10 Years of HYPERFLY: Vol 4 - A Decade In Buisiness

The year of 2020 will go down in the history books for ages. Nearly every single person on the planet was affected by the global pandemic in some way, especially small business.

Fortunately, by that time we had been in operation for almost nine years and had established ourselves as a leader in the jiu-jitsu industry.

As it was for everyone, however, 2020 was a challenge. Our beloved time on the mats, along with competition, and most travel was put on pause while the world figured things out. This meant much of our growth was put on pause too.

But like most of us did, we kept on. Figuring out a way to adapt. In fact, the pandemic allowed us the opportunity to unite with the BJJ community to help some of those who were struggling. It’s always been a mission of ours at HYPERFLY to give back. Even in the face of COVID we still found a way.

It’s almost poetic that our “black belt” years, or roughly 10 years into business, came with the ultimate test - navigating the company through the ails of a pandemic.

As challenging as that time was, and still is in many respects, we were able to drop some incredible gear, collab with brilliant artists, and ultimately, keep moving forward into our second decade in business.

Here are some of the milestones of 2020 and 2021.

Black Belt Years (2020 - 2021)

We had developed a relationship with POW WOW creator and world-famous artist Jasper Wong in the months before the pandemic. Jasper created the graphics and art for a beautiful collection that we dropped in April of 2020.

Later that month we came up with the idea for the “Support Your Local Jiu Jitsu Club” Relief Fund to help raise money for BJJ schools that were in danger of closing due to the pandemic. We created limited edition gear, which we donated the profits from, and collected donations.

In collaboration with FloGrappling we were able to use our platforms to raise $5,000 to donate to Lionheart Jiu Jitsu Academy in Pasadena, CA. All of which wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing BJJ community and supporters like you. 

We all worked from home during this time, but when we were able, we made it back into the “new” workplace. 

We designed and created a high-quality mask and brought these to market as fast as we could to help stop the spread.

But once things started moving again we were able to announce something that we had been working on behind the scenes for years.

A truly unique opportunity.

We gained the rights to create our own original artwork inspired by the NBA Teams.

This resulted in the Katakana Collection.

We also connected with NTWRK, the streetwear drop platform, where we released the Katakana collection exclusively to their members.

We then partnered with Fanatics.com to sell the Katakana collection globally. In fact, HYPERPFLY became the best-selling NBA gear on NBA.com and Fanatics.com when it was released.

After nearly 10 years in business we had reached a new market and transcended the world of jiu-jitsu.

Our roots and commitment will always be with the jiu-jitsu community, and gis will always be the foundation of HYPERFLY, but reaching the global sportswear audience was a major milestone for us and something we plan to build on in the future.

We also got an incredible opportunity to collaborate with rising combat sports organization ONE Championship. This resulted in a limited release ONE x HYPERFLY collection including gis, rashguards, and shorts.

And we were lucky enough to get MMA legend DJ "Mighty" Johnson to be the face of the campaign!

In early 2021 we built on our relationships with the NBA, as well as Jasper Wong, and collaborated on a “Stop Asian Hate” inspired WNBA collection which dropped in May.

In the tumultuous period of 2020-2021 we were still able to raise money for some amazing causes through the YCTH. Foundation. Some of our efforts included the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, along with CalFire later that year.

We also raised money for ReOrg in 2021, and Stop Asian Hate. 

We also released a new staple to our gi collection, the Magnum, a 550gsm gold weave gi that fills the space between our light and midweight gis and our heavy-duty JudoFly - and added to The Gentle Art collection, with a limited release kimono and apparel.

Which brings us to September 2021, officially 10 years in business. We are extremely grateful for all of your support in helping us reach this milestone, and we can't wait to continue serving the BJJ community into the years ahead.

The next volume will include some of the ideas we have for the next 10 years.

In the meantime, thanks for sticking with us.

- Your HYPERFLY Family