Inside the Tapout Clothing and Fight Gear Empire

Author : James Walker

Since its formation in small apartment in San Bernardino in 1997, arguably the most well recognized mixed martial arts clothing company in the world today, Tapout has solidified itself celebrity status in the great sport of ultimate fighting. This article is dedicated to outline what I believe helped Tapout become such an overwhelming success in the past decade, and why they will continue to grow and evolve in the future.

Its loyal fan base of millions buy and wear the company’s branded fashions and accessories, sporting dark and edgy designs with snakes, bats and flames — and some extreme supporters even have tapout tattoos. The company’s conference room, done up in shades of black, dark reds and browns, sports a chandelier made of plastic skulls and is a sight to behold.

All of tapout’s lead crew are trained in the sport, which combines boxing with elements of traditional martial arts and wrestling. And the tough and edgy attitude exuded by the tapout brand is not fake, as members mask and punkass both grew up in the harsh neighborhoods in the region of 18th Street in San Bernardino.

With literally hundreds of clothing designs on the market today, tapout shoppers have a seemingly vast amount of choices laid out in front of them. Making the shopping process even easier, you don’t have to purchase tapout brand clothing from tapout themselves. There are plenty of retail stores both online and offline where you may place your purchase; each with their own distinct flavor and styles of tapout apparel. Some retailers may even have exclusive tapout designs that cannot be found anywhere else.

Formerly known as bodyguard magazine, tapout magazine is one of the hottest mixed martial arts magazines in the world today. They boast huge subscription rates and can be found at over 7,000 magazine retail locations worldwide, including the largest such as barnes & noble.

Tapout radio, also known as tapout live, is a daily radio show which is run by some of the most entertaining radio hosts in mixed martial arts today. They always feature top fighters and important men and women of the mixed martial arts industry.

In 2007, tapout launched their reality television series on the versus network. This show featured mask, punkass, and Tim “skyscrape” Katz as they traveled the United States of America in search of qualified fighters to add to their long list of professional and amateur sponsorships. As the series progressed the focus broadened to cover not just the scouting of new talent but also the efforts of the the crew to grow their business, including day-to-day operations and the inter-relationships between the crew members and other company staff. Though after two seasons the show is no longer being produced, it certainly left its mark in television and they still posts many videos online to media sites such as youtube.

Tapout has recently started to penetrate the sports nutrition market as well. The new brand of sport supplementation is a revolutionary sports nutrition line inspired by the mixed martial arts tapout crew and designed to improve all aspects of an athlete’s training to prepare them for battle. These products allow athletes-in-training to increase muscle size, strength and recover faster. The products themselves also taste good and are competitively priced and engineered with research-tested ingredients, including highly absorb-able forms of protein, creatine, hydration drink formulas and more.

From a gross of $30,000 in 1999, tapout’s earnings rose to $100 million in 2008. That being said, with such an incredible thirst for success and phenomenal branding, it’s hard to argue the overwhelming success that they’ve had on the industry of mixed martial arts and the ultimate fighting championship. In fact, most recently tapout has acquired popular brand hitman fight gear, a Huntington Beach company that also makes clothing and accessories tied to the mixed martial arts lifestyle. It’s been said that the ever growing company is looking into other potential acquisitions, and also at other licensing deals in the future.

James Walker - Tapout Clothing enthusiast and Mixed Martial Artist.