | Jackets $179.99 to $1,599.99 | Adventure riding in bad weather |
| Icon | Airflite helmets $250 to $330 | Loud graphics on a budget |
| Spidi | Jackets from $309.90 | Italian gear across three riding styles |
| Joe Rocket | Jackets $149.99 to $329.99 | A first jacket that still has armour |
| Thor Moto | Mid-range | Motocross and off-road |
| Fox Racing | Mid-range | Riders who also ride mountain bikes |
| Held | Gloves from $69.99 | Hand protection above everything else |
| Sedici | Mid-range | Buying in a shop you can walk into |
| Rukka | Premium | All-weather touring gear from Finland |
| ScorpionEXO | Sold through dealers | Modular and off-road helmets |
| Olympia Moto Sports | Not published online | Jackets and pants, nothing else |
| Arai | Helmets $769.95 to $989.95 | Handmade shells for track and road |
| HJC | Sold through dealers | Covering road, dirt and bicycle in one brand |
| FXR Racing | MX jerseys from $69.99 | Riders who also ride snow |
| Bilt | Mid-range | Getting road-legal for the least money |
| Acerbis | Jackets from €109.95 | Bike plastics and rider kit together |
Dainese
Dainese matches Alpinestars category for category on motorcycle and mountain bike gear, then adds a ski line on top. Leather suits, textile jackets, gloves, boots and the D-Air airbag system make up the core of it.
US pricing starts lower than riders expect. The Lisbona Air Tex summer textile jacket is $219, the Namib textile gloves list at $110, and the Smart Air standalone airbag vest lists at $749. Leather-textile jackets like the Iperattiva sit around $629. Dainese S.p.A. sits behind the brand and Dainese USA runs out of Tustin, California, so returns and warranty work stay domestic.
Best for: Leathers and airbag protection at Alpinestars money.
REV'IT!
REV'IT! organises its whole range around three riding styles, adventure, sport and urban, which is a narrower brief than Alpinestars sets itself and a more useful one if you only ride the road. Jackets, pants, jeans, suits, gloves, boots, rain gear and base layers all sit under those three headings.
The US store spans a wide bracket. The Eclipse 2 jacket is $199.99, the Airwave 4 mesh jacket is $289.99, and the Cayenne 2 adventure jacket tops the range at $789.99. Sand 4 gloves are $119.99. Orders ship free in two days inside the US, which counts for something if you have a trip booked. The old revitusa.com address redirects here now.
Best for: Road riders who want one jacket for commuting and touring.
Klim
Klim describes itself as making the most advanced technical riding gear for the snowmobile and motorcycle rider, and adventure riding is where that shows. Alpinestars builds for tarmac speed. Klim builds for weather, mud and distance.
Men's jackets run from the $179.99 Stash up to the $1,599.99 Badlands Pro A3, with the Dakar at $299.99 and the Carlsbad at $799.99 filling the middle. The F3 Carbon Pro helmet pairs a carbon fibre shell with a Koroyd impact structure. There is a heated eFire line too, which sounds like a novelty until you ride at altitude in October.
Best for: Adventure and off-road riding in weather that would end the day otherwise.
Icon
Icon, which trades as ICON Motosports, makes the loudest gear on this list and prices its helmets well under Arai's. The Airflite helmet runs $250 to $330 depending on the graphic, with an injection-moulded polycarbonate shell certified to DOT, ECE 22-06 and PSC. Replacement Fliteshield visors start at $50.
Alongside the helmets, Icon makes jackets, vests, gloves, boots, jerseys, field armour and bags, with helmet families running from the Airflite and Airform through to the Domain and the off-road Elsinore. The house style is graphic-heavy and unsubtle, so it suits riders who treat a helmet as something to be seen in rather than a piece of safety equipment to be forgotten about.
Best for: A certified helmet with personality for around $300.
Spidi
Spidi has been making rider gear in Italy since 1977, and it splits its catalogue the same way REV'IT! does, into performance, adventure and urban. Race suits, jackets, pants, gloves, protectors, rainwear and boots all feature.
The Tech Armor 2 jacket starts at $309.90 and the Pathfinder 2 Cargo pants at $239.90, which puts a full textile outfit near $550 before gloves. Sport-GT gloves add $94.90. Delivery is free over $400 and returns run 30 days. Spidi sits closer to Alpinestars on price than most brands here, and the difference is styling rather than engineering.
Best for: Italian textile gear when Dainese leathers cost too much.
Joe Rocket
Joe Rocket has been kitting out new riders since 1992 and it is the cheapest way onto this list without losing armour. The ION Mesh Jacket is $159.99, the Blaster Jacket starts at $179.99, and the Ballistic 16.0 Waterproof Adventure Jacket reaches $329.99.
There is also a pair of armoured moto shirts, the Richmond and the Mission, both from $149.99, for riders who want protection under something that reads as normal clothing. The catalogue covers jackets, pants, gloves, footwear, helmets and suits for street and snow, in men's and women's cuts, and it prices in both US and Canadian dollars. Nothing here competes with Alpinestars on materials, and nothing here asks you to spend like it does.
Best for: A first armoured jacket under $200.
Thor Moto
Thor Moto, which trades as Thor MX, makes motocross and off-road riding kit and sits at mid-range prices rather than the premium end Alpinestars occupies. Jerseys, pants, gloves and protection are the whole business, so there is no road range to distract from it.
Worth knowing if you have an older bookmark: the brand trades at thormx.com now, and the thormotorcycle.com address that once served it no longer resolves. Alpinestars sells MX gear as one line among many. For Thor it is the only line.
Best for: Dirt riders who want a specialist rather than a generalist.
Fox Racing
Fox Racing splits its business between motocross, mountain biking and clothing, which makes it the closest match on this list to how Alpinestars structures itself. Mid-range pricing across the board.
The overlap matters if you ride both a dirt bike and a trail bike, because one brand covers both and the sizing carries across. The clothing side is a genuine part of the business rather than a merch table, so the graphics turn up on hoodies and hats as readily as on jerseys. Our guide to brands like Fox Racing goes deeper on that crossover.
Best for: Riders who split their weekends between dirt bikes and mountain bikes.
Held
Held has been making rider equipment for over 75 years by its own account, and gloves are what it is bought for. The Tactura glove is $69.99 and the Air Stream 3 is $199.99, with the range split across sport, touring, urban, adventure, summer, waterproof, winter and women's fits.
The rest of the catalogue is smaller but serious. The Sonic 2 jacket is $279.99, the Vento 2 pant is $229.99, and the Ventuma Surround GTX boot is $389.99. Airbags, pads, helmets and luggage round it out. Alpinestars makes a good glove among many products. Held makes gloves first and everything else afterwards. Note the US site now lives at rideheld.com.
Best for: Riders who care more about hand protection than anything else.
Sedici
Sedici is Cycle Gear's own label, which is the single most useful thing to know about it. The brand's own domain redirects straight to the Cycle Gear site, so you buy it through the retailer rather than direct.
That changes the shopping experience in a way spec sheets do not capture. You can try a jacket on in a physical store, walk out with it, and take it back if the fit is wrong. Pricing is mid-range, well below Alpinestars, and the trade-off is a brand with no independent identity or dealer network of its own.
Best for: Trying gear on in person before you commit.
Rukka
Rukka is a Finnish brand whose motorcycle arm, Rukka Motorsport, sits alongside a weatherproof sportswear line and a dog clothing line under the same parent. The motorcycle gear is the premium end of this list.
Riders buy Rukka for touring in conditions that defeat other kit, which is a different design goal from the one Alpinestars sets for a race suit. A Rukka jacket is built to keep you dry across a fortnight of European weather rather than to slide down a circuit at speed. Prices sit high enough that most riders arrive here after their second or third jacket, not their first.
Best for: Long-distance touring through weather you cannot plan around.
ScorpionEXO
ScorpionEXO makes helmets in full-face, modular, open-face and off-road shapes, grouped into the APEX, EXO-RACE, AIR, EXOCOM and Junior collections. Prices are set through its dealer network rather than published on the site, so the shop finder is the starting point.
One detail deserves attention before you import a bargain. ScorpionEXO warns that helmets sold and shipped into the US require DOT certification under FMVSS No. 218, that a helmet built for another market and shipped in breaks federal and state law, and that the USA warranty is limited accordingly. Buy the US-market version. The old scorpionusa.com address redirects to the main site.
Best for: Modular helmets bought through a local dealer.
Olympia Moto Sports
Olympia Moto Sports sells jackets and pants for men and women. That is the entire catalogue, and the restraint is the point. The Newport 2, the Dallas 2 and the Dakar 3 lead the current line.
A three-jacket shortlist is easier to work through than the hundreds of options Alpinestars puts in front of you, and riders who find big catalogues paralysing tend to like that. Olympia does not publish prices on its own site, so treat the range as a place to look rather than a place to budget from until you have a quote in hand.
Best for: Riders who want a short list of textile jackets and pants.
Arai
Arai makes helmets and nothing else, each one handmade by specialists according to the brand. The Regent-X is $769.95, the RAM-X is $799.95, the Contour-X is $839.95, the Quantum-X is $959.95 and the Corsair-X tops the road range at $989.95.
Street full-face, dual-sport, open-face and off-road shapes cover motorcycling, and there is a separate auto racing and karting line. This is the one brand here you might pair with a full Alpinestars outfit rather than choose instead of one, because Alpinestars helmets and Arai helmets fit different head shapes and riders tend to have strong opinions about which suits theirs.
Best for: Spending your protection budget on your head first.
HJC
HJC covers full-face, open-face and off-road motorcycle helmets, plus separate bicycle and auto racing lines, with the RPHA badge sitting on the performance models. Regional sites run for Europe, America and Korea.
Like ScorpionEXO, HJC does not publish prices on its own site and sells through dealers, so the model pages are for research and the dealer sets the number. The breadth is the reason to look: one brand covers your road helmet, your dirt lid and the one on the bicycle in the garage, which keeps fit and sizing consistent across all three.
Best for: Covering road, dirt and bicycle helmets with one brand.
FXR Racing
FXR Racing builds motocross gear and snowmobile kit under one roof, a combination no other brand on this list offers. Moto jerseys list from $69.99 for the Podium Gladiator to $89.99 for the Helium, with matching pants at $169.99 and $219.99.
The 6D ATR-3 helmet starts at $899.99, which is Arai money for an off-road lid and signals where the brand aims. Snowmobile monosuits, base layers and a UPF 50+ fishing range sit alongside the moto gear. Discounting on the moto lines is heavy and constant, so the list price is rarely what you pay.
Best for: Riders who race dirt in summer and ride snow in winter.
Bilt
Bilt is the other Cycle Gear house label, positioned below Sedici and aimed at getting a rider legal and protected for the least money. Helmets, jackets, gloves, pants and boots all carry the badge.
Mid-range is generous as a description, because Bilt undercuts most of this list by a wide margin. The gear will not match Alpinestars on materials or finish, and it is not meant to. It exists so that a rider who has spent everything on the bike still ends up in armour rather than a hoodie. Note that biltmfg.com no longer serves a site, so buy through Cycle Gear.
Best for: Getting fully kitted out when the bike took the whole budget.
Acerbis
Acerbis has been going since 1973 out of Italy, and it sells the bike's plastics as well as the rider's kit. Plastic kits run €129.95 to €169.95, jackets €109.95 to €179.95, boots €94.95 to €369.95 and helmets €99.95 to €599.95.
Buying replacement bodywork and body armour from the same place is a practical advantage after a bad weekend, and it is something Alpinestars cannot offer at all. Prices are quoted in euros, so budget for conversion and shipping from the US. There is also a team sportswear arm covering football, basketball and volleyball, which tells you how far the business reaches beyond motorcycles.
Best for: Replacing bike plastics and rider armour in one order.
How to Choose the Right Brand for You
Start with the riding, not the badge. Road and track riders who want Alpinestars quality with different engineering should look at Dainese, REV'IT! or Spidi first, because a Spidi jacket and pants pair lands near $550 and both Dainese and REV'IT! start their jackets close to $200. Adventure and touring riders belong with Klim or Rukka, where the Badlands Pro A3 at $1,599.99 marks the top of what that costs. Dirt riders have Thor Moto, Fox Racing, FXR Racing and Acerbis, and the differences between them come down to graphics and fit rather than protection.
If money is the constraint, Joe Rocket, Sedici and Bilt will get you armoured for less than an Alpinestars Tech-Air 5 Plasma system costs at $869.95, and Icon will put a certified helmet on your head for around $300. Buy the helmet properly whatever else you compromise on, because Arai and HJC exist precisely so you can spend more there and less elsewhere. If you want the same abrasion resistance in clothing you can wear off the bike, our brands like 5.11 Tactical guide covers that ground. Anything unclear, get in touch or browse the rest of our articles.
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Written by
Spencer Lanoue
