Once upon a time back to mid 70’s, there was a little bit elderly man in Finland who used to practice motocross wearing on very heavy, green woolen jersey. He was wearing the very same woolen jersey either he was practicing or partying, either it was a weekday or Sunday. The jersey was washed hardly never.
The man had an old van made in the UK. Once the car had it’s yearly technical control. It did not pass because of very heavy corrosion in the chassis. In order to maintain driving the van legally, the man needed to get the van to pass the control.
So, he started to weld healthy metal on the chassis lying on his back underneath the van. It was a lot of welding and while he was welding, smelted metal dropped on his woolen jersey every now and then burning holes through it. After several hours he got the work done and he stood up with the jersey full of burned holes on the chest side.
However it was a work well done. The van did pass the technical control the next time. The man was so happy that he decided to go and practice some motocross in the evening to the Ruskeasanta motocross track near Helsinki.
In the very same evening, the CEO and the owner of very widely known motocross gear factory and brand name tented to be in Ruskeasanta practicing motocross as well. The two men knew each others some what. In the mean time of practices they had a chat and the owner of the gear brand noticed elderly man's woolen jersey with a lot of holes on the chest side. So, he thought that the elderly man was very clever. He expected that the holes were burned intentionally in order to improve ventilation and got the woolen jersey cooler when driving motocross it on.
He adopted the idea. After few weeks he started to manufacture the first industrially made, well-ventilated motocross driving jerseys under the brand name. Since then the idea has been adopted by several gear brands, not just for jerseys but also pants and gloves.
Copyright © 2001 Motohistory