Interviews Archives - Page 2 of 3

May 11, 2020April 28, 2016 by Gi Admin

Interview with the mind behind Yolo BJJ, Eric York

I’m pretty pumped to share with you a super in-depth interview with the President of Yolo BJJ, Eric York.

GiReviews: Tell us a bit about your background with martial arts.

Eric York: I stated training in Shorin Ryu Karate in my early twenties but it just didn’t stick. It, honestly just wasn’t challenging, but one thing I did learn was the RNC (albeit, not with great detail) in one of our basic self defense classes.

About five years later I was attacked at my vehicle late one night when leaving work. I was able to duck under a swing and get behind my attacker and apply the RNC. The next day (this was back in mmmmm…maybe 1996?) a coworker who was training some submission grappling heard the story and asked me to come train with them.

I was hooked immediately.

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May 11, 2020February 18, 2016 by Gi Admin

Inside the Minds of Lazy Lover Jiu Jitsu

1. Tell us a bit about your background with martial arts.

We are active Jiu Jitsu players, who roll for joy and competition.

As long time competitive athletes across a range of sports, we enjoy the unique challenges Jiu Jitsu presents to our bodies and our minds. With professional careers in fitness and creative design, we’ve applied our knowledge of sport and strategy to Lazy Lover Jiu Jitsu.

Check out prices on these BJJ gi brands at MMA Overload

May 11, 2020January 12, 2016 by Gi Admin

You may have noticed some amazing new rashguards and gis that have come out lately from Fusion FG (Check out our review of their latest gi here). We even had a chance to do a pretty rad giveaway with them.

I wanted to get inside the mind behind the INCREDIBLE designs, licensing, and branding that Fusion has been doing so I got ahold of Chris Stepchuk, the mastermind behind everything they’re doing.

January 18, 2022November 12, 2015 by Gi Admin

A Brief Interview with Bob from Fluxk BJJ

GiReviews: Tell us a bit about your background with martial arts.

Bob: Uh, let me think. It’s been 10+ years and a lot of experiences but I’ll try to be succinct.

I actually took Karate when I was a little kid just long enough for my parents to buy all the gear and then quickly moved onto something else; my ADHD in full force. I’m sure they were thrilled!

Formally, I began training Jiu Jitsu while a student at the University of Illinois. The club I started with was called Goshin Jitsu. It was a great intro into martial arts with knowledgeable instructors and a great group of people. They really stressed fundamentals (e.g. break falls, footwork, timing, etc), which I think is key to any endeavor.

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May 11, 2020January 20, 2015 by Gi Admin

Interview with the minds behind Deus Fight Co.

I am super pumped to be able to share with you guys a quick interview that I did with Deus Fight Co. Being a man that shares their beliefs, I was really interested to hear more about how they started the company, their background, and the MASSIVE amount of charity work that they do.

Don’t get left behind! Shop for the latest BJJ gis at Amazon!

May 11, 2020October 8, 2014 by Gi Admin

This edition of our Interview Series features Seymour Yang.

I’ve known *of* Seymour for just about as long as I’ve known him. As one of the most prolific BJJ artists and bloggers, Seymour (aka Meerkatsu), is one of the most helpful and engaging people I’ve met in the online BJJ world.

It’s been my absolutely pleasure to have had him on board with my brand, Ok! Kimonos, from the beginning. So, obviously, I think it goes without saying how much I think of him if I’m willing to pay him to create (and continue to create!) so much amazing art for my brand.

Show your support for Meerkatsu — shop for their products at Amazon!

May 11, 2020August 11, 2014 by Gi Admin

Patches O’Toole is an awesome up and coming brand out of the UK with sharp designs and high quality BJJ Lifestyle goods. I wanted to find out more about the brand and their owner, Aengus Ryan, so I reached out for an interview.

Aengus happily obliged and I’m going to pretend it’s because I didn’t ask the same boring interview questions. In the short interview below, I can guarantee you’ll learn something new about the man behind Patches O’Toole. Enjoy!

December 22, 2021January 29, 2014 by Gi Admin

Ctrl Industries Journeyman Gi Preview and Q&A with Blayne Barlow

Recently I corresponded with Blayne Barlow, owner of Ctrl Industries, and make of one of my favorite gis, the Rook. A while back I posted a comparison photo on our Facebook page because I noticed that Ctrl and Shoyoroll were both coming out with Raiders inspired gis at the same time. I was curious as to what everybody thought about each of them and I got a really cool comment:

Brendon Barlow (awesome first name if I do say so) made a great point. While it wasn’t my intention to suggest one copied the other, it did make me realize that these two brands are absolute professionals. Lots of startup brands are rushing their concepts and design and you can definitely tell in their product (myself included).

But people like Blayne don’t.

It got me wondering exactly how long it takes for him to work on a concept and where he got his inspiration for his upcoming gi, the Journeyman.

Shop for your favorite BJJ gis at Hypnotik

May 11, 2020January 27, 2014 by Gi Admin

http://gireviews.net/mmawh-scramble-athlete2

I recently had the chance to correspond with the one of the owners of Scramble, Matt Benyon (whom we also interviewed for our podcast ages ago). I asked him a few questions about one of his upcoming gis, The Yamato which is being made in Japan. Without the VAST majority of gis being made in Pakistan (including Scramble) and China, I was curious as to why Matt wanted to change it up for this release.

To Order

[UPDATE: This gi is no longer available]

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May 1, 2020September 9, 2013 by Gi Admin

About Roll Jiu Jitsu

Roll Jiu Jitsu is a BJJ apparel brand out of Ireland. They contacted us about doing a review and we are super glad we got our hands on their stuff. Since I recently moved to Wisconsin the delivery of sweatshirts in their care package was extremely welcome.

We got Two sweatshirts, a t-shirt, some stickers and a patch, seen below.

My favorite piece of apparel I was sent was their dark-gray crew neck sweat shirt. I have a ton of BJJ inspired hoodies so a sweatshirt was a welcome change. The first thing that pops out at you is the ROLL logo. If you’re familiar with Obey you’d recognize the style of the typography as it clearly gets its inspiration from current street wear. It’s nice seeing clean and crisp logos being used in BJJ.

Interviews