Here is something most American riders do not know: there is no US standard for motorcycle clothing.
Helmets have one. FMVSS 218, the DOT standard. Everything else, jackets, pants, gloves, boots, is completely unregulated. A company can print "abrasion resistant" and "protective" on a hangtag, sell it in every dealership in the country, and never once have sent the garment to a lab.
That is the context for everything below.
The standard that does exist
EN 17092 is the European standard for protective motorcycle clothing. It is not US law, and no American manufacturer is required to meet it. It is simply the only rigorous, independent benchmark in existence, which is why serious brands certify to it regardless of where they sell.
Garments go to an accredited laboratory and are destroyed under controlled conditions. Three things are measured:
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Abrasion resistance. How long the fabric survives against a moving abrasive surface before it breaks through. This is the headline test and the one most closely tied to real crash outcomes.
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Seam strength. Whether seams hold under load. A fabric that survives a slide is worthless if the seam beside it opens up.
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Tear resistance. Whether damage, once started, propagates.
Garments are also assessed on ergonomics, restraint and dimensional stability. A pant that rides up and exposes your hip mid-slide has not protected you, no matter what the fabric did on a test rig.
The classes
Class AAA (EN 17092-2) is the highest level in the standard. Historically the domain of one-piece leathers and heavy touring suits. Denim and textile garments reaching AAA is a relatively recent development and requires real fabric engineering.
Class AA (EN 17092-3) is a high level of protection covering a broad range of road riding. It is a genuinely strong result, and it covers a large share of quality street gear.
Class A (EN 17092-4) is a lower level intended for lighter garments and lower-risk use.
Classes B and C cover garments providing abrasion resistance without impact protection (B), and impact protector holders only (C).
For a buyer, the takeaway is simple: AA and AAA are both serious. A is a lower bar. B and C are not what most riders assume they are buying.
Armor is a completely separate certification
This trips up a lot of people. The garment class and the armor rating are two different things.
Impact protectors certify to EN 1621-1 for limbs, meaning knee, elbow, shoulder and hip, and EN 1621-2 for back protectors.
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Level 1 transmits a lower average force than the test threshold
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Level 2 transmits less force again, offering higher impact performance, usually with more bulk
Type A and Type B describe coverage area.
So a garment can be Class AAA with Level 1 armor, or Class A with Level 2 armor. One number describes how the fabric handles the slide. The other describes how the armor handles the hit. Both matter and neither substitutes for the other.
How to read a product page like a skeptic
Look for a named class and standard. "CE EN 17092-2:2020 Class AAA" is a specification. "CE rated" on its own is a marketing phrase, and "CE approved" is not a thing.
Look for the armor standard and level, and whether armor is included or an upsell.
Be suspicious of panel-only construction. Plenty of jeans on the market have a small patch of aramid fabric behind two panels and no garment-level certification at all. If you land on the edge of the panel, you land on denim.
Ignore adjectives. Reinforced, heavy-duty, moto-grade, riding-ready. None of them mean anything without a test result behind them.
What the certification does not tell you
It does not tell you about fit. A AAA garment two sizes too big will shift during a slide, pull the knee armor off your knee, and expose skin. Fit is the most under-discussed variable in gear performance.
It does not tell you about heat. Test performance and wearability are different problems, and the gear you actually put on beats the gear you left in the garage.
It does not survive a crash. Abrasion damage and armor compression are not always visible. Any garment that has been through a slide should be inspected and replaced.
Where SA1NT sits
SA1NT started with one question: can you build a jean that looks like denim, wears like denim, and still passes the toughest apparel standards without a bulky liner?
Founder Aidan Clarke began with aramid-based single layer fabrics and found they struggled to reach the abrasion levels he wanted. The breakthrough was UHMWPE, Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene, the world's strongest fiber. It is used in Apache helicopter armor plating, it moors space shuttles to space stations, it floats on water, and critically it can be spun and woven like cotton.
CORETEC technology takes a flexible lycra core, wraps UHMWPE around it, and insulates that with an outer layer of cotton, creating a tri-core yarn woven through the denim. Single layer. No liner to bunch or shift. A jean you can ride in and then wear for the rest of the day.
The certifications, stated precisely:
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Unbreakable 14oz Coretec: CE EN 17092-2:2020 Class AAA garment certified
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12oz Coretec and Engineered 2.0: CE EN 17092-3:2020 Class AA garment certified
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D3O Ghost hip and knee armor: CE certified to EN 1621-1:2012 Level 1 Type A coverage, included
Two weights, two different certifications. We state them separately because they are not the same garment, and a blanket claim across a range is exactly the kind of thing this article is about.
The bottom line
Nobody in the US is required to test motorcycle apparel. That means the burden is on you to check whether a manufacturer chose to.
Look for the class. Look for the armor level. Get the fit right. Replace it after a crash.
SHOP SA1NT LAYERS
CE Ratings Explained: Why US Riding Gear Has No Standard
Here is something most American riders do not know: there is no US standard for motorcycle clothing.
Helmets have one. FMVSS 218, the DOT standard. Everything else, jackets, pants, gloves, boots, is completely unregulated. A company can print "abrasion resistant" and "protective" on a hangtag, sell it in every dealership in the country, and never once have sent the garment to a lab.
That is the context for everything below.
The standard that does exist
EN 17092 is the European standard for protective motorcycle clothing. It is not US law, and no American manufacturer is required to meet it. It is simply the only rigorous, independent benchmark in existence, which is why serious brands certify to it regardless of where they sell.
Garments go to an accredited laboratory and are destroyed under controlled conditions. Three things are measured:
Garments are also assessed on ergonomics, restraint and dimensional stability. A pant that rides up and exposes your hip mid-slide has not protected you, no matter what the fabric did on a test rig.
The classes
Class AAA (EN 17092-2) is the highest level in the standard. Historically the domain of one-piece leathers and heavy touring suits. Denim and textile garments reaching AAA is a relatively recent development and requires real fabric engineering.
Class AA (EN 17092-3) is a high level of protection covering a broad range of road riding. It is a genuinely strong result, and it covers a large share of quality street gear.
Class A (EN 17092-4) is a lower level intended for lighter garments and lower-risk use.
Classes B and C cover garments providing abrasion resistance without impact protection (B), and impact protector holders only (C).
For a buyer, the takeaway is simple: AA and AAA are both serious. A is a lower bar. B and C are not what most riders assume they are buying.
Armor is a completely separate certification
This trips up a lot of people. The garment class and the armor rating are two different things.
Impact protectors certify to EN 1621-1 for limbs, meaning knee, elbow, shoulder and hip, and EN 1621-2 for back protectors.
Type A and Type B describe coverage area.
So a garment can be Class AAA with Level 1 armor, or Class A with Level 2 armor. One number describes how the fabric handles the slide. The other describes how the armor handles the hit. Both matter and neither substitutes for the other.
How to read a product page like a skeptic
Look for a named class and standard. "CE EN 17092-2:2020 Class AAA" is a specification. "CE rated" on its own is a marketing phrase, and "CE approved" is not a thing.
Look for the armor standard and level, and whether armor is included or an upsell.
Be suspicious of panel-only construction. Plenty of jeans on the market have a small patch of aramid fabric behind two panels and no garment-level certification at all. If you land on the edge of the panel, you land on denim.
Ignore adjectives. Reinforced, heavy-duty, moto-grade, riding-ready. None of them mean anything without a test result behind them.
What the certification does not tell you
It does not tell you about fit. A AAA garment two sizes too big will shift during a slide, pull the knee armor off your knee, and expose skin. Fit is the most under-discussed variable in gear performance.
It does not tell you about heat. Test performance and wearability are different problems, and the gear you actually put on beats the gear you left in the garage.
It does not survive a crash. Abrasion damage and armor compression are not always visible. Any garment that has been through a slide should be inspected and replaced.
Where SA1NT sits
SA1NT started with one question: can you build a jean that looks like denim, wears like denim, and still passes the toughest apparel standards without a bulky liner?
Founder Aidan Clarke began with aramid-based single layer fabrics and found they struggled to reach the abrasion levels he wanted. The breakthrough was UHMWPE, Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene, the world's strongest fiber. It is used in Apache helicopter armor plating, it moors space shuttles to space stations, it floats on water, and critically it can be spun and woven like cotton.
CORETEC technology takes a flexible lycra core, wraps UHMWPE around it, and insulates that with an outer layer of cotton, creating a tri-core yarn woven through the denim. Single layer. No liner to bunch or shift. A jean you can ride in and then wear for the rest of the day.
The certifications, stated precisely:
Two weights, two different certifications. We state them separately because they are not the same garment, and a blanket claim across a range is exactly the kind of thing this article is about.
The bottom line
Nobody in the US is required to test motorcycle apparel. That means the burden is on you to check whether a manufacturer chose to.
Look for the class. Look for the armor level. Get the fit right. Replace it after a crash.