We weren't looking for a shop... we were trying to find somewhere to put the boxes.
The Fight Stor(E)Y – Chapter 4
By 2010, the little office above Cyclone MMA had become a bit of a problem.
Actually…. Calling it an office was probably being generous.
Truth is that the "Office" It was a tiny room above a working MMA gym that was somehow trying to be:
A website office, a stock room, a packing station and a place to answer customer calls.
Then occasionally... somewhere to actually run the gym business. The boxes of stock were everywhere and increasing on a weekly basis. On top of that we had incoming stock which was going to obliterate what little room we had left. The boxes were beginning to be in the gym reception area, where guys often got changed. It was a mess.
The funny thing was, we'd started FightStoreMMA because we wanted to build something for fighters. Now the fighters couldn't even get into parts of the gym because we'd filled them with stock.
Terry was still in London, helping where he could from a distance wherever he could, but when he came up to visit and saw the situation, he just looked around the room and said in his unmistakable London accent...
"Bleeeeding hell mate... you're like a sardine in 'ere!"
He wasn't wrong.
Something had to change.
The obvious answer was a warehouse. Somewhere to store stock, pack orders and continue growing the website. But then an unexpected opportunity appeared.
A retail unit became available in Newgate Shopping Centre in Newcastle. Now Newgate shopping centre was rundown but it was in central Newcastle and it had a big glass shop window. To this day in many ways it was the most ideal looking store we'd ever had.
Opening a shop had never really been the plan. We were an online business. But the retail unit had one thing we desperately needed… Space. It had a really big storeroom downstairs.
The thinking was simple:
"Why not have somewhere customers can collect from and somewhere to keep the stock?"
Almost by accident, FightStoreMMA became a physical store. And then something happened that changed everything.
People started coming in. Not just to buy equipment. To ask questions. To talk about training. To discuss fights. To find out which gloves they should buy. To meet other people from the local fight scene.
Within the first month, the store was already covering the difference between the retail rent and what we would have paid for warehouse space. But the biggest discovery wasn't financial.
We realised FightStore wasn't just a website.
It wasn't even just a shop.
It was becoming somewhere the fight community could meet.
And that little shop in Newgate Shopping Centre — a place that no longer even exists — was where FightStore truly became what it is today.
A store built around people.
Know someone who trains, fights or is thinking about starting?
Send them this chapter of the story.
The fight community grows when people introduce people.
Next week...
One brand changed the direction of FightStore forever.
And it started with a pair of famous scowling eyes...
