Style: Affliction...Tap-Out...Worst Brands Ever? Pretty Much

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Affliction…Tap-Out…Worst Brands Ever? Pretty Much

We all know “that guy.” He shows up to parties reeling about the latest UFC fight, and talks about the “super-hot blonde babe” he saw at the grappling gym the other day. Gel-spiked hair, ear piercings, arm tattoos with no significance what-so-ever…sounding familiar? Well, these are the guys that are keeping the overly-stylistic Affliction and Tap-Out brands alive.

I have nothing against UFC…It’s a physical sport just like any other. The problem is the type of mentality that it breeds. Guys that do nothing but work out 4 hours a day, use self-bronzer and teeth whitening, and are so bent-up on steroids that any reason is a good reason to start “brawling.” And, somehow, this machismo has spilled over into fashion. With characters like the dude-bras from Jersey Shore, and now the meatheads of UFC, Affliction and Tap-Out are being seen more and more, paired with their dark denim, flared out jeans and leather bracelets…and, to tell you the truth…it’s a terrible sight.

Affliction now works as more of a warning sign than a fashion statement. Just as you would avoid someone in a straight-jacket for fear of insanity, it’s known to now avoid those sporting Affliction and Tap-Out for fear of thick-skulled douchery. With Affliction’s strange and almost feminish designs on the backs and shoulders of their 70’s collar pin-striped dress shirts, you just know that shirt has been on the floor of a grappling gym while their bro was injecting steroids into their cheek. And while Tap-Out shirts are seen riding in suped-up Toyota Celicas and Lifted Trucks, blaring Godsmack and raging about Spike’s latest “exposé” on Anderson Silva, more and more bros are getting into this type of lifestyle.

It’s said that “every time someone buys an Affliction shirt, one young girl bleaches her hair and gets a pair of breast implants...and her soul dies.”

UFC is a physically demanding sport, just like boxing and football, etc. But, because the stigma around UFC is so laden with Keystone-Ice guzzling, shirtless homies, it’s losing respect as a formidable sport. So, what’s the solution?

Lose the Affliction shirt. Stop paying $30 for a Tap-Out T-Shirt. Stop with all of the leather bracelets and the gold necklaces and the tattoos with barbed-wire. Leave the tanning salons and highlighted hair to the fairer sex and please, just put down the can of Monster and that dumbbell.

Respect begets respect. And self-respect in the form of non-silvered dress shirts and correctly-fitting t-shirts will go a long way into re-branding a sport like UFC. And, hey, maybe this way, every blond haired bombshell won’t regret her Friday night at the local bar…which wouldn’t be so bad.