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, 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.
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 the greatest Jiu Jitsu gear on the planet.
We pride ourselves on adding more value to the Jiu Jitsu community than we take out.
Our mission is to create the best products and projects that motivate and inspire all Jiu Jitsu athletes to Progress.
The Progress 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 of the brand, making marketing, operational and commercial decisions with the help
of the team.
His latest projects include developing a Progress boxing range, and launching on Amazon.
James is a huge sports fan and is obsessed with all sports, including football, cricket and even darts.
Favourite Sportsperson:
Ian Botham
Sam
Sam is James's nephew and a blue belt, under Kameron Atakuru. Sam has been training (mainly nogi) for
around6 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 sports person:
Paul Scholes
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.
The chances are if you are a wholesale 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 Sports person:
Alan Shearer
Krish
Krish is a brown belt under Adam Adshead. Krish is a keen gi competitor, with a killer
1/2 guard.
Krish is the most passionate Jiu Jitsu fan in the office, and is renowned at HQ for his Jiu Jitsu knowledge and nerdy facts.
When he is not researching competition results, He's busy ensuring all your orders are picked, packed and shipped at lightening speed. As well as looking after the Progress blog.
Favourite Sportsperson:
Lennox Lewis
Chris
Whilst Chris doesn't work at HQ, he gets an honorary mention here for setting up the first and only official Progress academy.
Chris, a brown belt under Steve Campbell, followed his dream to open his own gym in Spain.
Chris is close friends with the guys at HQ, and we will be soon hosting exclusive progress training camps, competitions and much more at the Progress Academia, which is 100 yards form the beach in Torrox.
Favourite Sports person:
Marcelo Garcia
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 Sports person:
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 Sports person:
Sir Bobby Charlton
Chris
WHY CHOOSE progress?
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. We have several hundred real reviews from real, verified customers.
With only 4 and 5* reviews 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
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QUALITY - 10 Years experienceusing the best factories and processes in the world
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SERVICE - Same day shipping on allorders - next day UK delivery guaranteed on all orders placed before 3.30pm
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RETURNS - We will swap or refund any item you are not 100% happy with within30 days, no questions asked
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CARE - UK based customer serviceteam, all Jiu Jitsu people so we understand exactly what you need and respondin record time.
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COMMUNITY - We support the sportat grass roots level, and we are committed to it's growth - we sponsor localclubs, athletes and competitions
THE PROGRESS MISSION
''Our mission is to create the best products and projects that motivate and inspire all Jiu Jitsu athletes to Progress''
Our future
We have huge plans for the company over the next three years, and we want to share some of our goals with you.
First on the agenda is opening new distribution centres, we are in advances talks to open up in the USA, Kazakstan and
Mainland Europe. We are experiencing rapid growth in these markets and really want to make sure it's as smooth as possible.
Next up we are working on the Progress Foundation. Our goal is to set up the charity, re-investing our profits to help disadvantaged and vulnerable
kids through the power of Jiu Jitsu. The Foundation's objectives are to help improve education, and build valuable life skills through Jiu Jitsu to give them the best opportunities we can.
This is something we are especially excited about. We are working hard behind the scenes and hoping to launch in Autumn 2022.
Sustainability. Progress is committed to reducing our environmental impact. We are currently testing compostable and re-cycled packaging, look out for
this on your net order and please let us know your feedback. We are also reviewing our materials and looking to source organic cotton for all our gis.
The plan is to continue to improve in this area and use Progress as a force for good. This cause is something that is really important to us all.
Finally, we have a pretty cool project in the pipeline with a boxing World Champion, keep your eyes peeled for a progress boxing glove collaboration.
Who thinks this is a good idea? We would love to know your thoughts.
We hope you like the sound of whats to come from us. Please get in touch with any question or feedback. We love hearing from you.
Don't forget to sign up to our newsletter at the bottom of this page to keep track of our latest deals and releases, and please give
us a follow/subscribe to us on our social channels below. This really helps us out.
See you on the mats.
The Progress team.
