Engineered for extreme environments. LUTA’s MMA performance long sleeve rash guard offers you even greater protection to keep you comfortable on the mat, in the gym or wherever else you want to test your limits. Quick drying super lightweight fabric offers a cool touch and six panel construction provides both compression and comfort while allowing for complete freedom of movement.   Antibacterial under arm panels guarantees additional ventilation to keep you, and the garment, fresher for longer, making it an ideal multipurpose undergarment or training top. LUTA’s MMA performance long sleeve rash guard will be available from Monday (14/11/2011), exclusively on the LUTA website.

High performance fight blog Into the fire has reviewed the Laser Tech Rash guard. Check out the review by clicking the link above. Alternatively see the product here

Big congratulations to Daniel Sam for his victory last night at Team Tieu's Super Muay Thai Championships in Kings X London. Daniel, the current British and European Super Heavyweight Champion and LUTA Ambassador stopped Greek challenger Thanasis Michaloudis in the third round with power punches and kicks to the body. I think we can expect great things from Daniel in the future, whether he stays with Muay Thai and K1 or looks further afield to the world of heavyweight boxing. I've done his pads a few times and can only be thankful I've never been a heavyweight who has to spar with him, he hits like he looks, hard!

Available in red and blue, LUTA's Boxing Speed Vest is a performance garment that’s been designed for boxing gym work and competitions. Designed with boxers, the vest’s contoured airtex panels provide increased expansion across the shoulders where maximum freedom of movement for throwing punches is required during training and during competitive fights. Ultra strength, performance flatlock seams also provide added durability, making this a vest which will go the distance! Antibacterial stretch airtex panels (white) not only offer the maximum amount of freedom when wearing a vest, but they also reduce the risk of odor or skin infection. Moisture management properties in the body fabric transport sweat away from the body (wicking) to keep the wearer cooler and dryer during a heavy work out or a hard fight.

Yet due to its construction and performance fabric, the Boxing Speed Vest is also a multi-purpose vest. Polyester body fabric provides snag resistance and its super soft feel material is extremely comfortable which enables it to be worn across a wide range of sports either for training or competition. Temperature control, wicking and freedom of movement designed for boxers also benefits athletes’ performance during hard work outs or competition in any other sport.

Since LUTA's launch, it's been put to the test in both boxing competitions in London’s East End and even a marathon in the Northern-West of France!

“I really enjoyed fighting in the strip. It looked good but most importantly it allowed me to move freely and kept me cool during the bout so I could get on with the job at hand!” Claudio Lopez, 6-0, who won by majority decision at last week’s Fight for Peace Amateur Boxing Show in East London last weekend.

"Boxing vest? Well, I'm no boxer but I ran my personal best last week at the Mont Saint-Michel marathon wearing my Luta Pro vest.  A Speed Vest indeed! It stands up to any running-specific top I’ve previously used. Lightweight, breathable, ‘wickable’, all you expect. Furthermore, my experience with vests and running is that while most are ok for short trots, when you get into serious endurance training you often end up with a underarm irritation from the rubbing on the stiches. The Luta vest is obviously well cut and none of that happened, so I was pleased". Anders Falconer, marathon runner
 
Great to see that the boxing vest performs well during endurance challenges - our congratulations goes out to Claudio and Andres and we wish them both all the luck with their future sporting events.

Here I am in the corner with Claudio Lopez, 6-0, at the Fight for Peace Amatuer Boxingh Show last weekend.

Testing LUTA with Britain’s elite Judo players

Back in late November or early December 2010 I headed down to visit my old stomping grounds at Team Bath. My purpose? To pressure test LUTA’s range with some of the best martial artists in the country.

Housed within Bath University, Team Bath is one of Britain’s elite training facilities. It is home to the likes of 2010 Olympic Bob Skeleton Gold medallist Amy Williams, the England Rugby team and GB’s 2008 Olympic flag barer in Beijing, the World Champion swimmer Mark Foster.

It’s also where I learnt my trade as an elite judo player. Team Bath is a recognised European centre of excellence for judo and the athletes there train up to six hours a day, five or six days a week in a highly professional environment. This professionalism leads to great results, on one memorable occasion for instance we single handedly defeated the All Japan University Judo team.

So when LUTA needed to test its fightwear and

training wear under real elite and high-performance conditions there was only one place I wanted to go…and that was back home.

Joining Joe from our design team we arrived in Bath just in time for the 10am technique class (where I was admonished for not bringing my judo suit but still got sucked into participating in the warm up before I managed to tear myself away and get my camera).

We handed out rash guards to a number of international level full-time judoka who wore them during a 1.5 hour long technical mat session. We then gave them a range of other products, (such as T-shirts, hoodies, MMA shorts, training shorts, prototype vests and more) and joined them for a two hour S&C [=strength and conditioning] session in the gym to see how they felt the products held up in that environment.

Finally, we sat down with them and did an evaluation. We got very valuable feedback on the range and it resulted in a few last minute adjustments to the prototypes so that we were 100% confident with our final products.

That is why I am so comfortable promoting LUTA, not just as the Fight Ambassador Manager but as an athlete. As you can see from earlier posts, the design process was extremely well thought through as was the market research phase. But to witness the thoroughness with which the clothing was put through its paces by full-time international level athletes was really impressive. For perfecting the final touches in the design this was a very positive experience and in a few weeks I’ll be heading back down to Bath to say thanks to the guys. (I’ll even try to get on the mat this time!). Watch this space for details! 

(p.s. I also noticed my old athlete profile is still on the Bath site…ah bless… http://www.teambath.com/2007/03/fergus-dullaghan/  - I’m not responsible for the poor grammar though ;)

SENI & and the later design phases.

Going to Seni 2010 was all about getting feedback from our primary market. We had an amazing response. We surveyed 350 people who came and looked at the range of clothing in its late sample stage. The feedback was very useful for informing the specifications on the final range.

We asked them what they thought was missing from the range, what they liked and what they didn’t. All in all we had an amazingly positive response. In fact, with people seeing and touching the apparel in person, we got an 84% intent to purchase.

It was also great to catch up with Royce Gracie at Seni and who hung out with us at the stand talking with other fighters, including Derek Williams, a former British, European and Commonwealth boxing champion and Tim Weatherspoon, the two time WBC world boxing champion. It was a great event and we are hoping to participate again in the future.

Interesting stats from the survey included the following:

• Respondents liked the fact that the brand was understated and didn’t use big flashy logos, the performance quality of the fabric and material was also important.
  
  
•  The biggest single group in the survey were MMA fighters at 66 people, closely followed by boxers (59) and BJJ (54).
  
  
• 99% of 467 responses on the first impressions the brand created were positive with the single biggest reason being….the style and quality of the apparel (177 people).

Check out the photos below

Luta Clothing: By fighters, for fighters!