Tag: MMA Media News

Former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber and partner Mark Miller helped to create the FORM Athletic clothing company earlier this year based in Laguna Beach, Calif..

The MMA News recently had a chance to speak to both Urijah (click HERE for that interview) and Miller about the company.

Just last week it was announced that sneaker giant K-Swiss had acquired the clothing company, MMAFighting.com had the news.

Form will continue to operate as a division under the publicly traded K-Swiss. Previously the CEO, Miller remains on board as president and will also head K-Swiss’s new Orange County division with a focus towards youth consumers.

Here’s our interview with Mark.

You and Urijah Faber both founded Form Athletics, how did this company come about and what was
your inspiration?
I’ve been a senior executive at a few lifestyle apparel companies in the course of my career, the last one being DC shoes. Much of our growth came on the heels of our athletes appearing on television with TV shows season after season. MMA is on TV more than almost any other sport and the viewership numbers are fantastic. I used to watch the fights and dream about the business opportunity. When I left DC in July 09, I started working on a plan the next week. When I met Urijah it all came together and we started FORM Athletics.

You are quite the entrepreneur having worked for several clothing companies such as Triple M Apparel, K2 Inc, and DC Shoes. Could you compare your experiences working with those companies and that of being the CEO of Form Athletics?
Most of my career has been spent working in the winter and action sports industries that cater to a 10-19 year old consumer, and MMA is more about a 19-34 year old male consumer. There are big differences in the mindset of the consumers between action sports and MMA, but some common business principles that translate. The way I see it, all those action sports kids grow up and then we get them at FORM Athletics.

Your past experience has been in the Skateboard and Snowboard industries amongst other things, is Form Athletic more of a MMA based brand or is the demographic still the Skateboard and Snowboard crowd?
FORM Athletics definitely caters toward a 19-34 year old athletic male customer which is not the action sports kid. We think that there are downlines to different consumer groups that FORM Athletics will be able to access – wrestling, general fitness, training, etc.

Do you see similarities between the rise of mixed-martial-arts clothing and that of skateboarding and snowboarding apparel?
Not really, there are some similar requirements but the style and the quality levels are totally different. 19-34 year old men tend to be brand loyal and they care about the quality of a garment, where a 15 year old kid for the most part wants to be cool at school and would wrap himself in a garbage bag if it elevated his status with his peers.

Would you describe yourself as a fan of the sport of mixed martial arts?
Yes, a HUGE fan.

How has the experience of working with Urijah Faber and the MMA community been for you?
I have worked with some of the best action sports and athletes in the world and Urijah is at the top of my list, he possesses something unique and special and I know that partnering up with him was a very smart move.

What other projects are you currently working on aside from Form Athletics?
When I left DC shoes, I joined the board of a company called BillMyParents, which is a youth payment system for teens and tweens to shop online without a credit card. Rob Dyrdek, Travis Pastrana, and Ryan Sheckler are endorsing the company. It’s a fun project.

Is there anyone you would like to thank?
My wife for supporting me and putting up with me, my daughters for watching the fights with me. My team at FORM for believing in the brand and joining the company, and of course Urijah.

We have some very exciting things happening in the near future: the new tee shirt line breaks in July, all of our fighters fight in August, we are at UFC EXPO and MAGIC, we are working on a high performance range of compression training apparel for spring, new short fabrications. Some cool stuff with some TV & movie people, and a HUGE deal that we can’t talk about until it happens.

**Obviously the “HUGE deal” was the companies acquisition by K-Swiss and with the backing of a large company such as that, fans could see more fighters wearing the FORM Athletics brand in the cage.