MMA Payout had the opportunity to speak with Mark Mastrandrea about his company Cagehero. Founded in 2010 along with Ian Parker, Cagehero t-shirt designs are not the usual MMA brand of skull and crossbones design.
MP: When was Cagehero established? How long have you been in business? Where are your offices?
CH: Ian Parker and myself, Mark Mastrandrea, founded Cagehero in the spring of 2010. Cagehero is headquartered in New York City with members in California and Florida.
MP: Where did you get the concept? Inspiration? Are you comic book fans?
CH: Ian and I have been best friends since we were 3 years old. Ian was a former amateur MMA fighter and comic book fan and I have previous experience with apparel and marketing. When we came up with the name Cagehero, we conceptualized a brand that would mash together the MMA world and comic book world.
MP: Who does the designs? Who draws the characters, decides on the t-shirt design, etc?
CH: All the characters are conceptualized by myself and Ian. The characters/designs are done by our in-house design team.
MP: Did you see a niche for your designs in MMA? Did you conduct any market research to see if people would want to purchase your shirts?
CH: In a space where most of the clothing is aesthetically based around skulls, bones, violence and cluttered design, we saw an opening. We wanted to create a brand with clean designs and a certain level of innocence, a brand that any age could wear. We wanted to not only stay in our own lane aesthetically, but also message wise. We inspire through our mantra “The Hero comes from within.”
Character driven shirts have been successful in an array of different markets and ages. If you look at anything for the youth, like Dora the Explorer and Hello Kitty, all the way up to the older age with Anime and Marvel designs. We’ve found many MMA fighters are big fans of comic books and superheroes as well. What fighter wouldn’t want to represent a superhero?
MP: I understand that Cung Le was your first MMA sponsored fighter? Did you contact him, or did he contact you?
CH: When it was time to start putting together our Cagehero Roster, Ian reached out to Zinkin Entertainment. After speaking with DeWayne Zinkin and Bob Cook, we came to the conclusion that Cung Le would be a great ambassador of the brand. Zinkin and Cook reached out to their client, and Cung asked to speak with Ian before signing. After hours of telephone conversation between the two, Cung felt at home with the brand and knew it was something to believe in.
MP: Is there a process when you sponsor fighters? How do you select fighters to sponsor?
CH: We always look to sponsor fighters with a certain level of character and charisma. We don’t want the fighters to just wear the shirt, we want them to believe in the brand and become a part of the Cagehero family.
MP: Which organizations can you find fighters sponsored by Cagehero? Any chance Cagehero ever appears in the UFC?
CH: We predominately sponsor fighters in Strikeforce – Cung Le, Mayhem Miller, Luke Rockhold, Daniel Cormier, Josh Thomson, Miesha Tate, Gian Villante, Lavarr Johnson, Mike Kyle. We also sponsor Bellator champ Ben Askren, and Brett Weedman. We recently signed UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell to endorse our brand at UFC events as well. As far as the move to the UFC… I guess you will have to wait and see!!
MP: What has been the response to your designs? Have you received any suggestions that you have used?
CH: Feedback has been great. People tell us it is refreshing to a see a different brand that actually stands for something. We are always open to suggestions from everybody. Our fighters love to give insight into the characters they wear for their walkout as well.
MP: What is your biggest selling t-shirt?
CH: Our biggest selling shirt is our signature logo shirt “The Glow”. This has been a hit for people of all ages. Our Cagehero character shirt “The Fire” has gotten great response too.
MP: How has the business grown since you opened?
CH: We have steadily grown our business since day 1. Just last weekend at Magic we broke into an additional 22 stores.
MP: What ways do you market Cagehero aside from sponsorship of fighters? Ads? Social media, etc.?
CH: Sponsoring fighters to become ambassadors of our brand, both in and outside the cage, is our primary form of marketing. We have advertisements in industry magazines/websites, and social media marketing on FB/twitter. We are currently producing some viral videos and developing a full-feature comic book. You also could see our brand in the video game EA Sports MMA, as well as MMA Supremacy (releasing this summer) Over the next 6 months we will be implementing a marketing program to the youth and comic book world. Also, a collaboration with a well known Street wear brand.
MP: What are the long-range plans? Any plans of expansion? Other products, etc.?
CH: Our long-term plan is to become the next Marvel. We want our brand to spread outside of the MMA world, to connect with the comic book world, and also with youth across the world. We are in the process of developing our comic book and are in talks for action figures and our own video game. We are working hard to create our own world, with in depth stories behind each of the characters. To get an idea, go to cagehero.net and download our online catalog on the bottom left!
We are rolling out more products as we speak!
Check us on Facebook: CAGEHERO, Twitter: @cagehero, Website: cagehero.net
Jose Mendoza says
Great interview! They definitely made their name known last year sponsoring fighters all over the place.
Jon Baltis says
Interesting article, written well…these guys are onto something.
Matt C. says
I don’t want to distract to much away from Cagehero with this because this is a great spotlight on them and what they are doing but on the topic of sponsorship I noticed something during the UFC event on Versus last night.
I noticed FullTilt Poker was back as a sponsor last night. Was that in partnership with the UFC or Versus? and what changed that allowed them to get back on UFC broadcasts?
Again sorry for distracting from Cagehero but wanted to ask the question before it slipped my mind.
Kelsey Philpott says
Those presenting sponsorships are often part of media buy agreements with the network. In addition to some tale of the tape stuff, they also ran a few advertisements (if I’m not mistaken, I had the DVR going last night).
Verizon paid for a similar arrangement with Spike TV on January’s FFTT card. Thus, I don’t think the UFC has too much control here (despite the fact that Full Tilt has been banned from the Octagon).
Matt C. says
Thanks for the info.