The Fightwear Brands, and the One That Isn't

Every gym in the world has a corner where the bags are dropped. Look into that corner and you will see the same names, in many languages, on every continent.

These are the fightwear brands. They have earned their place.

The houses of the mat

Fairtex began in Bangkok, in the world of Muay Thai, and became a standard for gloves, pads and shorts in gyms far from Thailand. Many trainers still reach for it first.

Venum grew with modern MMA. Its fight shorts and gloves are seen in the cage at the highest level, and on beginners in their first month. For many people, it is the first MMA clothing brand they ever buy.

Hayabusa built its name on engineering: gloves designed around the wrist and the hand, gear tested by fighters who use it every day.

Shoyoroll made the jiu-jitsu gi something to collect, released in small batches and waited for.

There are many others. Old boxing houses. Small makers of gis in Brazil and Japan. Local brands that dress one city's fighters and no one else's.

Each of them answers the same question: what does the body need in training? Protection. Grip. Durability. Freedom to move. They answer it well.

What they are for

Fightwear is built to be used hard. Shorts that open at the hip for a high kick. Rash guards that survive a hundred washes. Gloves that hold their shape after a thousand rounds.

It is honest clothing. It is not trying to be anything else.

Part of that honesty is the logo. A fightwear brand belongs on the mat, in the cage, in the ring, where its name means something to everyone present. It is printed large because in that room it is understood.

The other hours

The training session lasts two hours. The day has twenty-four.

A person who trains seriously spends most of his life outside the gym. At work. At home. At dinner. At a wedding. In a hotel lobby. On a flight.

In those places, fightwear is out of its element. Not because it is lesser, but because it was made for somewhere else. A Venum shirt at a restaurant is like a pair of football boots on a dance floor. Good boots. Wrong floor.

For a long time, this left a fighter two choices. Wear the gym into rooms it was not made for. Or dress like everyone else, as though the training did not exist.

The one that isn't

KANNA KOLLA is not a fightwear brand. It makes nothing for the mat. No gloves, no shorts, no gis.

It is a clothing house for the hours after training. T-shirts and similar pieces, designed in Italy, in materials chosen per piece. Sometimes cashmere. Made in limited numbers. Never discounted. Shipped worldwide.

The name comes from Konakhalla, the code of the noble man. Restraint. Modesty. Respect. A word that is kept. These are things every martial art teaches, under one name or another, and they do not stay in the gym.

Choosing a fightwear brand

Ask an experienced trainer which fightwear brand to buy, and the answer is rarely a name. It is a question back. What do you train? How often? Where do your hands hurt? Which shorts let you kick without thinking about them?

The right gear is the gear that disappears during the round. Fit before colour. Function before name. Most fighters end up with a mix: gloves from one house, shorts from another, a gi from a small maker someone recommended.

Side by side

There is no competition here. The bag in the corner holds the fightwear. The fighter, leaving, wears something else.

One is for the work. The other is for what the work made of him.

Both are needed.

For those who train.