Wear for tear
This duo created a craze
BROOKLINE - The Coolidge Corner Gym wasn't busy on a Wednesday afternoon this month, but even if the Harvard Street workout space had been packed to the gills, it would've been impossible not to notice Charles "Mask" Lewis.
Not only is Lewis imposing in stature, but with his tattooed body and his face painted like something out of "The Dark Knight," he couldn't help but stand out.
There was a time not long ago when Lewis and his partner, Dan Caldwell, were virtually invisible. The California natives, who were training in mixed martial arts in their garages, came up with the idea of a clothing line designed for what was then an underground sport. Lewis was the creative force, and Caldwell, who joined the venture within a year, had the business savvy. Lewis named the brand "TapouT," with the logo designed as an ode to his lifelong love of Batman.
They have parlayed it from a business of $30,000 in sales in 1999, the year they went on the books, to a projected $100 million this year as the sport has exploded in popularity. Caldwell said sales have grown 300-500 percent every year. But they are more than just salesmen of apparel. Their "TapouT" reality program - whose second season premieres at 10 tonight on Versus - not only pushes the brand but is a search vehicle for the next MMA star. The cast and crew were in town filming a feature on up-and-coming fighter Mike Campbell, whose segment is expected to air in the fall.
Lewis, who shares the reality show stage with Caldwell and a character known only as SkySkrape, said the business was started to represent a type of athletic clothing that wasn't available, incorporating edginess and adrenaline.
"That was back in 1993 after the first [Ultimate Fighting Championship]," said Lewis. "In 1997, I had the idea, and in 1998, I started TapouT clothing. There was no uniform that represented what we felt on the inside. There was no brand that meant mixed martial arts."
Early on, Lewis's dream of success far exceeded the results.
"I had delusions of grandeur," said Lewis. "I thought in six to eight months, we'd be millionaires. So I quit my job. I consequently lost my apartment, my 1995 Mustang that had 'Tapout' on the license plate, my Ninja motorcycle. I basically became homeless, and [Caldwell] was working two or three jobs and pushing the business aspect of it."
Lewis wound up renting a room in a home where SkySkrape lived, and SkySkrape used his brother's car to support Lewis's efforts to bring products to the MMA shows, while Lewis borrowed a friend's truck and would pitch their products to the local jiu-jitsu gyms.
"It was an underground sport that was just getting off the ground in the US," said Caldwell. "It had been around in Brazil for years. It was illegal in most states, maybe only legal in two or three states. The UFC was still around, but it was only doing shows in those states and it was available on pay-per-view. In 2001, Zuffa purchased the UFC for $2 million and went on a mission to make it a recognized sport. Ever since then, you see what it is now today."
Lewis said the attraction of MMA is the high level of energy and aggression.
"Anybody that watches NASCAR, adrenaline; football, adrenaline; hockey, adrenaline; boxing, adrenaline," he said. "Whatever is driving you to want to watch those sports, it's going to drive you to want to watch mixed martial arts. And if nothing else, out of curiosity."
Caldwell said the level of fitness of mixed martial arts athletes incorporates so many different disciplines that even if you don't like it, you have to respect it.
"There is so much more to it [than individual sports]," said Caldwell. "You have to have wrestling, you have to have conditioning, you have to have jiu-jitsu, you have to have stand-up boxing and kick boxing, and then have time to train all that and put it all together. If you can't do all that, you're not going to make it in the sport."
