ABOUT US

INTRODUCTIONS //

Although we've heard people say they think the brand is run by a couple of guys who are into Japanese culture and martial arts, that assumption is wrong... but not completely wrong. Yes it's run by a couple of people (two people to be exact) but rather than two cool dudes we're just a guy and a gal who are new parents with a love for Japanese style and grappling/martial arts sports. 

 

We started KAKUTO CULTURE (originally Kakuto Grappling Culture) back in 2020 during the infamous Melbourne/Victoria pandemic lockdowns. With nothing better to do and a new iPad, we decided to stop talking about how cool it would be to own a jiu jitsu brand and just start one. 

 

We both came from corporate job backgrounds. Myself (Jaz) as a Marketing Manager for health insurance and banking brands and Alex as a Workplace Senior Consultant within HR.

ABOUT ALEX 

Alex has a very natural talent for drawing (particularly large scale pieces such as wall murals) so we harnessed that ability by making Alex the brand artist to create our own artwork both from a design and production perspective. This meant Alex had to spend a lot of time over the past few years practicing drawing until he landed on the style that best represented him and the aesthetic we both love. He also put a lot of time into learning the art of screen printing to produce our own t-shirts and packaging. While packaging design itself is my love, Alex's ability to finesse, digitise and print the designs I come up with means almost anything my little heart desires can become a reality (I am a very lucky girl 🥰).

 

Outside of being an amazing artist, Alex has a long history in sports outside of grappling. Before taking on the challenge of BJJ, he trained for many years in the gym doing Callisthenics and tranditional bodybuilding style training until he found Olympic Weightlifting in his early 20s.  The many years of training challenging sports/disciplines translated to an unbreakable work ethic when it came to training on the mats. 'Eating sh*t' is part and parcel of all fitness forms but especially Callisthenics and Olympic Weightlifting, so being at the bottom of the totem poll as a white belt was a fun and exciting challenge for Alex to surpass.

 

ABOUT JASMINE

With my working background, it seemed natural I look after Marketing and Operations for our business. Making the shift from large scale corporate marketing to small business start up marketing was much more of a challenge than I realised it would be but we love a good challenge so onwards we push 😤

Besides my past professional career, I've trained in a few different sporting disciplines. As the saying goes, I'm a 'Jack of all trades, master of none' so I've given a lot of things a go from Crossfit to Olympic Weightlifting. A few years into Oly lifting, I tried BJJ for the first time, got hooked and the pandemic hit stopping any and all progress. After we found the perfect new club to join over a year later and just as I thought I was going to start progressing beyond a no stripe white belt, alas, it wasn't meant to be as we fell pregnant 😮‍💨 Now as a new Mum, I'm focusing on getting back in shape and also completing my qualifications to become a Personal Trainer to move into my dream job of training athletes. 

 

OUR FOCUS //

THE SPARK THAT STARTED KAKUTO // 

We're obsessed with Japanese anything and everything and love BJJ and MMA so what better way to do something you enjoy than to combine the two. The pandemic lock down of 2020 was the real 'kick up the bum' to actually create something instead of just talk about it and since then we've kept the brand evolving until we arrived at our latest and final version of KAKUTO CULTURE. 

 

KAKUTO STUDIOS is the design arm of the brand launched in 2023 and serves as the creative outlet for Alex to stretch his artistic legs. Rather than feeling pigeon holed into only creating pieces relevant to martial arts, KAKUTO STUDIOS is generally Japanese art based but really, it's just cool sh*t Alex wants to draw and then figure out what it should go on - anything from skateboards, to Japanese vertical flags to fans. 

 

 

WHO WE CREATE FOR //

 

The martial arts community but specifically BJJ and MMA as that's where our personal passions lie. We want to create artisan training gear which is one of a kind and completely Japanese style inspired. From an art perspective, Alex will be offering one of a kind pieces of limited or original only designs in formats not typically available in Australia. He'll be dealing more in hand-drawn and screen printed good which makes everything hand-made with love and care. 

 

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE // 

2024 is planned as the biggest year for us yet with multiple rash guard releases (3 designs already completed/drafted), more content showing the behind the scenes action and reality of owning a small family run brand and much more art to satisfy your Japanese art needs. 

 

We also plan to drop two new brands as part of KAKUTO in the fitness and kids grappling spaces but until we've worked through the details that's all we can say for now. 

 

Keep up to date with what we're doing in our monthly update blogs and Instagram. We'll see you there!