checkuroil - What about the children
WTF? This dude should be ostracized
homieCNTRL - Wow... I seriously couldn't believe this. I was under the impression that brendan was a good guy running an even better company supporting kid's jiu jitsu, but after all this im going to have to boycott him and OK kimonos. I've been following the Facebook group where Brendan was asked to given the chance to defend himself, he said he had to go to work and so did not have the time to explain his side (although he has been posting on OK kimonos Facebook all day). He isn't tecginally from Chicago, he's from Indiana and trains at Miguel torres's school in east Chicago. that's all the info I got on him. If anyone reading this trains out of that gym or knows someone that does, please pass the word around so that this guy never pulls a stunt like this again!What facebook group was it?
I hate all this Jiu-Jitsu bullshit. Be straight up about what you're selling/doing/etc or don't do it at all.
Things like this is the reason why I stopped accepting or soliciting for advertising dollars on Inside BJJ. I worked with a couple dudes that I started getting the creepy affiliate marketing vibe from so I cut the cord on all of it.
If you like us, buy a premium subscription to the show. Otherwise listen to the free stuff and enjoy. What you see is what you get. No bullshit going on.
We need to take a stand against this. It's penny-ante poor man thinking stealing from your own community.
Pisses me off.
tf1 - I hate all this Jiu-Jitsu bullshit. Be straight up about what you're selling/doing/etc or don't do it at all.Voted up.
Things like this is the reason why I stopped accepting or soliciting for advertising dollars on Inside BJJ. I worked with a couple dudes that I started getting the creepy affiliate marketing vibe from so I cut the cord on all of it.
If you like us, buy a premium subscription to the show. Otherwise listen to the free stuff and enjoy. What you see is what you get. No bullshit going on.
We need to take a stand against this. It's penny-ante poor man thinking stealing from your own community.
Pisses me off.
This is the guy behind the hideous 'Ok kimonos' for kids right? Bro, if you're reading this your taekwondo looking gis suck. Even kids think they're uncool. And you suck for being a dishonest lowlife. Unsubscribed from your email list, scumbag.
<blockquote>Jitz93 - What facebook group was it? </blockquote>
BJJ Gi Addicts.
Coincidentally Brendan is an admin there. Brendan's not dumb when it comes to this, he knows how to spin and do damage control. Thus why he's not answering to the accusations right now.
RobertKipness - <blockquote>Jitz93 - What facebook group was it? </blockquote>Coincidentally, he just posted an 'update' to that FB group.
BJJ Gi Addicts.
Coincidentally Brendan is an admin there. Brendan's not dumb when it comes to this, he knows how to spin and do damage control. Thus why he's not answering to the accusations right now.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/147551411937438/permalink/895918223767416/
http://okkimonosblog.com/epic-gi-drive-update/
chitownbjj -RobertKipness - <blockquote>Jitz93 - What facebook group was it? </blockquote>Coincidentally, he just posted an 'update' to that FB group.
BJJ Gi Addicts.
Coincidentally Brendan is an admin there. Brendan's not dumb when it comes to this, he knows how to spin and do damage control. Thus why he's not answering to the accusations right now.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/147551411937438/permalink/895918223767416/
http://okkimonosblog.com/epic-gi-drive-update/
I saw that update, he should be a politician.
tf1 - I hate all this Jiu-Jitsu bullshit. Be straight up about what you're selling/doing/etc or don't do it at all.
Things like this is the reason why I stopped accepting or soliciting for advertising dollars on Inside BJJ. I worked with a couple dudes that I started getting the creepy affiliate marketing vibe from so I cut the cord on all of it.
If you like us, buy a premium subscription to the show. Otherwise listen to the free stuff and enjoy. What you see is what you get. No bullshit going on.
We need to take a stand against this. It's penny-ante poor man thinking stealing from your own community.
Pisses me off.
Good stuff. I'll be tuning in.
When dudes use that marketing template, it just is a real tell that they are douchey.
checkuroil - What about the children
I wrote the article, and also wrote the article on why I left GiReviews.net (because of Brendan's massive shadiness and willingness to rip off his fans). I like to use specifics and screenshots to verify what I say or did. Brendan uses general statements that gloss over the top of issues that provides no evidence to support it, but for some reason people still seem to drink it up.
I just wanted to point out somethings about his rebuttal article.
The article didn't say (unless I missed it) why everything was collected for one charity, but sent to others.
It also didn't say why he allowed companies to mention Drive In specifically in his interviews (despite never having sent them anything) but not the charities he claimed to help in California. And which charity would that be?
If the Gis went to another charity entirely, where did these new gis come from?
Why would Dennis claim to have no knowledge of what happened to the Gi Drive and was clearly not in contact with him around February of this year at least?
It took me 2 days to get ahold of Drive In. If he wanted to get a hold of him, he could have.
His message in August neither mentions the Gi Drive to Paulo nor what he collected (gis/money). Isn't it reasonable to assume Paulo just brain dumped his short message because many people claim to be visiting and donating gis? And by not mentioning Gi drive there was nothing in particular special about his message compared to what he probably receives on a daily basis?
I actually think his intentions from the get go were to do something good but in doing so promote his image and brand. (which I find sleazy as hell). I think he obviously used Drive In Jiu Jitsu specifically to get donations. Despite being warned that what he was attempting wasn't economically sound or sensible, he carried on, which caused problems.
Logistically I don't think they acquired what they needed in regards to kids gis, so they sent the adult Gis to another charity, but not one in California as Brendan claims. But that leaves one to wonder what charity benefited and if the charity in California can back up Brendans claims. So Brendan would have to tell us the name of that charity. Velocity BJJ is not relevant to the discussion unless money or gis from the drive was sent to them. Which again would beg the question, why he would send something to another charity.If the majority of the gis that were donated were adult gis, then I would imagine that $3,000 would be enough to send the small amount of childrens Gis they acquired to Brazil, regardless of how sensible that was.
I also find it hilarious that he makes a comment about "Not making excuses" when they whole entire article was literally a bunch of excuses. "i'm a teacher" "I had a baby" "I trained 8 weeks hardcore for NAGA but didnt mention how I had time for that" "I visited Johnny Cupcakes in Boston but didn't mention that either" "I started my own Gi brand which coincidentally uses my contributions to Drive In Jiu Jitsu as a huge selling point!...despite never having sent them anything" "I was so busy!"
"Also, jesus, god, hebrews and 9/11."
If I hadn't worked with Brendan I probably would have never noticed all of the dirtbag stuff he pulled to try and increase his image. And if I hadn't noticed it I wouldn't have wrote about it. I have zero to gain from exposing crap like this. I really can't figure out what type of logic people are using to draw the conclusion that I'm a "hater" and "out to get him". I guess that just goes to show how well he marketed himself. I mean, if your entire business model is based on helping a charity in Brazil, you have to be a great guy right?
What a low-life.
WAY too many guys like this in BJJ. WAY too many.
Sorry I missed this thread as I don't get on the UG much lately.
I've posted this in other places, but what you've all stumbled upon is a VERY personal gripe that Dan has with me. He's taking a lot of things out of context and conveniently ignoring certain aspects of what went on.
Bottom line is that I got in wayyyy over my head trying to do something good, made mistakes, admitted them, and am focused on finishing the project versus engaging with Dan on every single forum out there.
Dan has my phone number and my email address and please ask yourself, if he was REALLY concerned about these things, wouldn't he contact Brendan first? No, he wouldn't. Because he's not really interested in solving the actual issue as much as he is trying to make me look bad all over the internet.
This should clear everything up up: http://okkimonosblog.com/epic-gi-drive-update/
If anybody has any further questions, please email me at okkimonos@gmail.com and I'll answer every single question you have.
green_machine - You mean the guy that mooches free gis out of manufacturers for reviews and then sells them for profit? Hmm, who would've thought...
Dan had the idea to support Tap Cancer Out and I felt like it was an awesome idea so we started selling the gently used gis that we had reviewed on there to benefit Tap Cancer Out.
The store here is here: http://www.gireviews.bigcartel.com
The only gis that were sold for profit were Shoyoroll gis that I bought with my personal money and gis that were sold prior to us coming up with the idea for supporting TCO. All gis sold on the site that did note benefit TCO were clearly labelled so people knew and since Dan had no issue wit hit at the time, it was my decision to sell them on there as well. I have since discontinued that practice as of January1, 2014 and all gis on there are sold for TCO so there isn't any confusion.
For full fundraising transparency, you can look here: http://www.stayclassy.org/fundraise?fcid=301106
There is also $105 donated in 2013 that is not on the above page.
What charity did they go to in CA ? I'm confused
The last I discussed it with Nick Mitria, from Subculture USA, they were going to Cia Paulista in Sacramento to support a program they did. I sent him the money ($312) to ship them and he got them all boxed up and sent them out. Obviously that was a long time ago (again, my fault for letting this whole project take so long) so for further details, you'd have to ask Nick.
Roughly the same amount of gis were sent to Vector Jiu Jitsu, but since those gis were not collected 'officially' as a part of the gi drive (they were donated privately by DOM Fight Gear), I sent those with my personal money.
I do my best to be trusting, so I am withholding judgment for the time being. However, there are (for me) 2 questions that I am struggling with.
1. When you say you "admitted" your mistakes, that was only after Dan called you out publicly. So, why did you wait to admit them only after Dan spoke up?
2. Obviously the update on your site is in direct response to Dan's accusations. Yet it reads like you are volunteering that information. If it's not spin, why not directly respond to him in that update?
This is major damage control. I'll stick with my original assessment.