Wow!!! Im really excited to see ONX up on the forum. I had a friend reach to me and let me know there was a forum focused on equipment. I have never been on the sherdog forum before and have to apologize to sherdog. After stating that, i have never been on any forum before. lol. I am now a member and looking forward to creating some great discussions around the sport we all love and share together.
I want to start by introducing myself ::
My name is Trevor Wittman. I have been involved in martial arts almost my whole life. I was intrigued by the sport as I loved fight movies and ninja movies from the age of 5. Yes I wanted to be a ninja and used to run around my neighborhood in full ninja outfit. I was introduced into kenpo karate at the age of 6, then boxing at the age of 13 and competed in both. My amateur boxing venture was halted when I was 20 due to a lung injury.
I then picked up a pair of mitts and started coaching boxing one year later. I have been coaching and owning gyms for the last 20 years. It has been the most amazing journey I could have ever asked for. I am still coaching, but only 4 athletes at the moment. I will always coach but only as a hobby and not as a profession as I have reached all the goals I had set in place as a coach.
Last November I sold my gym Grudge so I could focus on my new venture in ONX Sports.
I have been critiquing equipment for a long time. I have been cutting mitts open for about 10 years and re-foaming them, then lacing them back up. Why because I was always dealing with the pains involved as a coach.
The day I realized I was going to rethink equipment:
I was coaching Shane Carwin when he got the call to face Frank Mir for the interim title because Brock Lesnar was pulled because of an intestinal infection he was dealing with. We were excited with the opportunity. In our first sparring session Shane was sparring with Brendan Schaub when he hit Brendan's forehead and injured his right hand. How did the injury happen? He had the best sparring gloves the market had. They were winning. Yes winning. I truly believe winning is the best glove on the market. I have been ordering from Kazamichi for many years and I was the one to recommend the gloves to Shane. The issue is not the glove, not the material, not the foam, not the shape. It was that they don't fit Shane. He would put his hands in the gloves, he could not make a perfect fist because of the size. There are less than 10% of companies out there that are making different sizes. I am talking sizes, not oz. The norm in the fight game when it comes to sizing is by oz. Sparring gloves range on an average from 12oz.-20oz. How did he hurt his hand? He punched a forehead with a the weak knuckles (phalanges knuckle joints) not with the power knuckles (metacarpal knuckle joints). This was not a break but ligament and carpomatacarpal joint or CMC. This is when the stretch of the ligament is stretched past the point of extension length because not being able to pack a fist causing injury. This causes not being able to pack a fist with out lots of pain, and not being able to grip with out lots of pain. Lots of doctor terms here and yes it is hard to understand. The point is we were then training like a we were entering a fitness contest to cater to the present injury and not trying like a fighter. Not great for the mental part of entering championship competition.
Testing Coaching Equipment:
5 years ago I borrowed my mom's sewing machine so I could start making mitts to see how hard it would be to make some mitts for myself. I wanted to make them the way how I thought they should be made, and I still have them and get a good laugh showing them to people as the first product that was made in my basement. I sold my first pair of custom mitts after 6 months of finding a new passion in being a seamstress. I found out a little later that the correct name is seamster, for a man that sews. lol. I felt better saying that. I am still dumbfounded that mitts don't have a right or left?? That is a very common sense thing to me that the equipment industry could use some rethinking. 5 years later I have my custom coaching equipment in 6 countries, and on coaches like Duane Ludwig, Henri Hooft, Mark Henri, Brandon Gibson, which I am very proud of. I make them in my basement.
My first production of boxing gloves:
3 years ago I decided I was ready to make my first boxing gloves. So I took all my experiences and ideas, bought all the gloves that I liked and went to meet with a manufacturer. In our meeting I threw all the gloves down on the table and said to my manufacturer, "Lets use these amazing materials of the Winning glove, the easy fist grip of the Reyes fight glove, the thumb like the grant glove," and so on. We got the prototypes and I was not really excited but the manufacturer insisted he would fix the little changes that needed to be made. I remember the day the shipment arrived and it was like Christmas. It turned out being like Christmas for a naughty naughty little boy. 300 high quality gloves that were bread with all the the best gloves in my opinion in the market at that time. It was one of the BEST learning lessons I have ever learned, and a lesson that I knew as a coach. Never try to be something or do something that you are not. I did what every other equipment companies that were doing that were not on the list of top 10 equipment companies. I was knocking stuff off and saying do it like them, and like them, and put my logo here. It was about colors and look and logo placement. I had to stop everything I was doing and do like I did with the mitts. Note the problems focus on solutions and start testing and educate my self on manufacturing my own gloves in my basement. Its amazing how much respect I have for people who manufacture products because it is one of the most challenging things I have ever done, when it comes to drawing out new patterns finding the correct equipment that is used for manufacturing hard goods. Leaning through is experience is one of the coolest ways to learn. Yes it is fun, but never smooth or easy. Side note, those 300 high quality gloves that I had manufactured are collecting dust in a warehouse.
ONX Sports first product that has gone to market:
After the many learning how to make a boxing glove in my basement, we now have a patent pending new technology that I am so honored to bring to market. The technology is the strapping system that is stitched across the back of the gloves. It is under the leather and under one layer of foam and on top of the main internal foam. What does this do? It is not for decoration in any sense even though it came out looking pretty cool. Selling cool is not in our model but being effective and solution base is our direct chase. When pulling on the straps it leverages the the internal foam to the back of the hand and wrist to create a support system that is much like pinching a professional glove with the laces. This is no longer allowed by the commission because after consistent moving of the wrist, will cause the tape to roll back and expose the laces. This will cause a halt in the bout so the gloves will be retied and reaped. I built this glove around the pitching process, because the benefits helps support and stabilize the hand and fist. Less injuries, more action, more leverage, more entertainment, more effective. We will be releasing a competitive glove in the future and the lace up is being tested at the moment but, our main focus is the training glove because of the needless injuries caused in training. At least if the fighter injures his hand in a fight it is covered by insurance, which its hard for a fighter to get coverage outside the competition because of the profession. The straps are also for sizing. This will do away with all of the headspace in the training gloves that are made to be one size fits all. I have never been 100% comfortable in training gloves because I have small hands and my hands swim around in training gloves. For sizing we also added heat moldable foam so you can heat the gloves up get a tailored fit and shape to the gloves. I will not come on hear and say we have the perfect glove, because after making this glove it has only opened my mind to the little changes and new thoughts that come to mind when creating something. We are not even close to the highest priced gloves in the market, but we are thinking differently and focused on getting what you pay for. We are also trying to build trust in the industry by creating a testers subscription. The testers subscription is a month to month payment plan for the gloves, that opens up a communication with us and the consumer on getting true feedback through the program. If the gloves were to fault through the program we will send a brand new pair of X-Factor gloves of the newest model to date with a box and shipping label for the faulted gloves to be shipped back to us. Again this is just the beginning and want to team up with the true consumers and learn as we go through true experiences. You will be sent a new pair of gloves every year if you want to continue the tester subscription. We sold out in our first production through pre-orders, and the second production is in process at the moment and taking pre-orders for the next run at the moment. Check it out.
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http://onxsports.com/products/x-factor-gloves-pre-order
We have other patents and products in testing stage and really looking forward to launching the best sport in the world.
ONX Sports
We Believe Champions are Honed, not Born.
What Hones You
