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 Valhalla Fight Wear formerly located in Tokyo has been recently reopened in New York.
VFW provides high quality designs on a variety of different style products with a focus on Nordic themed clothing.
Prices range from $45-$60 not including $300 vouchers used to pay for design services.
Interview with Joe Rogain
Joe: Valhalla Fight Wear once one of the top clothing companies in the world, what caused you to close it down during it's prime?
Cody: I was forced to unfortunately close VFW two long years ago for a variety of personal reasons but have since dealt with other commitments and I am now whole heartedly back to both managing mixed martial arts fighters and Valhalla Fight Wear. Admittedly it was hard for me to walk away during VFW's first prime, I'm saying first prime because in the short time since VFW has reopened we've already had a 500 week and are working our way back up the rankings.
Joe nods his head at Cody acknowledging his recent success.
Joe: That's really incredible for just having come back. How has the clothing market changed in the two years you've been gone and what sort of obstacles does this present to VFW's business plan?
Cody: The market has changed a lot, two years ago the best designers on the highstreet were peddling their designs at cut-rates in order to compete with less skilled designers who were pricing low. With the reduction in the number of clothing stores in general it seems designers are now able to obtain a fair price for their work. Laundry is also more prolific or at least it appears to be to me.
Joe smiles at the mention of laundry.
Joe: Now that you've brought it up I have to ask, laundry is one of the more controversial aspects of clothing stores; where does VFW stand on the topic of laundry? For that matter what part did laundry play in VFW's initial 500 sales week?
Cody begins laughing to himself.
Cody: I had a feeling a question like this was coming Joe. None. Laundry was not a part of our first 500 week. VFW believes in sponsoring a large diverse group of both young and experienced fighters. These fighters and their managers are our biggest supporters and it's off the back of their purchases we made our first 500 sales week. On the bigger topic of laundry, I'm against it Joe... but I realize that it's a service most clothing companies provide. I guess the best way to put it would be VFW will do laundry if requested but we prefer to make our profits off our designs.
Joe nods his head seemingly satisfied with this response.
Joe: Your store also carries vouchers for design work correct? What background do you have in various other services and what sort of pricing do you offer?
Cody smiles his approval at Joe who seems to be asking all the right questions.
Cody: Well Joe in the past we have done it all design wise, Logos, Banners, Skins, Avatars, Posters, and custom clothing. If it can be designed we've done it. In the past we maintained consist weekly poster agreements with several orgs but it got to be a bit too much for one man to handle. We're not there yet on our design business right now but I think that if we reach that point again I'll likely hire someone to handle the day to day and focus myself on that side of the business. Our pricing is intended to be competitive with several of our New York competitors. We offer complete business systems (Logo, Banner, and Thumb) for 50k, any one of those three components for 25k (we recommend going for the whole system to keep everything consistent), skins for 25k, and posters ranging from 15k for graphic posters and 30k for posters featuring fighter avataring (cutting out fighters and placing them on a body). In addition we offer animation on any of these products for an additional 10k.
Joe begins making a note in his phone to contact VFW for some new headshots.
Joe: Has VFW had any offers to be a merchandise partner or are they seeking any?
Cody's face curls with uncertainty.
Cody: Well Joe I go along way back with the owner of Valhalla: New York, Mr. Bravo. In fact he helped me reopen VFW. Mr. Bravo seems to be a pretty polarizing person in the MMA community folks either like him or hate him. John has been a personal friend since I originally opened VFW two years ago. In fact I want to send out a big thanks to John for helping me reopen our doors. Currently V:NY is partnered with another company but we have been in talks and are committed to partnering with V:NY as soon as it's current deal runs it's course.
Joe is scrolls through V:NY fight results on his phone for a bit and then returns his gaze to Cody.
Joe: Alright, Valhalla: New York seems like a great company to be partnered with. So I have one final question for you, what kinds of things can we look forward to from VFW in the future?
Cody chuckles and begins searching for his mind for the words.
Cody: Well Joe I got a bit overambitious this month and bought out everything my suppliers could supply. However next month VFW will be launching new lines to support some of our more focused vikings. I actually have a press release waiting in the wings about our new Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Gis. We're also looking at working in a wider variety of shirt and short styles for our discerning customers. Also when our partnership with V:NY is concrete I have some special things I would like to do for our fighters within the organization.
Joe seems excited and prepares to close the interview but Cody motions that he has one more thing to say.
Cody: Joe I want to thank you for taking the time to highlight VFW and I know you roll yourself so here.
A stage worker comes from backstage and hands a package containing a brown gii with some sort of golden brown emblems on it to Cody. Cody in turn hands the package to Joe.
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