AXO Sport was Italian. This matters more than most people realize. The American motocross gear market in the late 80s and early 90s was dominated by domestic brands — Fox Racing out of California, Answer from Valencia, JT Racing from San Diego. AXO came from Italy, where motocross had a different tradition: the European Grand Prix circuit, different soil, different weather, different riding styles. Italian gear was engineered differently because Italian riders needed different things.
Photo by Martin Pettitt / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
What AXO brought to the American market was a combination of European construction quality and a willingness to spend on aesthetics that outpaced the domestic competition. The Kevlar-reinforced knee panels, the specific collar construction, the fabric choices — these were details that came from a manufacturing tradition closer to fashion than to sports equipment. Italy makes leather goods and textiles at a level that California doesn't, and AXO's gear reflected that lineage.
The blue jersey in our collection is from the cleaner era of AXO design — before the Gelprint explosion made everything look like a paint factory accident. This was AXO doing what Italian design does best: making something functional look elegant without adding unnecessary complexity. Blue, clean lines, the AXO branding that was starting to become recognizable in American pits.
AXO's American peak was probably 1991–1995, when Bradshaw's presence and the Gelprint innovation made them unavoidable in motocross media. After that, the brand went through ownership changes and eventually faded from the American market. The European operation continued longer. But the vintage American-market AXO gear from the early 90s represents a specific moment: an Italian company that briefly made American motocross look more sophisticated than it had any right to.
Vintage condition. There's one.
Related Reading
- The Era of Control: Why Motorcycles Won't Survive 2050
- The Fox Racing Graphics Department Had No Governor and It Showed (In the Best Way)
- Fox Racing After the Neon: When MX Gear Learned to Use Its Inside Voice
Shop this piece · See all details
Browse the full vintage moto collection at Pemulis Water & Power.
Header image: Photo: Manningmbd, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons