We had the chance to sit down with Jaime from Like 2 Fight (www.like2fight.com), an up-and-coming MMA clothing, gear & equipment company in the UK.
A: When doing my research I saw numerous companies with names that didn’t sound like a clothing brand relating to mixed martial arts; in many cases I thought the name was very vague and couldn’t understand what it was meant to represent.
Like 2 Fight clothing is designed with fighters and the fans of MMA in mind, from our research we found that people wore MMA clothing to represent their love of the sport so we decided to make the brand name as representative as possible. I think it is fair to say that no one could be mistaken that Like 2 Fight is a contact sports brand!
Lastly, although the name ‘Like 2 Fight’ sounds aggressive, it is not meant to be (not entirely at least!). We spoke to a countless number of boxers and martial artists asking them what they loved about the sport, the resounding answer was that they liked everything about it, the training, friendships, increased confidence, being athletic and competing. The Like 2 Fight name was and is therefore aimed to show the ‘Liking’ of all areas of martial arts, not just the ‘fight’.
A: This honestly isn’t a sarcastic answer but..’Love 2 Fight’. (laughs) It genuinely was a toss up between the two!
I would say a big difference is that we aren’t one of the dozens upon dozens of more recent companies to setup an MMA brand in the last 6 months. Like 2 Fight clothing has been around since mid 2008, which although still not a huge amount of time I personally recall seeing probably a dozen or more brands (UK alone) come and go since then.
The brand sells well, this I would put down to dealing closely with people in the MMA community. We attend numerous events, seminars etc. throughout the country, at these events we are alway talking to people and we really do listen and make changes to the business based on what our customers (or potential customers) want to see. e.g. a number of people we spoke to said they loved the brand but didn’t want to be seen in the gym/walking to the shops in a top saying ‘Like 2 Fight’. We also noticed a trend and people were saying they would love an MMA brand to be a bit classier that could be worn anywhere without getting negative attention. After a bit of research we commissioned an Australian design company to create an ‘L’ logo to represent the ‘Like’ and have had this printed on MMA shorts, vale tudo shorts and a very popular T-shirt.
We are only were we are today because of our fans and customers, they are our number one priority so we will always focus on giving them exactly what they want.
A: Our driving force is to make our customers happy, as the company owner I still get a real buzz when I receive emails from delighted customers.
A: It’ a close call, our top two selling products are the Xplicit T-shirt and the white ‘World Standard’ MMA Shorts. Out of the two I would say the shorts win on sales volume but it is a close call!
Like 2 Fight's "XPLICIT" T-Shirt available at www.like2fight.com
A: The most unqiue idea I have heard (this may be difficult to explain) would be a pair of MMA shorts that have ‘grab areas’ were a fighter can grab their own shorts to get a tighter/stronger hold on a submission. It was a great idea but after speaking to a number of people that compete in submisison grappling competitions the overall response was that it would be viewed as something close to cheating, which was something we did not want to associate the brand with.
A: That is a really tough question! Out of all the products the one I personally love is the Xplicit tshirt, the first time I saw the proof image from the designer I knew it would make waves. I think it makes a bold statement and stands out, basically what Like 2 Fight is all about.
A: To be honest I’m planning a number of new things for the company, some of which need to stay confidential for the time being. Overall though I don’t want ‘Like 2 Fight’ to be seen as just another MMA brand in the mix, I want it to be an integral part of UK MMA. Which is why we interview fighters for the site, are building up a bank of fighter resources and will soon be holding a Like 2 Fight grappling competition.
The brand has recently started being sold in America so obviously we are looking to build on that, as well as furthering the progress made in the UK. I would say in 5 years it is realistic that Like 2 Fight will be one of Europe’s main players.
