Actually Fun Gift Guide: Thor Retro Gear

The 1960s were cool. You know it. The 1950s are distinctly white-bread-apple-pie America, a long-gone way of living many of us don’t understand and would probably consider dorky, anyway. The 70s and 80s packed enough style fads to foster costume party hilarity forever—unless you’re thinking they’re cool in an entirely retro “I admit this looks stupid now but I’m wearing it for the laughs” way. Or maybe you’re a hipster. In that case you’re too cool for us to tell you anything. 

The 60s though, man, they were cool. You can point to cool fashions and music and cultural changes that in many ways can’t be topped. The 60s weren’t perfect, but they weren’t dorky.

And maybe the best 1960s revolution of all? Motocross came to America. Old-schoolers often identify 1968 as the year modern motocross landed here. Sure, there were scrambles races and such around the country before then, but proper European-influenced motocross was imported here via Edison Dye, a smart business man that knew the US market would become huge if he could just get those crazy kids of the era to fall for it. So he brought in some of Europe’s biggest stars, dressed ‘em up snazzy, equipped them with the latest bikes, and held some races. American fell in love. 

The first crush was Torsten Hallman. He was way, way better at riding a dirt bike than anyone here. He was an instant hero. Once stateside, Torsten noticed a void in not only the skill set and technique of the American riders, but also the performance apparel market. So he began selling Hallman branded clothing out of the trunk of his car. In 1968, T.H.O.R (Torsten Hallman Original Racewear), the original motocross apparel brand was born.