Axtion

Axtion: I appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. I know youʼre a busy man.

Dan: Thereʼs always time for this. This is the fun stuff. Itʼs a nice break from looking at numbers and running around trying to make meetings.

Axtion: Are you very involved with that side of the company?

Dan: Yeah, thatʼs all I do man. Donʼt get me wrong, I like it. I find good things in it, ʻcause you have to. Iʼll tell you though, when I set out this is not exactly how I envisioned it. Stuck in some meeting with a bunch of suits. You have to take the bad with the good.

Axtion: It seems that too many companies get away from their original ideals or mission once they reach a certain corporate level. How have you avoided that?

Dan: Anyone who has been to our offices can tell that we are not your normal corporation. There have been many studies done on how your surroundings effect you. We kept that in mind when we were designing our offices. Itʼs just a crazy, crazy place to come to. We have a 12 foot Hulk in our hallway. Every hallway is treated with graffiti, there are no blank walls anywhere in this place. We have the worlds biggest jack in the box, a life size Bruce Lee, a 12 foot Godzilla, a full size Grinch, we have motorcycles in our lobby. We even have a hundred seat Roman themed movie theater. This was our way of keeping people out of that corporate structure. Even though we conduct very important business here, everybody knows that we are a shirt, short and jeans company. Thereʼs nobody here wearing a suit and tie. When somebody comes to TapouT for the first time they normally feel over dressed.

Axtion: How important is it to keep your team excited about the future of TapouT?

Dan: Very! The whole purpose for building the theater was to keep the entire company involved in what weʼre doing and letting them know the goal. Letʼs face it when youʼre out there packing boxes, shipping orders or taking customer service calls you can lose sight of the goal. You can forget what this company set out to do, our mission statement. So we bring them into the theater and show our latest commercials for television or inside the UFC arena. We show them the latest documentary films that weʼre making or recent interviews that we have given. Weʼre about to have a slide show presentation of a recent visit to a childrenʼs hospital in Loma Linda, a cancer ward. We want our team to feel a part of what our company is accomplishing.

Axtion: You took part in a round table discussion organized by the La Jolla Group last night. Can you talk about that experience?

Dan: It was based around motocross and how major retailers are now accepting moto brands. They had representatives from DC, Volcom, Metal Mulisha and others on the panel speaking on crossing over to other sports. Metal Mulisha had a cool outlook in that they are interested in anything on wheels and of course they love MMA too.

Axtion: Why not use the Nike model and just branch out anywhere and everywhere?

Dan: We try to be very careful in that regard. Transitioning to other sports should feel very natural not forced. I wouldnʼt want anybody to think that we are sellouts. I would only break into another sport because I love it. I love a lot of sports. I love watching Motocross, I love riding motorcycles, but I donʼt want to go on a mission to alienate my core customers. It would have to be the right time. Today it doesnʼt feel right to me, but I never say never. Axtion: Is going global selling out?

Dan: When you deliver your ideas or product to the masses, I would never consider that selling out. Youʼre just giving everyone a chance to see it. You have to keep it core at the corporate level. Here at TapouT we still sponsor the hardest mothafuckers. From the way we look to the way we act we are everything that the people expect us to be. Yes we have a corporate side, itʼs necessary. As long as we keep our core values and delivering it to the masses it can never be viewed as selling out.

Axtion: Do you feel a responsibility to help MMA as a sport continue to grow?

Dan: Absolutely. Thatʼs at the top of our list. We consider ourselves ambassadors of the sport. We 100% love MMA. Thatʼs why we got in to this in the first place. We believed in it before there was money in it. We love training, we love fighting. I love the wholeness of Mixed Martial Arts and the competitiveness.

Axtion: I was hanging out with Fred George and Brett Robertʼs at CSW the other day and we were discussing the passion that exists in this sport and how they view MMA as a Family not just a business.

Dan: There are a lot of passionate people in this sport. Fred is a great example. He has been in this sport forever. I was watching him before we knew each other. Itʼs not unlike many other sports. We spoke of Deegan I watched his and Twitches video documentaries and you can see that they love what they do. Theyʼve done it since they were kids. Motocross is what got them through the hard times. Thatʼs what MMA does for people. For most people the first time they try Mixed Martial Arts they are hooked. I know guys that I introduced to the sport ten years ago that are now black belts in Jujitsu and fighting MMA.

Axtion: Are there any competitors with UFC right now?

Dan: Not really. Thereʼs another company out there “Strike Force”, but theyʼre not taking dollars out of the UFCʼs hands. I think they actually help each other. Strike Force is likely drawing new fans because of being on these mainstream networks and then those fans become MMA fans and next thing you know theyʼre paying to watch UFC. I mean as much as they like to fight, they should really try to be partners and try not to counter program and work with each others dates.

Axtion: MMA is a fairly young sport.

Dan: Sports like football, baseball and basketball have as many as seven generations of families backing them. Mixed Martial Arts are just starting to touch on itʼs first. Thatʼs going to drive this sport. We know it, so we have been building Gymʼs. We have our seventh one up. We are talking to people in the Middle East right now about building some large Gymʼs there. Weʼre looking at England. Weʼve been shipping a lot of our cages, rings, bag racks and other equipment to Australia. So we know that we need to provide a place for the next generations of fighters to train. We need to educate the consumer. In the past the other sports that I mentioned including Motocross have had kids training at five years old and thats why they grow up loving it. Thats why they teach their kids about it. Mixed Martial Arts is just now experiencing that. The Ruffo Brothers are a great example of this. Theyʼre eight and nine years old. We consider them the best at what they do in the world. These are just two badass little kids. We did a documentary on them called ”The Future of MMA” you can see a commercial for it on our website. They really are the future of this sport. Weʼve never seen a champion in UFC who has trained since he was five. Most of the guys today didnʼt start training until they were in their twenties. It will be interesting to see ten years from now guys fighting who have been training their whole lives. What does that type of fighter look like?