Episode 905 - Martial Arts Apparel
In this episode, Jeremy and Andrew sit down and discuss martial arts apparel
Martial Arts Apparel - Episode 905
SUMMARY
In this episode, Jeremy and Andrew discuss apparel in the martial arts community. They highlight the personal connection individuals have with their clothing choices and the significance of wearing apparel that represents their passion for martial arts. The hosts emphasize the value of school apparel in promoting the martial arts and creating a sense of community among students. They also explore the functional aspect of apparel, particularly the use of stretch fabrics for ease of movement. The episode concludes with a shout-out to sponsor Kataaro and a reminder to consider personal preferences when choosing clothing for martial arts training.
TAKEAWAYS
*Apparel plays a significant role in the martial arts community, allowing individuals to express their passion for martial arts and create a sense of identity.
*School apparel is an effective way to promote martial arts and foster a sense of community among students.
*Functional apparel, such as stretch fabrics, is important for ease of movement during martial arts training.
*Personal preferences and considerations, such as safety and comfort, should guide clothing choices for martial arts practitioners.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction and Background
01:27 Sponsorship and Importance of Apparel
05:17 Flying Your Flag and School Apparel
08:17 Functional Apparel and Stretch Fabrics
16:04 Appreciation for Kataaro Apparel
21:10 Personal Considerations in Clothing Choices
22:10 Promotion of Kataaro and Whistlekick Apparel
23:00 Conclusion
After listening to the episode, it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it. Don’t forget to drop them in the comment section down below!
This episode is sponsored by Kataaro. Please check out their site at Kataaro Custom Martial Arts Products - Kataaro. And use the code WK10 to save 10% off your order. And be sure to ask them about a wholesale account for school owners!
SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Jeremy (00:02.672)
What's up everybody welcome to another episode of whistle kick martial arts radio and on today's episode Andrew and I are talking about Apparel because as martial artists sometimes we wear things that are not gizendo box and and Training I'm not worried. I'm not wearing any of those things right now. I'm not either but there's some overlap there if you're new to the show
I'm Jeremy Lesniak joined by Andrew Adams. And here at Whistlekick, everything we do is in support of the traditional martial arts. If you are a traditional martial artist, we probably do a bunch of things that you would appreciate. Maybe all you're aware of is this show, but please visit whistlekick .com and check out things like the apparel that we make, like the training equipment we make, training programs. What else do we have over there? Events. Oh yeah. We do some events.
Jeremy (00:59.256)
Anyway, we have some great events and you should check out all the stuff that we're doing at whistlekick .com, sign up for the newsletter so you can get notified. But if you want to go deeper on this episode, you want to go into one of the other episodes because we've got a lot of them. We're right around 900 when we were recording this. As recording this, we are just before 900. This will be just before our 900th episode. This will be episode 905. Oh, it will? This will. Wow. Cool. OK.
Episode 905. So you've got 904 other episodes that you can check out all for free if you've jumped in new, you know, go back, check it out. See what else we've got that might interest you. And with that, oh, should let you know this episode is sponsored by Kotaro. Kotaro does some awesome stuff. We're going to talk about this sweatshirt in a little bit. I'm wearing this. I'll show you this arm. This is crazy. So cozy.
Kataaro K A T A A R O People know Kaataro is belts, but yeah, we'll dig into that as it pops up organically, but shout out and thank you to Kaataro for your sponsorship. So apparel. Apparel, yes. You know, if you go back a few years, back to the stretch of time where I was pitching Whistlekick for investment, where I was doing everything I could to get investment, which, spoiler alert,
did not work at the big corporate level yet, but did get a bunch of people that believed in what we were doing and helped keep things moving forward. But one of the things I used to say on stage was, you as a kid, and I bet you had something, a similar experience, as a kid, I would look around and see my friends that played basketball and they had no shortage of things that they could wear that told the world, I love basketball. Whether it was...
Their team from across the country or wherever it be a team or a jersey or you know, how many people wore We're of close enough age Remember starter jackets starter jackets. Oh, yeah, right or there's they their school team, right? Right all the way up all the way down But what I had as a kid was a Bruce Lee t -shirt that my mother bought at Walmart. Mm -hmm, cuz that's what we had Yep, because other than that it was
Jeremy (03:23.192)
Maybe the school that you trained at did t -shirts once in a while. That was it. That's all we had. And that was a big part of starting Whistlekick. Now we're not going to turn this into a commercial episode for Whistlekick and all that, but it's important to note that this is a big part of what we do and why we do it because I've got this dream and it's happened a couple times where two people out in the world that are familiar with Whistlekick see each other wearing Whistlekick and go, I had somebody come up to me.
in a bed bath and beyond and say, is that that Whistlekick company? Oh, that's cool. Because he didn't he used to train and he knew someone that that did train and that person had Whistlekick stuff. And so we had a kind of a fun conversation. But my dream is two people meet in an airport. That would be cool. And they go and they train in the corner while they're waiting for their plane. Yeah, that'd be pretty fun. That's what I want to happen. So when I was a high school, like you, did I just say when I was a high school? I don't think you were personally a high school, but I bet you were in.
I was when I was a student in high school I was training and My favorite to the school that I trained at I don't think we had t -shirts. I don't think they had school shirts But I found somewhere store whatever a white t -shirt with just a huge Tiger face on the front and it had some some I can't even say if it was Japanese kanji because I don't know but it had some
Asian looking characters in the bottom whether it was Korean or Japanese or okinawa I don't know but it was like that's cool because I trade martial arts. There's Japanese what I thought was Japanese I don't know if it really was in hindsight and it was my favorite t -shirt I would wear that whenever I could you know because it connected you with something you were really passionate about it absolutely and you know, it's a cool tiger face. So cool. How was it was it to the a vera dote?
Jeremy (05:17.96)
Shout out to Master Ken. I would have to... I didn't mean to derail your story. No, no, no, it's all good. Now I'm trying to think. It was a little more realistic of Hoking of a Tiger. But that was what I had because it was the only thing that really connected me, like you said, to what I do. And as time has gone on, we've entered this time of...
print on demand and it's a lot easier to get stuff made. And I don't think I know a martial arts school that doesn't do shirts and sometimes sweatshirts and all these other things. But what it really comes down to is if you look at your wardrobe, it tells the world something about you. It tells the world what is important to you. I know you've got a ton of t -shirts. How many are you up to? I have over...
I'm gonna be conservative and say I have over 80 t -shirts. Okay, that's a lot of t -shirts. I have more than a full drawer in my dresser than just t -shirts. That's a lot. And they're all, they're fun. Yeah. But they tell the world things about you, right? They have... I have three kinds of t -shirts. Okay. I've got martial art t -shirts, whether they're shirts from other schools that they've given me as gifts or whistle kick or, you know, other martial arts type shirts that people have gotten me.
I've got bagpipe or drumming related shirts. Another big part of your life. Yep. Yep. Whether it's I went to a seminar that you got a shirt from. I have a lot of those or world pipe and championship shirts, things like that. Or I've got just funny shirts. Dad jokes. If you know Andrew, he loves his puns and his dad jokes. That's basically all of my t -shirts. That's it. But that's those are.
three huge parts of you. If we were to find some way to pull DNA, not literally from the shirts, but to concoct a person out of martial arts, bagpipe drumming and dad jokes, for example, then we'd get 85 % of you. Yeah. I mean, why is the queen not wave with this hand? Because that's my hand. See, if you ever get the chance to spend time with this man, if you don't like that style of humor,
Jeremy (07:39.448)
You will. I'm gonna give you one more just because it ties into that joke. Please. Where does the king keep his armies?
Jeremy (07:50.104)
in his sleevies. I knew it was going somewhere. I just couldn't quite find it. OK, sorry. So but those are the kinds of shirts that I wear. Martial arts band, pipe band, bagpipe band related or jokes like funny looking fun shirts. Yeah. Now, I bet all of you out there have favorite clothing in a little bit. We'll talk about functional clothing, right? You know, kind of stretch your jeans as.
Fabrics have changed. I definitely want to get into the kind of the technical or the functional side of apparel because we're not just talking about graphics on a t -shirt. But before we do that, let's talk about I lost my train of thought. Crap, where did it go? It's over there. Is it?
Jeremy (08:41.432)
You might have to cut this part.
Time out what we're wearing and oh, this is an important part. One of the things that I think is important to talk about is there's this.
Dilemma it could almost be a two schools of thought but it's not a big enough subject Do you tell the world that you train? Hmm? Yep. Yep Do I put karate and martial arts on everything now that if you take a look at whistle kick apparel You will see that we have stuff that says martial arts and stuff that does not and that is intentional and I would say that most of the stuff does not say martial arts And a lot of the ones that do would be like the free training day shirts, yep
But most of it doesn't. And as an aside to those of you out there building a brand, that's because if you have to tell the world too much what you do, Nike doesn't say, hey, we make shoes. Yeah. So I think that's an important thing to consider. And I've encouraged some of the schools that I work with, hey, make two versions of your shirts. You've got a logo, it's got the word.
Taekwondo or martial arts in the logo make a version where you pull that out Mm -hmm, right let people fly the flag of the thing that they do In a way that they want to in the way they want to it doesn't necessarily invite Challenges. Yep Right. I am very careful about what I wear Where I go places where you wear it? Yeah, I am I am unlikely I mean around here in central Vermont. It's not a big deal, but I
Jeremy (10:23.448)
If you know we're talking about some some upcoming plans this coming weekend Where we're gonna do some recording we're headed into Boston now Boston is not anywhere close to the most violent city on the planet But there are more people just as a percentage of exposure We're more likely to run into problems because there are more people More rolls of the dice. I am probably not I'm just flat -out not going to wear something that says I do martial arts. Yeah
Yeah, when we go in this weekend. Yeah, the t -shirts that we wore at Rhode Island Comic Con. Are you a martial artist? Say hi. We're not going to wear those shirts. No, we're not. Yeah, for sure. We figured a big group of nerds was probably pretty safe. Yeah, and it was as a fun group of people. All right. So for me, those two things come back to flying your flag. What is it you're proud of? What is it that you like? What is it that you want to tell the world about yourself? And I think that that's a really
important thing to be able to do. If you're a school and you don't produce some apparel, some fun apparel periodically, then you're missing out. You're missing out. And forget about the profit on the shirts. If my students wear a shirt out in the world, it might be some advertising. Absolutely. If I can cover my costs, maybe I round up a couple bucks.
And they buy some shirts from me. Cool. Yeah. I think if you are a school and not doing apparel in some way, even if it's even if it is just a t -shirt, I think you are hugely missing out. I really, really do. Because even again, even if you are a school that does not look to make money and we both know there are schools out there that don't charge like that's fine. You don't have to. I'm not saying.
buy the shirt, get the shirt made for $8 and sell it to your students for 50, right? Buy the shirt for $8 and sell it to them for $8. I don't care. Take pre -orders. But having your students be excited about showing off what they do is nothing but good. It helps connect. Let's remember, most of us train two to three hours a week. That is the average training time. Yep.
Jeremy (12:44.888)
But we are wearing non martial arts related clothing a lot more than that. Yeah. If somebody wears a T -shirt one day, they're doubling to tripling to quadrupling the amount of time that they're wearing their T -shirt versus their martial arts training attire. And to give someone something that helps them connect their experience in their training, their experience as a martial artist with the rest of their life, I think is really valuable.
So please keep that in mind. Yeah, so that takes us to like the stuff for school owners Every you know helping advertise which in a lot of ways is going to advertise. Hey, look, I'm a martial artist I go to this martial arts school, but one of the things I love about Not not all of my martial arts stuff is whistle kick related but like as an example this hoodie this Kathy long dragon hoodie is
Anybody on the street can see it doesn't know I do martial arts But the number of people that I've had comment on wow, that's a really cool hoodie. They're not martial artists They just think it looks really cool. It's got a cool design on it or whatever Because something can be Aesthetic and look good to non martial artists because it's enjoyable to look at, you know
So, you know this hoodie I think the hoodie you're wearing as well. Yeah a lot. It's a good time to mention this I really like this hoodie, you know, it's it's kind of an unconventional design that there's nothing on the front. Mm -hmm, right? It's it's a zip up and one that's you know I don't know what the design process was at Kataaro why they chose to leave something off the front But I've done plenty of zip ups and I don't think we have any in the store right now But often when I do zip ups, I leave the front blank because you end up you can't
print over the zipper, it doesn't work. So you end up with something small or whatever and just aesthetically it doesn't look right. But we've got something on the right sleeve here and it says it's better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war and it's got Japanese kanji for that. And you're gonna have to help me here, orient me to the camera. Okay. Yeah, no, that's good. I'm just gonna lift up the hood there. Yep. And on the back.
Jeremy (15:05.88)
is this great tree and it's a great bonsai. All of the leaves are the Japanese kanji for the word weaver, which is what Kataaro means. So they really, you can't see that on the screen. You can't see the individual characters, but just know that it is. But it's an awesome hoodie. I'm proud to wear it. And, you know, just remember as an organization at Whistlekick here, we're not just do our stuff, just buy our stuff.
Check out what Kataaro has, because they have more than this for apparel. Oh, yes. They've got some really cool stuff. You can use the code WK10, capital W, capital K, number one, number zero to save 10 % over there on your first order. And if you are a school owner, they've got some great discounts. So make sure you set up a wholesale account with them. Reach out, tell them we sent you. And make sure you're supporting the cool companies that are making cool stuff for.
Yeah, absolutely. I also like the fact that the front is black Because it's not in your face, you know, it's a cool thing this hoodie is very much in your face Absolutely. That's part of why people like it believe it or not. I'm more this sort of aesthetic Yeah, even though we make these sorts of things Because this is what people want. I am to a certain degree not our target demographic when it comes to apparel. Yeah. Yeah
But the other thing that I like about the Kataaro hoodie is the back bonsai. I don't know that it was designed to look like it. And in fact, when I think about it, it's not. But it's very similar to the Miyagi -Do bonsai, just the shape of it, which is kind of cool. And so I really, really dig that. It's got pockets. So I can sit here with my pockets. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, cool. Thank you, Kataaro. Appreciate your support. Let's talk about this last category, this last subtopic of apparel and that's functional apparel. How many of you put on jeans in the dressing room and you squat and you kick and you make sure that you can move in them? This is not an uncommon thing. And prior to stretch, getting put into denim. Yep.
Jeremy (17:25.88)
That was a big deal for a lot of us. Oh yeah. And you know, when I was a kid, it meant I was wearing bigger, baggier jeans. Or you shelled out tons of money and bought the Chuck Norris jeans. The Kicken jeans. The Kicken jeans. Yeah. Yeah. Those are cool. I've got a pair of the current iteration of those jeans. And they're nice. They're fine. But they don't look great.
And that was always the problem with the Keaton jeans is they didn't, they never fit me well. Yeah. I could, I never had a pair. But you know, you've got these here, which I don't know if you saw a little bit of stretch. And these do not, actually they might have a little bit. These are a pair of, these are probably the cheapest jeans I own. Most of my jeans have some stretch to them, but I'm not going to wear these most places. Yeah. Well one, because they're black and they're going to.
get really dirty really quickly. But most of my denim has some stretch. I don't wear button ups that restrict my movement, right? You ever get a button down shirt that, you know, really bunches up under under the arm and you're like, I can't I feel like I'm restricted here. Maybe you're at a formal event and you can, you know, it's good for keeping your arms by your sides. And that's about it. I have over the years shelled out a ton of money.
For custom shirts for those sorts of circumstances. I used to have to wear a shirt and tie every day. Mm -hmm and I Would like you mentioned with jeans I would go when I went to the store to put up to try out shirts like I would put it I would I would do this Yeah, you know, like how does this feel? You know wait for those listening. You just have to hear my arm movements Can I defend myself while wearing this clothing? Yeah, absolutely and this is where you know, I don't think we'll will quite
We're not gonna go into shoes, but we can at least acknowledge this is a difficult subject when it comes to footwear because aesthetic footwear especially high heels It's a whole other stuff. Yeah, whole other subject that we're not gonna get into but keep it in mind No, absolutely. Absolutely. And then even going so far as to like, okay, I need to wear a tie where I'm going but Do I want to make sure that I'm wearing my clip -on tie?
Jeremy (19:50.68)
I wasn't sure if you were gonna go there. I know people who refuse to wear full ties for that reason. The idea that this is a thing around my neck and it is knotted around my neck and it gives someone a very good handhold. Yep, absolutely. If I had to wear a tie in a...
In an environment where I was a little less confident, I would probably opt for a clip -on tie or a zipper tie. Those are cool too. You grab it, it's a zipper. It would still be a loop around your neck, but if somebody grabbed it and they pulled, it would just pull the zipper down. So it would then be a loop that's like this long as opposed to around your neck. That is better. Those are pretty cool. Because then you still have the tab in the back. So it looks as opposed to a clip -on tie, which doesn't always have that extra tab. For sure. Anyway.
So now we're going to turn it to you. What is your relationship with your clothing as it relates to martial arts? Do you try things on in the dressing room? Are you very insistent on certain fabrics or styles of clothing for your own safety? Do you tell the world, hey, you know, I'm a martial artist. I wear martial arts shirts and things all over the place. Or are you a little more conservative with it?
Do you consider what style of neckwear you're going to put on at a wedding? Yeah. You know, these, these are all important and very personal decisions. And I hope that you are considering them if nothing else. And as an aside, if this is a subject that you think about, especially the functional side of our day -to -day clothing, it's not a bad idea for you to do some training in that clothing. Yep.
We've talked about that before. Just another reminder there. Anything else from online? No, I think that's pretty good. Again, shout out to Kataro. Make sure you go to Kataaro .com. Remember that double A in the middle. K -A -T -A -A -R -O .com. Use the code WK10. That's capital letters. Save yourself 10 % on your first order. School owners, set up wholesale accounts. They're not going to cost you anything. You can see the better pricing. The pricing they have is already wonderful for the quality of what they deliver.
Jeremy (22:10.84)
Kataaro is not a bottom end company. They make great, great stuff. If you want to check out what we do, start at whistlekick .com. You can use...
The code podcast one five. I had to think for a moment what it was. I don't know why you didn't want to give the guitar That's right. I didn't I didn't want to distract from it. We do completely different things They do but check out this hoodie. This is an awesome hoodie You're not gonna find anything like this at whistlekick .com and whistlekick martial arts radio .com is the place to go for everything related to this show Okay, yeah, I think so you got feedback questions comments best place to leave them is in the Facebook group
martial arts radio, but you can also email us, andrewatjeremyatwhistlekick .com. Until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day.