14 years of passion.

Progress was started in 2012, purely as a passion project.  We were a group of friends from Manchester, England, who were obsessed with Jiu Jitsu (all of us were blue belts at the time).

Funny story, Progress was very nearly called ‘Chaos Kimonos’ 

But it didn’t feel right, the sport was developing fast, and moving away from the old school MMA roots. Progress suited us much better, it represented how we thought about the sport and the impact it could have for people off the mat too.

After 5 years of spending our entire savings, and nearly getting sued twice, we got the global trademark. It was worth it.

It was a bit of fun at first, finding factories in Pakistan who would make us samples that we would give to our team mates to test out for us. Luckily for us, the guys and girls who were testing the gis were good, and so the name started to spread. And even luckier we stumbled on the best factories in the World, which really helped our reputation for developing bulletproof gear.

We would turn up at all the local and national BJJ tournaments, sometimes an 8 hour car journey, just to sell a handful of t-shirts, but always talking to anyone who would listen to us about the brand, and what we wanted to achieve.

We had a crystal clear vision for the brand, we wanted to build it for people like us, who were consumed with Jiu Jitsu.  We wanted it to be more than just the name on a rashguard, we were passionate about creating something that people are excited and proud to be a part of.  

We felt the brands at the time were too transactional, and didn’t motivate or inspire us, the brands were not interested in the culture of Jiu Jitsu, something we were (and still are) obsessed with.  And most of all, we wanted to grow the sport, to bring people on the outside in, as we knew how life changing this sport can be.

Everything we have done along the way has always been with that vision at the centre of everything.  From product development, customer service, packaging, the content we create, to the staff we hire.

We didn’t care about the money, if there was a good opportunity to sell something in a way that didn’t align with that mission, we were not interested.

And I am proud to say that is still the case today, and always will be.

A LOT has happened over the last 14 years, but fast forward to 2026, and we are proud to say that everyone who started with us back then, are still involved today. After Covid we managed to finally quit our 9-5s and dive into Progress full time.

From a (small) spare bedroom in Salford,  we now have 22 full time staff (including many black belts) across 4 distribution centres, in 3 continents.  We have just passed our 150,000th order.  A huge milestone.

Today we are the highest rated brand in Jiu Jitsu, based on customer reviews.  At an average of over 4.9* out of 5, from thousands of genuine customers.  This is something that brings us all a real sense of achievement, and purpose.  But to be honest, it doesn’t really feel like ‘work’.  We know how lucky we are to be doing what we’re doing, and it’s the best job in the World.

The crazy thing is, we are just getting started.