Roger DeCoster was Alpinestars’ best salesman.

GODSPEED! ALPINESTARS FOUNDER SANTE MAZZAROLO
(1929-2020)

Sante Mazzarolo, founder of the Alpinestars brand, passed away at his home in Italy, at the age of 91 after a long illness. The Italian was the driving force behind the fusion of technology and design in the field of motorcycling and motorsport competition clothing. The Alpinestars name comes from the English translation of the Italian mountain flower Stella Alpina (Edelweiss), which grows high in the mountains where the company was founded.

Sante Mazzarolo was the founder of the modern high-tech motocross boot.

Rising up from a simple leather craftsman, Sante Mazzarolo founded Alpinestars in 1963 by making hiking and ski boots. But the sport of motocross came calling and Sante answered the bell with quality boots used famously by Roger DeCoster, who would become a lifelong spokesman for the brand.

The Alpinestars Super Victory boot has had a long run in production.

Alpinestars grew from motocross boots to road racing boots with Kenny Roberts, Mick Doohan and Marc Marquez. As Sante continued to run the family business from Italy, he trusted his son Gabriele Mazzarolo, to guide the international growth of Alpinestars with expansion into a full line of protective gear—including the Tech Air Race System, an electronic airbag safety system that uses a data logging unit and dual charge inflation module, to protect MotoGP and World Superbike racers. Which Marc Marquez was wearing when he crashed in 2013 at 209 mph and avoided major injury.

Sante was a craftsman who loved working with leather—and kept working for as long as he was able to.

MXA’s Jody Weisel had a special connection with Sante as he would hand-make special runs of white Alpinestars Super Victory boots for Jody —so that Jody could race in 2020 with the same boots he wore in 1970.

Sante’s vision spread from hiking boots to motocross to road racing to Formula 1 and NASCAR. Alpinestars products have been worn by everyone from Roger DeCoster to Carlos Checca to Jeffrey Herlings to Michael Schumacher to Fernando Alonso to Jimmie Johnson. The Sante Mazzarolo heritage will be carried on by his children, Gabriele, Lucia and Gloria.