A successful Brazilian Jiu Jitsu uniform requires the combination of an effective design and a robust business plan. As an illustrator and designer of hundreds of fightwear projects I wanted to write down some of my experiences in the business of designing a BJJ uniform. In Part One I looked at the basics of BJJ gi design for start-ups, here in part two, I talk about the case histories to several of my past gi designs.

Case history #1: The Raptor Gi



The Raptor gi was one of the first gi products I was commissioned to design. You can read the original blog post about it here. Back in 2011 the gi market was still on the ascendant with barely a fraction of the companies that exist today. In the UK, the market was dominated by two or three companies, one of which was Black Eagle, who were the people who hired me to design the Raptor.

I poured everything into the design, working late into the night, corresponding with my client over hundreds of messages where we fine tuned the graphic elements and planned both the manufactured elements as well as the marketing campaign. It was to be our attempt at mimicking the 'Shoyoroll-effect' a term I dubbed to describe the phenomenon where exotically designed jiu jitsu uniforms were treated with awe on social media and, in theory, were snapped up by gi-hungry customers which would sell out in minutes.

Aesthetically, I feel even now, the Raptor still holds its own as a good design. Whenever I design a gi, I try to create a perfect balance of graphic and material elements throughout the whole uniform. The built-in rashguard lining allowed me to place a bigger piece of artwork, which was printed in metallic silver! The whole uniform was composed of high quality embroidery and textile elements and the many blogger reviews written up on pre-production samples were universally positive. But it was not to be a great success and ultimately, may have contributed to the much publicised problems of the Black Eagle brand.*

So what went wrong? With hindsight, it was perhaps naive and presumptuous to assume that just because we were able to post the design onto social media and accumulate a great number of likes, shares and comments, that these would translate into actual sales. It worked for Shoyoroll, we figured, why would it not work for us too?

The original Raptor was offered as a pre-order. We expected many hundreds of customers to sign up yet despite a vigorous attempt by myself and my client, we were received a much smaller pre-order volume than expected (this was prior to when Facebook offered sponsored posts and advertising). Maybe it was too expensive (our rrp was just over £100 preorder, but £129 in stock)? Maybe the design sucked (social media feedback suggested the opposite)? Maybe there was too much confusion over options (there were three colour options each made from a different gi material plus men and womens cuts)?

Despite the disappointing pre-order campaign, we pressed ahead and Black Eagle ordered a full commercial batch (several hundred units) which were to be sold as standard stock items on the Black Eagle online store. Only, there were unspecified manufacturing complications and huge delays. When the units finally arrived, momentum had shifted and, it seems, people were buying other, newer gi models. The in-stock Raptors did not fly as expected. Black Eagle soon reduced them to £70, then, quickly, they were offered at just £40. It was a fire sale on an item that probably cost more than that figure to actually make. I must admit, as the sole designer of the kimono, it was a humiliating experience to witness and I am sure, a hugely expensive situation for my client.

The take-home lesson in the above case history example is that you simply can't rely on social media popularity to guarantee physical hard sales no matter how cool the design. It is also unwise to look at a competitor and simply mimic what they do, the 'Shoyoroll-effect' is arguably unique among the gi-buying sector and very few companies around the world are able to replicate that level of fanaticism among buyers.

[*Original owner of Black Eagle Steve Turner eventually sold his business ]





Case history #2: The Honey Badger series of gis



The honey badger gis were created hot off the heels of a successful campaign of honey badger themed rashguards. The first version of the rashguard was only intended as a one off design, but when it was offered as a pre-order, the demand caused the Tatami website to crash!

But on paper, the honey badger weren't designed to sell in huge numbers - the artwork was cartoony and less mature than the Raptor gi plus it was non-IBJJF rules compliant. In addition, the copious embroidery was expensive to make and my client, Tatami Fightwear, would often tell me that their factory was complaining over their broken embroidery sewing machine needles! I'm not even sure the gis had that much marketing push (eg in print magazine adverts or work by endorsed athletes) apart from normal social media presence. Despite all this, they were deemed a success and the range is now onto its third iteration.

Honey Badger gi version 3 was popular enough to make into an expanded size range of ladies and a kids versions. From an inventory point of view, stocking ladies as well a kids versions of the same model gi is not a decision taken lightly, failure to sell in any of those sectors would be an expensive mistake. Happily, v3 continues to sell and there seems no slowing down in the overall popularity of the honey badger theme (version 4 of the rashguard was released this year).

The take home lesson here, is, well, sometimes design and marketing have less to do with success, sometimes a product is just unpredictably popular. In the case of the honey badger gis, the preceding sales of the rashguards were a good indication that the kimonos would also do well. There is also the fact that the honey badger animal itself is a popular internet phenomenon. All these factors combined to help my designs to reach out to a wide audience and help establish an emotional connection.

Case history #3: The Heavenly Kimono



The Heavenly Kimono was the first gi released solely under my own label. Without the cushion of a large client to back up the product, it was a nervous time, however using the knowledge gained from my freelance gi design work, the Heavenly Kimono was thankfully a success.

In a similar manner to the Honey Badger gis, the first Heavenly Kimono was designed based off the popularity of previous artwork. My geisha v demon designs were originally made as t-shirts and rashguards (see Heavenly footlock, Heavenly wristlock and Gentle Omoplata designs) and it was clear from follower feedback and sales that there was a strong emotional connection for the concepts that I had created. Knowing that these earlier products were popular helped ensure the gi version (which combined elements from the tee and rashguard designs) would reach a familiar audience. It was not a guarantee of sales but the emotional connection was strong, so it was a good start.

Unlike the honey badger gis and to some extent the Raptor gis, I kept the Heavenly kimono design relatively conservative. I felt that a black gi would help the embroidery pop out more and thus, I could be reasonably sparing with the surface decals - which would make the gi IBJJF compliant.

We took a fairly cautious approach with this first model and ordered only a few hundred units of the black Heavenly Kimonos. Most of the marketing was performed via social media, with a single advert in Jiu Jitsu Style Magazine. In addition to the gi itself, I offered a limited edition art card to the first 50 customers. These factors combined together to help sell this model out within two months.

Since the Heavenly Kimono was first released in 2013, we have also released a white version of the same gi (which has since sold out) and are currently selling a blue gi called the Orchid Dragon. We've been slowly building up the volumes for each subsequent model and hope to continue this steady path for future kimono launches.

Some closing thoughts

I present the above case histories to serve as examples of what I have learned, both good and bad, in the business of designing and producing BJJ gis. It's been a great privilege to have been assigned to the task of creating the many dozens of kimono projects in the past. Yet, in truth, the design portion is only a small part of the project's success. Being able to reach out to your audience and connect with them via marketing, promotion and customer/follower interaction play an arguably more important role. It's very cool to see, almost daily, new companies starting up and offering exciting fightwear products. Many are using social media and other marketing platforms very effectively, which will go a long way to ensuring their long term success.