Dainese quality - what does the trade think?
Discussion
Talk to me about the crash-worthiness of Dainese clobber. I like the styling and fit, but noticed comments that made me question buying Dainese again 
SAS Tom said:
When I worked in a bike shop ...
Dainese ... make no secret of the fact that they use the cheapest leather they can find despite they high price tag.
Dainese ... make no secret of the fact that they use the cheapest leather they can find despite they high price tag.
parakitaMol. said:
I used to work in Marketing at a large multi franchise mc dealer network ... Personally I would not wear the stuff, in my mind it's fashion wear rather than protective - if you compare the price of a brand new season, top of the range, off the peg, Dainese suit with a high quality made to measure - it's not that far removed. If you compare all the suit components (stitching, cut, armour, grade of hide, thickness of leather, etc) it is very far removed.
I had a conversation with a chap who repairs / adjusts leathers, he rated Crowtree / BKS (the hand made ones) and a couple of others, Held was his top pick of the mass manufacturers, but also said there is a big difference depending on how much you are paying from the big manufacturers ranges.
I used to sell Furygan, and for me, pound for pound the the (then) Prime one piece suit was exceptional value at £600.
No hump or other trendiness, just good spec leathers,
We also were early adopters of Spidi, and whilst the Technical textiles were very good, Im not sure the leathers justified the price tag.
We also were an agent for Carrera at the time, they were worn by John Reynolds int he Reve racing BSB Ducati era, very very high spec, but also quite pricey..
These days, I think Dainese are just whoring the brand and the better quality is coming from the smaller producers.
Orginal BKS were supposedly awesome,but then Frank Thomas got involved, so I odnt dont know about them today.
No hump or other trendiness, just good spec leathers,
We also were early adopters of Spidi, and whilst the Technical textiles were very good, Im not sure the leathers justified the price tag.
We also were an agent for Carrera at the time, they were worn by John Reynolds int he Reve racing BSB Ducati era, very very high spec, but also quite pricey..
These days, I think Dainese are just whoring the brand and the better quality is coming from the smaller producers.
Orginal BKS were supposedly awesome,but then Frank Thomas got involved, so I odnt dont know about them today.
I thought it was widely known that Dainese moved their production out of Italy around a decade ago and quality dipped with it, dunno about the trade but being a punter, I noticed how poor the zips became , my 1 piece leather suit started coming away at the seam on the leg, as did my brothers and a few friends jacket zips failed in short order.
Bike Stop couldnt help me with my suit (from a warranty point of view) so I went down the RST route , no complaints there but ive recently become a big fan of Furygan gear, its a fair price and very good quality IMO.
Bike Stop couldnt help me with my suit (from a warranty point of view) so I went down the RST route , no complaints there but ive recently become a big fan of Furygan gear, its a fair price and very good quality IMO.
Turn7 said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Its probabaly not quite as good as the price and marketing would suggest is about my take.Whereas Furygan and other smaller marques are better....
Ed. said:
Turn7 said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Its probabaly not quite as good as the price and marketing would suggest is about my take.Whereas Furygan and other smaller marques are better....
Ed. said:
Is the CE2 rating Dainese claim for their jackets meaningless, why don't other makers advertise their safety to sell more?
I never saw Dainese clothing that was certified as CE2 Personal Protective Equipment. Now we have the new CE A-rating system, but Dainese fails to state the rating of their clothing on the website. Stating "CE certified" is meaningless when it could be anything from a crappy A-rating to an excellent AAA-rating.
I have Dainese jacket that is around 15 years old, I don't wear it all the time as I have a textile jacket for commuting, but it is still as good as when I bought it, I sponge the bugs off periodically 
Edited to add, I have never crash tested my jacket, so I have no idea how well it might hold up in that situation.
Edited to add, I have never crash tested my jacket, so I have no idea how well it might hold up in that situation.
Edited by Dakkon on Tuesday 11th February 10:54
Salted_Peanut said:
Ed. said:
Is the CE2 rating Dainese claim for their jackets meaningless, why don't other makers advertise their safety to sell more?
I never saw Dainese clothing that was certified as CE2 Personal Protective Equipment. Now we have the new CE A-rating system, but Dainese fails to state the rating of their clothing on the website. Stating "CE certified" is meaningless when it could be anything from a crappy A-rating to an excellent AAA-rating.
This is in addition to the CE1 and CE2 armour ratings.
I know manufacturers can be misleading and CE tested, certified, approved all have different meanings which is probably why they have gone to new clearer standards.
Regarding the new A ratings, Bull it jeans sr6 jeans are rated to CE1 and sr8 veloce rated to CE2. Under the new system the sr6 jeans are rated AAA, the highest rating.
I know the CE2 jeans were bulky double lined in places and I don't think they are sold anymore but they exceed the current standard.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but Dainese's unique selling point certainly was to provide motorcycle gear which was better looking than it's competitors, that's fashion R&D you've got to pay for, and for that reason it wouldn't be unusual for material costs to be sacrificed to keep the price competitive.
Similarly I was bought an "Emporio Armani", watch for Christmas (I'm more of a Casio man), and I have serious doubts over it's longetivity, I do forgive it be cause it's very pretty, I would have thought many buying Dainese leathers would sympathise with this mindset.
Dainese also isn't alone in being obtuse about their CE marking. I remember coming into biking and being very frustrated and somewhat amazed by the lack of transparency offered by mainstream manufacturers. The bottom line is though, if their gear meets the same safety standards as other brands, without the data to back it up, it's very hard to argue it's worse despite the rumour mill.
I mean, saying, "it feels lower quality", or "so and so had one and it fell apart", or even your own personal experiences, really offers limited insight. It's just anecdotes, and they're often wrong when you look at them in aggregate.
But then I would always go with the data.
Unless it was very pretty of course.
Similarly I was bought an "Emporio Armani", watch for Christmas (I'm more of a Casio man), and I have serious doubts over it's longetivity, I do forgive it be cause it's very pretty, I would have thought many buying Dainese leathers would sympathise with this mindset.
Dainese also isn't alone in being obtuse about their CE marking. I remember coming into biking and being very frustrated and somewhat amazed by the lack of transparency offered by mainstream manufacturers. The bottom line is though, if their gear meets the same safety standards as other brands, without the data to back it up, it's very hard to argue it's worse despite the rumour mill.
I mean, saying, "it feels lower quality", or "so and so had one and it fell apart", or even your own personal experiences, really offers limited insight. It's just anecdotes, and they're often wrong when you look at them in aggregate.
But then I would always go with the data.
Unless it was very pretty of course.
My personal experience, had a one piece suit the best part of 20 years ago so probably not relevant to the current gear however it did cost me £1300 back then so a top of the line affair, within a few weeks one of the zips split, and then a tumble at Oulton saw the stitching split inside the thigh.
Dainese is still good stuff. I think the issue for many is that if you compare based on price then in a lot of cases the Dainese products have lower spec materials/armour etc. If you’re after better value then there are better brands to choose.
Someone mentioned further up that all their clothing comes with CE level 2 rated armour. Unless something changed dramatically since I left the industry a couple of years ago then the majority of clothing only came with level 1 rated armour and you had to pay to upgrade to level 2.
Toxicnerve I think there are most likely two reasons GetGeared don’t sell Dainese anymore.
Dainese as a company are a nightmare to deal with. You could order something from them and in most cases it might turn up but probably not. You’d look in the catalogue and order something that was never put in production. I know of orders that were 3 or 4 years old still waiting for products to turn up.
The other side is that GetGeared have reduced their stock as they are down to one site now and it’s not the biggest of places.
Someone mentioned further up that all their clothing comes with CE level 2 rated armour. Unless something changed dramatically since I left the industry a couple of years ago then the majority of clothing only came with level 1 rated armour and you had to pay to upgrade to level 2.
Toxicnerve I think there are most likely two reasons GetGeared don’t sell Dainese anymore.
Dainese as a company are a nightmare to deal with. You could order something from them and in most cases it might turn up but probably not. You’d look in the catalogue and order something that was never put in production. I know of orders that were 3 or 4 years old still waiting for products to turn up.
The other side is that GetGeared have reduced their stock as they are down to one site now and it’s not the biggest of places.
Prof Prolapse said:
Similarly I was bought an "Emporio Armani", watch for Christmas (I'm more of a Casio man), and I have serious doubts over it's longetivity, I do forgive it be cause it's very pretty, I would have thought many buying Dainese leathers would sympathise with this mindset.
The difference with your example is that Dainese are the manufacturer and developer of the product, while Emporio Armani are just sticking their label on something they’ve picked out of a manufacturer’s catalogue
SAS Tom said:
Unless something changed dramatically since I left the industry a couple of years ago then the majority of clothing only came with level 1 rated armour
Unfortunately, it remains true that Dainese clothing only comes with Level 1 armour (with some rare exceptions, i.e. the Laguna Seca suit and airbag-equipped jackets). Except back protectors, Dainese doesn't event sell Level 2 armour that you can buy as an upgrade. (Unlike Alpinestars, which at least sells Level 2 Bio-Air protectors as an upgrade.)
Gassing Station | Biker Banter | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff