OUR STORY
We started Progress in the Summer of 2012. The brand started in Manchester, England.
We take great pride in being from Manchester and the city's culture and history influences a lot of our designs.
James Tighe (a then blue belt) started the brand with his close friends and family, all of whom a decade later are still part of the company. We all shared one thing in common, an unbelievable passion for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
We fell in love with the sport and our dream was to one day quit our jobs and work on the brand full time, being involved with the Jiu Jitsu community, to help it grow as much as we could. This dream became our goal.
The brand name perfectly represented how we felt about the sport, and us as people. It's all about the Progress you make. We put less emphasis on winning at all costs, and more on improvement. We genuinely want our customers and fans to be the best they can possibly be, on and off the mats, and the essence of our brand is to try our best to make that happen, through our products, our content, our athletes, our projects and everything else we do. We will help you achieve your goals.
''Without struggle, there can be no Progress''
Fast forward to January 2021, we finally achieved our goal and launched the brand full time. We quit our jobs and committed to a warehouse lease.
We have not looked back since, and have our amazing customers to thank for giving us the best job in the world. As a brand our promise is to repay your faith in us by providing the best customer experience you could dream of, and supplying the community with legendary Jiu Jitsu gear.
We pride ourselves on adding more value to the Jiu Jitsu community than we take out.
Our mission is to grow our sport by sharing our passion for the Jiu Jitsu lifestyle, making the World a better place through the movement of Jiu Jitsu.
Meet the team
JAMES
James is a purple belt, Under Steve Campbell, and has been training for 12 years. James founded the brand and is responsible for overall strategy. Making marketing, operational and commercial decisions with the help of the team.
His latest projects include developing some exciting collaboration projects , and launching on Amazon worldwide.
James is a huge sports fan and is obsessed with all sports, including football, cricket and even darts.
Favourite Sportsperson: Sir Ian Botham
SAM
Sam is James's nephew and a blue belt, under Kameron Atakuru. Sam has been training for 6 years.
Sam is a shareholder in the company too but started life as a hairdresser, before re-training in graphic design and photography.
Sam is in charge of product development and creative direction. Whatever your favourite Progress gi or no gi item is, Sam designed it.
Sam is a keen gardener and avid Manchester United supporter.
Favourite Sportsperson: Paul Scholes
TOM
Tom started training Jiu Jitsu in 2012 and is a black belt under Lachlan Giles.
Based in Melbourne, he heads up the distribution for Australia and New Zealand handling all things Progress, so if you have any questions or problems, Tom will have the answers.
He has a passion for growing the brand and in his spare time he teaches at Absolute MMA St Kilda.
Favourite Sportsperson: Dustin Poirier
BUSH
Phil, or "Bush" as he's more commonly known keeps our warehouse in tip top shape. Responsible for getting all of your orders packaged and shipped as well as making returns a smooth and easy service to use.
Bush is a whitebelt in BJJ but a solid brownbelt in Golf, playing almost daily and competing in local tournaments often.
When you make an order and get your tracking e-mail 45 seconds later, you've got Bush to thank.
Favourite Sportsperson: Tiger Woods
JOSH
Josh is a blue belt under Cesar Lima, but has been training for over 12 years on and off.
Josh is a genius with the camera, with some of his videos having millions of views. As well as being head of content for Progress, Josh runs the famous instagram page @thegrappleclub
If you love the content we put out on our social media platforms, lets face it it is amazing, Josh is the man
to thank.
Favourite Sportsperson: Abdulrashid Sadulaev
DENIS
Denis is James's dad and
Sam's grandad.
Now retired from his career as a crown prosecutor, Denis is the godfather of the Warehouse. Working part time, Denis ensures the Warehouse runs like clockwork. The king of organisation and tidyness.
Denis is well know for being the hardest working, and most punctual member of the Progress team, leading by example showing the young guns how it's done.
Favourite Sportsperson: Sir Bobby Charlton
MARC
As well as being responsible for looking after our wholesale customers and responding to your queries on our Instagram page, Marc is working hard to expand Progress into the new age of e-commerce.
Boosting our sales on Amazon and creating new adverts for Facebook and Instagram is a key part of Marc's working week. He's a blackbelt in Jiu Jitsu under Marcelo Garcia and his Wednesday night 7pm Gi class at Stealth BJJ is super popular!
Favourite Sportsperson: Ricky Williams
MAX
Although he prefers No Gi, Max is a purple belt under Steve Campbell and the latest addition to our HQ staff, Max joined us in February 22' and is a full time videographer / photographer.
Visiting Progress supported academies and producing content for all of our Social Media channels is Max's main role. He's also working closely with our Head of Design, Sam, learning how to design custom products and help with the new Vinyl printing side of the business.
Favourite Sportsperson: Garry Tonon
MARK
Mark is a brown belt under Steve Campbell, having started training aged 15. Mark is the youngest member of the team, responsible for business development and wholesale account management.
The chances are, if you are a Progress customer, you will have experienced Mark's amazing customer service.
Mark is serious Jiu Jitsu competitor, holding many titles, including British champion. Plus many notable super fight wins, usually by guillotine.
Favourite Sportsperson: Alan Shearer
Why choose Progress?
Our mission is to grow Jiu Jitsu by sharing our passion for the Sport.
We want to motivate and inspire all athletes to improve, and we want to add more value to the sport than we take. We don't just want it, we are living it, through all our activities, from our support of grassroots Jiu Jitsu athletes and academies, all the way up and make the World a better place through Jiu Jitsu.
First of all, you are in very safe hands. Have a look at our product and business reviews. We are as transparent as possible about everything we do.
That's why we are proud to display our reviews on our homepage. You can shop with total confidence with us, knowing that if anything goes
wrong with your order or products (which is exceptionally rare), we will fix it as soon as possible.
Click here to see our reviews