MMAWarehouse's Mika Casey Interviewed By MMA Opinion
February 24, 2009
MMA Opinion’s Michael Hatamoto speaks with MMAWarehouse.com’s Mika Casey. Casey is something of a kingmaker in the MMA apparel business, as his website is looked at as the industry leader for distribution of MMA apparel. Casey details the rapid ascent of his company as MMA has broken out into the mainstream since the advent of the The Ultimate Fighter television series. He notes that even in the current state of the economy, he sees large gains this year:
“We have grown nearly 100% year over year every year since then and due to the economy, this will probably be the first year that we grow a little less than that — but we’ll still grow and we’re thankful to be in such a resilient industry,” Casey said. MMAWarehouse first started in Casey’s house, then moved into a warehouse, into a bigger warehouse, and the company is ready to move into a bigger warehouse one more time.
The increased sponsorship opportunities for both the company and the fighter are noted, as well as a need for a more uniform approach and greater professionalism. This has opened up opportunities for people like friend of MMAPayout.com Dean Albrecht, who serves as a liaison between the two parties:
Although MMAWarehouse sponsors a large number of fighters, the company no longer deals directly with fighters — mainly due to “inconsistency” with the look and placement of the ad. “Now, with rare exception, we work solely with Dean Albrecht,” we learned. “He always delivers 110% on the sponsorship side which leaves his fighters to focus no what’s most important: winning their fights. We both like fighters that are stand up people, hard workers, and highly skilled — guys like Joe Lauzon, Demian Maia, Frank Mir, Joe Stevenson, and Miguel Torres just to name a few.”
