Affliction's transition from non-endemic to authentic MMA brand

MMA Payout has some excellent analysis on Affliction and their role in the MMA industry:

The interesting thing to me about Affliction has been their ability to take their own lifestyle brand and marry it to the concept of and almost become the definition of the MMA lifestyle brand. A lot of the imagery having to do with what we see on so much MMA gear - skulls, wings, snakes, gothic imagery - has little if any inherent connection to mixed martial arts. There are a few brands of apparel that have explicit ties to the sport itself, like say a Hurt Clothing that emphasizes many of the techniques used in the sport, but for the most part the clothiers emphasize the “MMA Lifestyle” aspect. Tom Attencio notes in the interview that their brand was very much a rock and roll and tattoo culture oriented brand that moved into the MMA space.

My take
I hadn't ever thought about that, but it's a very, very interesting point. I can't think of another instance in which a non-endemic brand has jumped in and defined the aesthetics of a subculture like this... if I'm wrong (which is entirely likely), please post a comment. I remember when I heard that Affliction was working with fighters, and it seemed really odd to me because I only knew them as a fashion brand.

I think Affliction was able to be so successful because they entered MMA at a point in which there were no really strong clothing brands. Tapout was there, of course, but they've never been very strong in terms of design or marketing. Their strength was simply awareness: they'd been down since day one and sponsored everybody. When Affliction came in, though, Tapout couldn't hold a candle to them in terms of design, build quality, or marketing, and they took a lot of market share as a result.