Established in 1998, Sinister Brand is by far one of the most influential brands to ever grace the MMA scene by notably sponsoring top athletes like Anderson Silva, Chuck Liddell, Lyoto Machida and Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira and also releasing unique style and impeccable quality fightwear. We had the opportunity to sit down with Tavis Heinzelmann and ask him a few questions about how Sinister Brand got started and what we can expect in the future. Enjoy!

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What originally started out as a four design t-shirt company targeting freestyle motocross enthusiasts has now grown to become what founder and CEO, Al Borda, likes to call a “Sports Fashion” clothing brand, that is as much a clothing choice as well as a lifestyle choice. When he started Skin Industries in 1998, Borda quickly found that the interest in his brand far extended beyond freestyle motocross. His vision was to create a brand that was representative of the people who were wearing the clothes whether they be athletic competitors or the fans supporting the athletes and their craft. As a lifestyle brand, one of Skin Industries top priorities is to identify and adapt to all growing fashion trends both on and off the field, while at the same time creating their own unique style – a style “that supports both children and adults in their pursuit of enjoyment in all sports and all levels from amateur to professional.”

GT: How did The Skin Industries get started?

Al: I used to ride a lot of MX and a bunch of friends and I made a track outside of our warehouse and before you knew it, we were making graphic kits for Motorcycles, and a few tee’s and BAM, there it was.

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Since he entered the UFC octagon, Rich Franklin and American Fighter have been synonymous with each other. Initially, Damage Wear Inc. co-founder Jeff Adler approached Franklin as a sponsor, but the relationship eventually led to Franklin becoming a co-owner and the emergence of the American Fighter brand spawning from Damage Wear. Just as Franklin’s career has taken off inside the octagon, so too has the American Fighter brand outside of it. For Franklin, the sky is the limit as far as he is concerned. With a growing roster of fighters and product, Franklin took the time to discuss what his role is within American Fighter, what the brand is all about and where he would like to see it go in the future.

Gymtops: Your relationship with American Fighter began when co-owner Jeff Adler initially approached you as a sponsor. What initially attracted you to the company?

Rich Franklin: In the beginning “Damage Wear Inc.”, the corporate name of the apparel company was sponsoring me for local shows before I got into the UFC. After I got the call for my first UFC fight we got together and created the American Fighter name and from there I saw the potential of where this brand could go so we partnered up and here we are today.

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In our first ever interview, we persuade Noel Brooks, President of The Fight Mafia fame, to give us a few minutes out of his hectic schedule to answer a few questions about one of Canada’s premiere MMA apparel companies. The fight Mafia has sponsored top fighters like Sam Stout, Nate Quarry, The Diaz Brothers, Akiyama  and Dan Hardy.

Gymtops: How did The Fight Mafia get started?

Noel Brooks: People are generally surprised when I tell them. I have always been a huge fan of MMA and the UFC in general and have been interested in the sport since the early days. After watching on TV for well over a decade, I decided to travel to my first live event. That event was UFC 77 Hostile Territory in Cincinnati, Ohio and still to this day it is the most memorable event my eyes have ever seen. I was in awe of the whole weekend and I couldn’t believe how many MMA superstars I was able to meet just walking the streets of Cincinnati. One of those fighters being UFC Light-Heavyweight Houston Alexander.

After the event and one of the best weekends of my life, I returned home to Canada and researched on the internet some of the fighters I had met. At that time I stumbled across Houston Alexander’s official website and decided to email him. I stated that we had met in Cincinnati and I was interested in producing an entrance shirt for him which of course was a lie, but it was all I could come up with in order to possibly get a reply. I always had a fascination with MMA apparel especially the entrance shirts. My closet is full of fighter entrance shirts that have caught my eye.

One of my favorite parts of MMA events has always been what entrance music the fighters are going to choose and what kind of cool shirt are they going to come out wearing. A couple weeks went by since I sent the falsified email and I basically forgot all about it. Then one day I was resting in bed when my girlfriend woke me up stating that Houston Alexander was on the phone! I was shocked! He gave me his phone number and asked me to call him back later on that night. I rehearsed what I was going to say for a few minutes and called him back that night and basically faked being a MMA apparel company and said I was going to send him some gear and hopefully be able to provide him with his entrance shirt for his next fight. I was star struck and totally out of my element. After I hung up the phone, I basically saw this as an opportunity to start my own MMA apparel company which would be a dream come true for me. I quickly started to design a logo and came up with a name. Once I had a logo that matched well with the name I chose, I quickly put together a shirt design and had about 20 shirts made at a local screen-printing shop. The shirts were terrible! They were of such bad quality that I was truly embarrassed of them and figured I had really messed up. I virtually had no money to make any more shirts to improve on the ones I had already produced so I decided to send them to Houston anyways. Lets just say I have never heard form Houston since but I still keep his phone number just in case. Things have really changed since then but that’s how The Fight Mafia got started!

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