Affliction Clothing Clarifies Their Brand's Positioning In MMA
December 5, 2008
Tom Atencio of Affliction feels that there are some misconceptions about his brand in relation to MMA and he took the opportunity to air and correct these wrong perceptions in his appearance on Fox News FightGame. This wasn’t the first time Atencio has tried to set the record straight as to the role of MMA gear in the overall Affliction product mix, as he spoke with the LA Times in September on the issue:
Tom Atencio, a former MMA fighter and vice president of Affliction Clothing, bristles at pigeon-holing it as a fight brand, stressing that only 20% to 25% of sales at the Seal Beach company come from MMA-related merchandise, with the rest from men’s and women’s denim, eyewear, shirts, footwear and accessories sold at stores such as Metropark, the Buckle and Nordstrom
The interesting thing to me about Affliction has been their ability to take their own lifestyle brand and marry it to the concept of and almost become the definition of the MMA lifestyle brand. A lot of the imagery having to do with what we see on so much MMA gear – skulls, wings, snakes, gothic imagery – has little if any inherent connection to mixed martial arts. There are a few brands of apparel that have explicit ties to the sport itself, like say a Hurt Clothing that emphasizes many of the techniques used in the sport, but for the most part the clothiers emphasize the “MMA Lifestyle” aspect. Tom Attencio notes in the interview that their brand was very much a rock and roll and tattoo culture oriented brand that moved into the MMA space. While the Affliction people take their lumps from folks for their MMA Promotional efforts (rightly or wrongly so), they have been very keen in the MMA space branding and marketing efforts. If their brand does cool with MMA audience, they seem to have shown a portability of their brand that would extend out the life cycle of their t-shirt business.
