The Birth of Tour Master and Cortech

"In 1978, Helmet House leveraged its expertise in the motorcycle retail and distribution business, to launch the Tour Master brand of motorcycle riding gear- mainly apparel and gloves, and eventually bags, rainsuits and boots too. Today Tour Master is a key player in the motorcycle aftermarket and one of the leading manufacturers and marketers of riding gear to street motorcyclists. Out of our Tour Master brand came our latest line of gear, Cortech, which offers all of the performance features and sophisticated innovations and fabric technologies of our Tour Master gear, but is styled for the performance and sport bike segment. Since 2002, it has grown steadily to be a major player in street apparel, gloves and riding gear."

In 2005, Tour Master and Cortech have greatly expanded their product lines into the wide ranging, technically sophisticated riding gear, luggage systems, Jackets and boots we offer today. Along the way they've developed a diverse range of testing and product development processes using both sophisticated computer fabric wear and stress analysis, to putting our luggage systems on the roof of our California headquarters to test long term color fastness in extreme sun and heat conditions. They have even become the first apparel manufacturer to test our garments in a wind room, that can allow a rider on a bike to be subjected to either wind or wind and rain up to speeds approaching 90 mph to test garments ventilation capabilities and waterproofing. This level of testing sophistication has helped them gear up many long distance tourers with gear they've come to rely on. In fact they get Iron Butt Rally people passing here a lot.

They've also developed a highly trained sales staff that calls on almost 8,000 motorcycle retailers across the United States. They've added staff and upgraded our management systems to the point that we consider themselves one of motorcycling pre-eminent gear manufacturers, marketers and distributors.