I think the fact that it’s niche can and will benefit me. There are some competitors but not a ton in the space. If I wanted to do like general sports apparel I feel it would be harder.
I look online and most martial arts based apparel just sucks. A lot of it is taking artwork from somebody else and putting it on a shirt. Others are just dumb designs with dragons and flames and shit.
My aim is to make something that’s just better. Yes these initial designs are very simple and minimal but I have plans for a lot more.
I preferred tap out and mma elite back in the day because the designs were simple. Looking at them now I think they got some inspiration from extreme metal band logos lol.
I haven’t considered putting fighters on shirts yet. Kind of feels like I’d be making money off of them though.
I’m not against it, but not sure how to go about it the right way.
I’m meeting with my artist tomorrow and I’ll ask him how good he is with self portraits. I have an idea of how to make a fighter’s face look cool and artistic.
Is there anyone else in the thread that would be willing to pay for shirt with a particular fighter in mind? This is new territory for me but if enough people are interested I might make this endeavor separate from Etsy for now until I get it figured out.