Canvas MX Custom Gear | Track Tested

September 15, 2022

Photos by Michael Corlee | 23 Media

This morning, Michael Leib and Chuck Carrothers of Canvas MX invited the media to join them at Fox Raceway for a private ride day to showcase the new line of Canvas MX apparel. In the works for seven years now, race fans will remember Leib racing Supercross in all-white kits, adorned with event sponsor logos. Eventually, Leib’s custom blank kits led to custom creations for the Canvas brand, manufactured by Radikal MX.

Recently, Canvas MX has taken a giant leap forward by bringing all of its manufacturing in-house and launching Lucid USA Manufacturing as a motocross gear manufacturer based in Southern California. We’ve had a couple of sets of Canvas MX gear previously, but what Leib debuted today was all-new from the ground up. A couple of weeks ago, we were asked to choose one of Canvas MX’s many baseline patterns, make any adjustments we desired, then add logos. The Canvas designers then went to work and whipped up a final design that was sent to us for approval before putting the gear into production. Though our lead time was shorter, the standard three-week turnaround is amazing for custom gear of this caliber.

We chose the “Pit Kit” template, as the black and yellow theme and simplistic design matched both our SML logo and taste, respectively. Keep in mind that everything is fully customizable, from the logos to the colors. Even a completely custom kit is possible, The Canvas MX website gear builder is super easy to use and one can spend hours creating the kit of their dreams. Once you’ve created your basic design, in-house designers will add the finishing touches and your design will be sent into production.

Gear is manufactured with a cut-and-sew, all-over graphic sublimation process. You can order a single kit or as many as your heart desires. Price breaks for quantities start at 10 and become increasingly greater as the order grows larger. For instance, a single Premium Fit Jersey is $76.99 and the matching Air Fit Pant is $204.99. If ten sets are ordered, the prices drop to $67.50 and $190, respectively. While this is likely applicable for only shops or race teams, it’s nice to see that discounts are applied. The pant is made of a Hydrotec polyester fabric that is extremely soft and has a good amount of stretch. The waistband features dual Velcro side closures for a customizable fit, and. the zipperless wait closes with a ratchet-style mechanism. Leather burn guards on the knees offer great grip against the bike and to our delight – do not transfer dye to the sides of your bike like some pants we’ve tested. The Air fit Pant is remarkably comfortable and has absolutely zero binding. At first, we cinched the waist up like we would any other pant, but found that while seat bouncing jumps or under hard acceleration they would creep down. After tightening up the side waist adjusters, though, the problem was eliminated completely. The sublimated colors are vivid and correct; we’ve seen some sublimated products where the black isn’t really black, and the colors are not as bright as they should be. We love the liner-free design of the pant as there is nothing to snag on knee braces while pulling them on. A ton of air flows through the pants, and. they are among the most comfortable MX pants we’ve ridden in.

The Premium Fit Jersey, meanwhile, is available in two styles: vented and non-vented. We chose the non-vented, and the polyester is both stretchy and highly breathable. The vented jersey that others got were practically see-through and would be perfect for hot summer days. Like the pant, the sublimated dyes on the jersey are spot-on.

Canvas MX does not yet manufacture its own gloves, so the brand has formed a strategic alliance of sorts with Nate Adams and Deft Family. Everyone should recognize Deft as the brand that changed the way we think about gloves over a decade ago, with its minimalistic, super-comfortable construction. We got our hands o the new Catalist 2.0 ($39.95) and love the,m, as always.

With prices that are in the same ballpark as other mid-level and high-end kits, Canvas MX offers consumers the ability to create exactly what they wish for in a set of motocross gear. We love ours!