Friday, January 13, 2012

Business in BJJ: Transparency in Gi Marketing

Saw a nice example of it today...



The approach is pretty common on the blog and instructional fronts, but less-so on the apparel side. A video to announce backorders? Why not just a Tweet, FB post and a couple emails?

I remember when the most recent Storm gi went on backorder...one of the guys at the gym was royally annoyed. Jiu jitsu folk love their equipment and they want it yesterday. I know even finding out a random pair of shoes is going to cost me another month of waiting sets me on edge.

Watching the Datsusara video though, I'd like to think the informal video, (and the fact they took the time to actually make a video just to announce a backorder), took some of the edge off. 

2 comments:

slideyfoot said...

Chris seems like a cool guy, judging from what he's said on Facebook and the personal correspondence I've had with him. I hope they've sorted out the stitching issues with the next batch of gis, as once that is solved, I think Datsusara could really make an impact on the gi market. The hemp fabric is great.

If OTM are helping with the cut, that's good news too (as the HCG-02 was really baggy), although I'm not a big fan of Lucky given their enormous price tags and flashy styling. Hopefully Datsusara doesn't massively the increase the cost and patch/embroidery quantity as a result.

Megan said...

I was kind of curious about the pricing myself regarding which of their two markets they'll play toward. Their pricing and image are on two different levels. The collaboration is going to be very interesting.