Tapout

In this section of the Apparel Search Directory, you will learn about Tapout.

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Tapout is an American business enterprise specializing in producing clothing and miscellaneous gear targeted at the mixed martial arts community, as well as a magazine devoted to mixed martial arts fighting (formerly Bodyguard magazine). Charles Lewis, Jr. (also known as "Mask") and Dan Caldwell (also known as "Punkass") founded the company in 1997 in San Bernardino, California. The company is currently based in Grand Terrace.[1] From a gross of $30,000 in 1999, Tapout's earnings rose to $100 million in 2008. The company has a worldwide network of licensed retailers, including Dillard's and Champs.

In 2007, Tapout launched a reality television series, also called Tapout, on Versus. Each episode follows Mask, Punkass and their third partner, "Skyskrape", as they scout fighters to add to their sponsorship roster.

Tapout signed "Internet legend" Kimbo Slice to a sponsorship deal in 2008. Tapout will be creating an exclusive Kimbo clothing line.

On March 11, 2009 Charles Lewis, Jr. was killed in his Ferrari in a high-speed automobile collision in Newport Beach, California. A female companion was ejected from the car and taken for medical treatment but Lewis was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of a second car, a white Porsche, which was believed to have been traveling alongside Lewis's car, was arrested on charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

Third Member of Tapout Clothing is Timothy "Skyskrape" Katz.

External links

Official Tapout website

The above definition about the clothing company Tapout is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. The information source is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and was originally obtained from the following page address https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/tapout_(clothing_brand).  The definition has been modified by the Apparel Search Company in June 2009.  The rest of this page and other pages on Apparel Search are NOT under the free document license.

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Clothing Built Inside Mixed Martial Arts

Tapout's growth tracks the growth of its sport. Mixed martial arts in 1997, when Charles Lewis, Jr., known as Mask, and Dan Caldwell, known as Punkass, founded the company in San Bernardino, California, was a fringe sport with a devoted following and almost no dedicated clothing industry. A label that sold clothing and gear targeted at that community, and published a magazine devoted to MMA fighting, was not competing with general sportswear; it was giving a new sport its first visual identity. Fighters and fans wearing the same mark turned events, gyms and television broadcasts into the brand's advertising, in the same way skate and surf labels had grown inside their sports a generation earlier.

The numbers in the definition measure that timing. From a gross of $30,000 in 1999, Tapout's earnings rose to $100 million in 2008, the decade in which MMA moved into mainstream television and pay-per-view. Distribution widened with the sport: a worldwide network of licensed retailers, including Dillard's and Champs, carried a community label into department and mall stores, where customers who had never entered a gym could buy the look of the fight world. Licensing is the natural structure for that stage, letting local partners sell the brand in markets the founding team could not reach directly from Grand Terrace, California.

Television, Sponsorship and the Roster

In 2007 Tapout launched a reality television series, also called Tapout, on Versus, in which Mask, Punkass and their third partner Skyskrape scout fighters to add to their sponsorship roster. The format is a precise piece of brand building: the audience watches the selection process itself, learns what the brand values in a fighter, and meets new fighters as Tapout fighters from their first appearance. Sponsorship deals such as the 2008 signing of Kimbo Slice, described in the definition as an internet legend, extended the roster toward the sport's most watched personalities, with exclusive product planned around them.

For researchers, Tapout is the clearest case in this part of the directory of a clothing company created by a sport's rise rather than by a fashion trend: founded 1997 in San Bernardino by Mask and Punkass, based in Grand Terrace, $30,000 gross in 1999 rising to $100 million in 2008, licensed retail including Dillard's and Champs, a magazine, and a 2007 Versus television series built around fighter scouting. Its clothing should be read as MMA community gear first and general fashion second, which is exactly how the company presented itself.