Who hasn’t succumbed to the colors and bad ass attitude of 80’s motocross? If there’s one brand that inspired El Solitario wolves more than any other in the history of motocross, it’s the Aussie Go The Rat.
As its founder Vincent Tesoriero explained “Go The Rat’ was a colloquialism of the time, meaning abandon all reason and ‘go for it. From that philosophy, Ratshirts – only one letter away from Ratshit – were born”.
The message was clear: if you wore Rat clothing, you were one of the pack.
According to team rider Geoff Ballard, the rodent was received with mixed reactions: “Vince made my jersey sleeves covered in small rats. Heaps of them. Nothing else on the sleeves but a whole bunch of rats, and people in the US either loved it or hated it,” he remembers with a laugh. “Some thought it was the greatest gear they’d ever seen and wanted it so bad. For others, it annoyed the shit out of them and they couldn’t understand why you’d want all these ‘varmints’ on your sleeves.
The Rat legend still hangs on by a thread and we wanted to make our own homage to this badass brand – its birth, rise and fall, and the champions who wore it – so the rodent can live on in peace, knowing its contribution to the sport of motocross will never be forgotten.
3 Responses
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Gotta be honest here . MX ? It jus aint my thing ! Never has been . Probably never will be . But then again …. what we ( US ) call MX … and what you ( EU ) call MX … aint even close to being the same thing .
So maybe if I saw y’alls version … I might … and again I say … might … have a change of heart
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Aint no beerguts in mx.