No Gi

The Real Chris Brennan said:
PS. If they didn't know about us don't you think when they went to get www.nogi.com and realized they had to add a BR because it was already taken by a clothing company in the USA that we may have already existed?


BRENNOWNED!!!!!1!1!1!1!

AHAHHAHAHAH
 
Fightgear UK said:
My wife is a senior lawyer in the UK and is helping trademark the Gameness trademark in Europe. When I say 'international' I mean internationally.

ANd you still sell some BGG products? Wow!

Fightgear UK said:
Question: Are NoGi stealing your Nogi logo and 'passing off'?
Question: Are they making replica products?
Question: Are they pretending to be NoGi USA?

My own belief is that 'No' is the answer to those questions. Therefore the problem relates to the name not the products, not the designs, not even the branding.

The MMA market is a very small one. What would happen if I start to sell Tshirt with "tapout" printed on them? Even if I don't use the Tapout logo, don't make any replica and don't pretend to be Tapout?

C'mon...
 
Oooo - Fozzy
Just as I planned not to carry on with this, you ring the bell for another round!
We CHOSE to stock and sell NoGi in the same way we chose to stock US Gameness over BGG. We could buy BGG for peanuts and make loads of profit both here and it Italy (where our other store is based) but we chose to support US Gameness. What do you think that says?
As for the criticism of NoGi not coming onto the forum to defend their company, to my knowledge the only member of their company who speaks decent English is the owner and then that isn;t that good. We only communicate so well because I speak fluent Portuguese - actually that is a total lie.... my business partner in Fightgear is a Brazilian!
My company is as straight as they come. I believe Alex of Riofightwear, Ron of SSF, Paul of XFGear, Mike of Cryogel and the Clay of Gameness would stand by that. We have fought the Gameness corner here in the UK BEFORE we even became dealers for them.
As some of the other dealers will tell you, I will say EXACTLT what I think of a company or its products regardless of if I sell it. If I don't AGREE with a company I won't sell it, if I don't LIKE a company but my customers do, I will sell it. When MMAGear went down a number of our customers got stung with outstanding orders. We made the offer to sell them replacements AT COST price. We ended up losing a fair amount of money doing that but it was putting something back into the sport in some way. Admittedly, most of those guys will become our customers but then again some will obviously look for the 'cheap' option and buy from Brazil or elsewhere while the pound/
 
They'll be at your front door count on it.

"this shouldnt even be discussed between us, but rather between chris and the owner of the brasil brand"

He has been emailed and writen to over 20 times and NEVER one has responded. That makes me feel he knows something is wrong with what he is doing or he would answer and tell me to fuck off because I would do the same if I felt I was in the right...
 
Chris.... we have NEVER managed to email Julio - not once. We catch him on the phone as he is seldom around in Brazil and my partner always talks to him in Brazilian. This past few weeks he has spent most of his time in either the US or Japan. One other thing, I don't know if you have met Vitor before but he is a real class guy. He is as honest as the day is long. He deliberately left one sponsor because they had treated customer badly. I think that says something in its own sense.
 
Well the I am sure Vitor doesn't know what's happening.
 
Terrier - www.fozzyrock.com =P not the bear!

Fightgear UK... im not even going to bother. you're biased bro, you say "i'll say exactly what I think of an item regardless" but you're not going to do that, nobody is going to do that come on, can you imagine Vitor after his fight with tito saying "these shorts are fukin crap" or something?

It's just not going to happen. I leave this to Chris.

good luck,

~Foz
 
Why would he wear cheap shorts to a fight in the first place?

And Fozzy, i'd say you are the one that's biased. A month afrwe i saw the brasil brand of nogi, i friend of mine had gotten the shorts from barra and brought them back. i personally wouldnt comment on shorts unless ive seen them and wore them. i've done both, they are great. i dont feel bad for chris' company because they already make quality stuff and has been doing well.

i don't know but i think its just a lot of energy spent on bashing. so far ive seen the us brand dissing the brasil brand rather then promoting their gear.
 
Soid said:
Why would he wear cheap shorts to a fight in the first place?

And Fozzy, i'd say you are the one that's biased. A month afrwe i saw the brasil brand of nogi, i friend of mine had gotten the shorts from barra and brought them back. i personally wouldnt comment on shorts unless ive seen them and wore them. i've done both, they are great. i dont feel bad for chris' company because they already make quality stuff and has been doing well.

i don't know but i think its just a lot of energy spent on bashing. so far ive seen the us brand dissing the brasil brand rather then promoting their gear.

I'm biased? how so? I have nothing against the products, it;s the company I have a problem with......

~Foz
 
Fozzy said:
I'm biased? how so? I have nothing against the products, it;s the company I have a problem with......

~Foz
didnt u once say that they make crappy gear and that they dont comare to the us brands?

anyways, no gi brasil is on the grind as of late. so many fighters promoting them, so many people are dying to try them out, they've done well in my book so far. plus us discussing them is only promoting them.
 
Soid said:
didnt u once say that they make crappy gear and that they dont comare to the us brands?

maybe ignorant me said that when I was drunk? i dunno i dont remember saying that. honestly. does it sound like something I'd say?

~Foz
 
Fightgear UK... im not even going to bother. you're biased bro, you say "i'll say exactly what I think of an item regardless" but you're not going to do that, nobody is going to do that come on

I beleive that's a totally unfair statement Fozzy, as evidence look at this thread
http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=273196&page=2&pp=20&highlight=gracie+sports

Specifically where Fightgear says....

Even though we sell Keiko and it is popular as a mid-level gi, i would agree that it isn't in the top league in terms of quality.

Does that not show incredible honesty for a retailer? while many would say anything to get a sale Roy says what he thinks, regardless of if it's good for buisness or not.

Roy is a class act IMO and has never given any of us any reason to question his word.
 
We're not talking about PRODUCT statements, I'm saying he's not going to bag out the company if he is selling their stuff.

THE COMPANY, not the products.

-.-;

~Foz
 
Fozzy said:
We're not talking about PRODUCT statements, I'm saying he's not going to bag out the company if he is selling their stuff.

THE COMPANY, not the products.

-.-;

~Foz
i dont think hed be selling their gear if they were crap neither
 
We're not talking about PRODUCT statements, I'm saying he's not going to bag out the company if he is selling their stuff.

That's one way to look at it - the other being he woulnd't have started selling it at all if he didn't beleive in them in the first place.
 
Well sorry Fozzy - check some of my posts because I have spoken honestly about quality. We sell numerous brands which i feel have either bland designs or poor quality but do so because the market demands it. Any customer who has spoken to me will know I tell them EXACTLY my view on a product if they ask me. I have had many opportunities to sell a product which I knew wasn't right for a customer and advised them to purchase it elsewhere because of price (often with US customers) and availability. You can't say I won't say that when my site does exactly that!
Yesterday I was approached by a gi manufacturer asking us to become exclusive dealers for their products in the UK, Ireland and Italy (where our outlets are).
Not sure how you make out that we are selling BGG goods. We haven't touched BGG since probably February when we sold the last of our stock. Truth be told, we could sell a ton of BGG and make a decent profit but choose not to because of our belief in Ed Clay and Gameness. Other dealers in the UK have happily sold BGG knowing the situation. Maybe I am naive in putting some eithics into the business but I would rather feel good about the products I stock and promote.
MY single point about this thread is that (as supported by GSoares, Terrier and Soid) when people mention NoGi, they are pounced on as being illegitimate, fake, poor quality, etc. As has been said, NoGi don't post on forums (obviously they are wiser than me there!) so no-one has stood their side. I have simply stood up and said that the quality is good, the designs, excellent.
Just look at the situation in the USA with BadBoy. Some company in the US holds the rights to the name in the USA and threatens Badboy if they sell in the USA.
Basically until the owner says 'Yes, I deliberately took the name' or I see proof to that, I will keep an open mind. My problem is that others seem not to keep an open mind and base viewpoints on what they hear. The negativity that seems to be being projected is one sided. Look at the recent problems with this kind of situation Gameness vs BGG; Machado Bros vs Machado Kimono; BadBoy Brazil vs BadBoy USA. In the first example, the Clays have spent thousands of dollars defending their right to the name but BGG still exist; in the second, customers in the USA find it almost impossible to get hold of BadBoy fightwear, in the third example, Mkimono/Machado couldn't use their own FAMILY name to sell a kimono that is recognised as being one of the best out there plus faced the threat of legal action! Who were the losers? The consumer ultimately and thereby the companies. Did Badboy USA gain anything? No. Did Gameness profit from all the legal action - no. Did the Machado's benefit from Luciana Machado not being able to call her kimono Machado? NO.
Would Chris Brennan benefit from NoGi Brazil not being NoGi Brazil? I don't really see how.
 
Guyz - thanks for the support. I've had several private messages as well from people in the US who don't want to go public on this. Thanks all of you.
Regarding my company FIGHTGEAR
Look at who we stock. There are several big names out there that we don't sell. There are others that we will not stock in future because of our views on their products and their quality. If you ask me my views on these items, as Terrier says, I will be totally honest. Anyone who knows me or has talked to me knows I don't like Hunter but I sell it because my customers do. Try asking me about a company. If you check some of me other posts you'd find I am honest about my views on products AND companies. My view is simply that, my view. If my customer want a brand then fine. I will do what I can to get it to them. In the past I have had my partners family buy a product in Rio from a shop and ship it direct to the customer without it even touching our hands. We simply charged them what it cost us. Had we bought it it would have cost much much more. Crikey, I can't say fairer than that - lol
 
Soid said:
i dont think hed be selling their gear if they were crap neither

why not? :p

Fightgear UK said:
Well sorry Fozzy - check some of my posts because I have spoken honestly about quality.

uh... i didn't bother reading any of your post, because as I just said, i'm talking about THE COMPANY NOT ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THEIR PRODUCTS OMFG.

.... I have NOTHING AGAINST THE PRODUCTS (PLEASE READ AGAIN, AND THEN REPEAT) it's the STEALING of the NOGI NAME, that I have a problem with.

this being like the 3rd time i've said this.... jeeze...

~Foz
 
Fozzy:
"We're not talking about PRODUCT statements, I'm saying he's not going to bag out the company if he is selling their stuff."

My point is that I have on several occasions given my opinion of a company that we deal with. I have just done that with Hunter and I have done exactly the same on an other forum with BGG before we stopped dealing with them. We did deal with V&M and Hot Blood and I said I did not rate their quality and thus would not sell their products. Nuff said? I am straight on anything I sell or want to sell. If its good I will praise it if its crap I will damn it. Its my opinion. I don't really expect it to sway anyone who wants something strongly enough.

Fightgear have got probably the best reputation in the UK and Italy for customer service. We've done that through being honest and at times, undiplomatic. My creed in setting up Fightgear was to provide a store/service which I would love to recieve. I totaslly understand your stand on the company thing and appreciate your diffirentiation between product and company but my view is this type of negativity is doing nothing but damage everyone involved. Who is right is something that the two owners need to work out one way or another but damning another company when you haven't heard the other side is not fair.
 
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