Polaris celebrates 40 years of ATV innovations
This story is from the September edition of Powersports Business on page 16.
In the 1950s, Polaris made its name developing and manufacturing snowmobiles. The company was at the forefront of innovation, with the TX-L340 sled using both the first Polaris liquid-cooled engine and independent suspension in 1976. But the ingenuity didn’t end with snowmobiles. In 1985, Polaris took its innovation off-road, creating the first American-engineered ATV, igniting a 40-year trend of advancing the powersports ORV segment.
Polaris’ first ATV was introduced in 1985, but the original Scrambler wasn’t the typical ATV you see on today’s trails. The three-wheeled vehicle led to the four-wheel Trail Boss, which eventually paved the way for the 4×6 Big Boss in 1989, which featured an automatic transmission and a hinged cargo bed.
Polaris’ popularity grew following the release of the Trail Boss, and the company went from less than 50 year-round employees to nearly 200.
The impact of the Sportsman 500
Polaris’ early-model ATVs were primarily utility-focused, aimed at farmers, hunters, and landowners. The company established itself outside of the snowmobile segment with these early ATV models, but it wasn’t until 1996, when the Sportsman 500 was introduced, that Polaris started to switch gears from snow to off-road. After the Sportsman debuted, for the first time, Polaris was producing more ATVs than snowmobiles.
The modern Sportsman was the first American-engineered ATV. It featured a four-stroke engine, hydraulic braking, an automatic transmission, and independent rear suspension — a significant upgrade from the traditional straight axle. The Sportsman 500 was a game-changer in the Polaris lineup, quickly becoming one of the bestselling ATVs of the ’90s, and laid the foundation for today’s bestselling 570 family.
Caleb Willi, ATV product manager and a 15-year veteran at Polaris, says it was the Sportsman that helped grow the company’s off-road brand and redefine the entire industry.
“A lot of the innovations happened in the mid-’90s, and it was through the growth of that machine that really kick-started a whole new business.” — Caleb Willi
By 2001, just five years after the Sportsman was launched, Polaris celebrated one million ATVs produced with automatic transmissions, earning the Legacy Award by ATV magazine.
The development of the Sportsman 500, Willi adds, helped pave the way for Polaris side-by-side production in 1999, when the company introduced the Ranger and, in 2007, released the first sport side-by-side vehicle, the Ranger RZR.
The innovation sparked by the Sportsman wasn’t just exclusive to powersports enthusiasts. Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, the United States military’s rising demand for off-road vehicles led to Polaris being the first powersports OEM to produce militarized vehicles for the U.S. special forces and the U.S. Army. Eventually, this led to the founding of Polaris Defense in 2005.
Special edition Sportsman 570 Premium
To pay tribute to the innovation that the mid-’90s Sportster started, Willi says Polaris is modeling its ATV 40th anniversary after the trendsetting edition, adding that the milestone is a testament to the company’s ingenuity.
“We were excited about this milestone. It adds credibility to what we are doing at Polaris every day, and it’s a testament to the products we make,” he says. “We wanted to celebrate off-road. We’ve seen a lot of growth in the segment, and Polaris has been instrumental in that.”
The 40th anniversary Sportsman 570 Premium is a limited release that Polaris says is based on the best-selling and fan favorite from the 1990s. This special edition features premium paint and badging, with exclusive 90s-inspired graphics that pay homage to Polaris’ ATV heritage.
What dealers should know
The special edition Sportsman 570 carries all the same specs as the 2025 Premium: a 44-horsepower engine; all-wheel drive; 1,350-lb towing capacity; combined 270-lb front and rear rack capacity; Active Descent Control; and multi-select electronic power steering and engine braking system.
New features not included in last year’s Premium are the custom graphics and 40th anniversary badging, premium Treeline Green metallic paint, and a 3,5000-lb. winch with a steel cable.
But despite the new badging, color, and winch, the 40th anniversary edition comes in at the same price as last year’s Premium, with an MSRP starting at $10,199.
“It should be a really compelling value to customers and something dealers can be excited about.” — Caleb Willi.
Willi adds that Polaris is celebrating this anniversary throughout 2026, and the special edition Sportsman is a trim that dealers will have access to all year.
“This is not a first-come, first-served kind of thing. We wanted to allow dealers and customers the opportunity to be a part of this celebration,” he says, adding that the vehicle should be available to dealers by late September.
The Polaris standard
Most of Polaris’ ATVs are still manufactured in its Roseville, Minnesota, plant, but the company also has two manufacturing facilities in Poland and Mexico. Willi says the future of Polaris Off-Road and its ATV segment is to offer vehicles more approachable in price, but with the same high level of quality manufacturing that Polaris has earned its reputation from through the decades.
“We want to meet people where they’re at. A lot of our customers are landowners, and we want them to find value in something that is going to last,” Willie explains. “We have provided the Sportsman lineup, and it’s meeting a lot of needs, but we want to continue to be better. Continue to meet our customers.”
Continuing to meet customers’ needs is something the company has prioritized over the last four decades of manufacturing ATVs. And despite new competition, Willie says Polaris is confident that the experience the company has gained over the years will continue to separate it from the pack.
“Forty years is a cool stamp to have. We’re starting to see a lot of new-entry OEMs coming into the market, but a lot of them don’t have the cycles of learning we have, like 40 years of Polaris giving customers a high-quality product.”
