Mask's Last Interview

by Luke Thomas on Mar 12, 2009 12:06 PM EDT in News Comment 1 comment

This interview was conducted the day before his death. And an interesting little nugget from the Press-Enterprise that illustrates Tapout's long, difficult struggle in becoming the brand leader in MMA apparel:

In a July 2008 interview, Caldwell said the company had a hard time turning their passion for mixed martial arts into profits.

The outfit originally sold only on the Web and had reached sales of about $29,000 by 1999.

"We were basically just pouring the money back into the business to buy new inventory," Caldwell said.

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Regardless of their antics.....

I’ve always like the TapouT (see what I did there) crew for just the reasons Mask pointed out. They support fighters, and they support the sport. And by support, I mean they pay fighters. They help them be who they want to be as professionals.

They were so great for the sport. I’m just glad for them the brand is strong enough to lose someone like Mask, even still, there are big shoes to fill over there. Anyone is capable of working hard, only some men have a vision like Mask did.

by Dexerion on Mar 12, 2009 4:43 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs