Motorcycle gear brands explained: where 31 helmet, jacket and boot brands sit from budget to premium in Canada

Brand names sort roughly by price, and price sorts poorly by safety. To place brands on a ladder from budget to premium, we took the median lowest landed price of every in-stock page ALLR lists for each brand in Canada on 2026-10-21. Helmet medians run from CA$200 (Z1R) to more than CA$1,000 (Arai); jacket medians from CA$221 (Joe Rocket) to CA$1,036 (Rukka). Then we checked the premium against SHARP, the UK government's helmet-rating programme: the cheapest helmets we looked at earned four and five stars, and one dearer helmet earned three.

Helmet brands by median price

Two cautions. The helmet category includes some accessory pages: 78 of Arai's 275 pages are faceshields, holder sets, air conductors and similar, which is why its middle half starts at CA$191; with them removed the Arai median is CA$1,215. Medians also describe a brand's whole range, so a brand can have an affordable entry helmet and a premium flagship: HJC's middle half runs CA$308 to CA$689, and AGV's CA$364 to CA$715.

Jacket and boot brands

On boots the ladder compresses. Medians are TCX CA$289, Sidi CA$311, REV'IT! CA$317, Held CA$358, Alpinestars CA$370, Forma CA$372, Dainese CA$380 and Klim CA$430. TCX, Sidi and Forma are boot specialists in ALLR's catalogue: all 221 of TCX's in-stock pages are boots, as are 375 of Sidi's 468 and 148 of Forma's 154. Our Alpinestars vs Dainese guide compares the two largest names directly.

Who makes what

• Almost only helmets (in ALLR's catalogue): AGV, Shoei, HJC, Arai, Bell, Schuberth, Nolan, Shark and NEXX. Dainese owns AGV, which it acquired in 2007.
• Helmets plus riding clothing: Alpinestars, Klim, Icon, Scorpion, LS2, Fox, Leatt, Joe Rocket, Z1R and O'Neal.
• Clothing without helmets: REV'IT!, Held, Rukka, Spidi, Cortech and Tourmaster.
• Origin and ownership, where Wikipedia states it: Alpinestars and Dainese are Italian, Shoei is Japanese, Schuberth is German, Spidi is Italian, and Bell Sports is a subsidiary of Revelyst.

Does a higher price mean a higher rating?

A £150 AGV K1 S has five stars, and a £299.99 HJC V10 has three. That does not make AGV better than HJC: the HJC i71notifications_active and C10 earned four stars, and the K1 S is one model. It shows that stars are per model, so look up the exact helmet. SHARP publishes a rating for each model. Our expensive helmets guide goes further, and the certifications guide explains the labels.

Buying in Canada: where the tiers move

Tier is not fixed by brand once you add shipping and duty. Premium helmets and some jackets land cheaper from Europe: the Schuberth C5 lands at CA$760 from the Netherlands against CA$1,034 to CA$1,100 at Canadian stores, and the Dainese Racing 5 leather jacket at CA$627 from Spain against CA$870 in Canada. The Alpinestars Bogota Pronotifications_active, by contrast, is CA$499 in Canada against CA$563 from the UK. Compare like with like on the Bogota Pro vs Dainese Gullfoss and HJC RPHA 12 vs AGV K6 S pages.

Which tier suits you?

Medians are a dated snapshot (ALLR catalogue, 2026-10-21); the method is on the methodology page. For specific head-to-heads see AGV vs Shoei and HJC vs AGV.