Exclusive Interview with Dylan Lipari, Owner of Superare Fight Goods

Walking into a fight shop can be a life-changing experience—especially if it’s Dylan and Zachary Lipari’s Superare Fight Goods, one of the coolest, hippest, hands down best fight shops in the country. Puncher recently stopped in their Los Angeles store and sat down with Dylan for a conversation about fighting, gear, and why everyone who walks through the door belongs at Superare.

Puncher: How did Superare get started? What was the idea behind opening a fight shop?

Dylan: Superare was founded by my brother, Zachary Lipari, in 2011 on Long Island. Originally, it was called East Coast MMA and evolved into Superare Fight Goods about a year into our New York City store being opened. We opened up East Coast MMA as a place where fighters can come and try on gear, and feel it and see it in real life. This is protective equipment. The fact that people who’ve trained have been so conditioned to take a shot in the dark on the internet, and hope that the glove comes and fits them properly, and is good quality, is risky. We opened up Superare for people to come and get advice and customer service, and get the right glove for them.

We watched the skate shop evolve, we watched the surf shop evolve into these awesome stores where you can get high-quality skateboards or surfboards at all price ranges, at entry level all the way up to expert, the real boogie stuff. Then, also great clothing and then that led to stores opening up where it’s just the clothing of that lifestyle and their internationally regarded brand. We were asking, “Why is there nothing like that for fighting?” My brother, when he started the company, would ask himself, “Why does every shirt that has to do with fighting make you look like a dick?” When people ask about Superare I tell them, “We specialize in boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and non-douchey apparel.”

My brother really hit the nail on the head with the clothing that he designs and he brought into the store and we’re ever evolving with our clothing aspect. We want to attract people who don’t train. One of my biggest things and one of the things I say, multiple times in all of our stores when people come in is, “You don’t need to train to shop here, we are super big on that.”

Puncher: What brought you to LA?

Dylan: LA is the birthplace of jiu-jitsu in America. The first Muay Thai school in America is in Los Angeles. This is a hotbed for combat sports. I have never seen more gyms in a 30 mile radius of any of my stores than I have in Los Angeles. The fight community is real. It’s huge. They deserve a store they can walk into where the prices are right and they don’t fluctuate depending on who’s in the store that day. The variety is always kept at a certain level. The gear is always at a price-point where we have entry-level all the way to super, super, super expensive. We wanted a place where fighters can come in and be excited.

Superare Fight Goods Melrose Ave Location in Los Angeles

We opened up in Los Angeles specifically, not just because I never want to see snow again, but because when we came here to entertain the idea and look at spaces, we walked into a couple of the places here that are adjacent to what our store does. We’re representing the fight community. We’re representing people who train and when we walked in, I was a little taken back by the lack of customer service and the lack of variety and gear. That’s what solidified, at least in my head, that we need to open up in LA.

Puncher: What originally drew you to combat sports?

Dylan: What attracted me to combat sports just as a whole is self defense. At the end of the day, that is the basis of why anybody is training. God forbid you have to defend yourself. You won’t be completely screwed in the moment, in the situation. Knowing how to deal with that intense adrenaline dump you’ll get when you know that you’re about to get into a physical altercation. The difference between handling that and freezing is very, very narrow.

I live in New York City, anything can happen at any time of the day. Knowing how to defend myself is really important to me. I also just never was the type to go to the gym and lift weights. I’ve been blessed with a great metabolism. However, I was a skinny and out of shape, so I really wanted to find something that interested me and kept me motivated to keep coming back and get in shape.

Puncher: Do you have a favorite discipline?

Dylan: The discipline that I fell in love with is Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I’ve practiced mostly all of them, but jiu-jitsu is really what I gravitated towards the most. I started when I was 24 years old, with a smaller gym with a couple Renzo Gracie black belts, called Square Circle in the financial district of New York City. Then later joined with Marcelo Garcia and his team there to further my training.

Puncher: Do you compete?

Dylan: I compete in jiu-jitsu when I’m not opening up new stores. It takes a lot out of training. I can’t wait to compete. I am admittedly a terrible competitor and that’s why I continue to do it.

I am a firm believer that in order to get better at your craft, you have to spar and you have to compete because that’s what’s going to expose everything you’re not that great at. The whole aura around combat sports is that there is no ego.

I lost my last competition because I couldn’t pass this kid’s knee shield, which if you don’t do jiu-jitsu is like a bottom position. I spent the last year only trying to pass other people’s knee shields and I’ve gotten much better at it. If I didn’t ever compete and compete against that particular kid, I would not have noticed that there’s a major flaw in part of my jiu-jitsu game. So, I do compete as often as I can because it’s a part of my life and it’s a part of jiu-jitsu and it only makes you better. It’s terrifying and that’s the way I like it. It’s because it’s terrifying and I’m bad at it, and I want to get good at it.

Puncher: What are some of your favorite products? How are they different from what everybody else is selling?

Dylan: One of my favorite products in the store is the new Superare Gi that we released late last year. The reason why I love it so much is because a good quality gi can become expensive and bad quality gis rip. People are tugging on it at all times for an hour, two hours, however often you train. So it’s really cool to be able to provide awesome quality equipment for $30, $40, $50 less than another brand would. Anything Superare is very clean, almost plain and subtle.

Something else that I’m really excited about, that really to me elevates the brand is the Superare bomber jacket. The reason why I’m so excited about it is that it has nothing to do with fighting. This is a purely lifestyle item in the store and it’s selling really well to people who train and to people who don’t train who just passed by the store and they’re like, “That is great. I really like that jacket.” It’s great quality, my brother knocked it out of the park. What’s really cool is it’s going to bridge the gap between those who train and those who don’t and that’s why I like it.

The stuff that I’m really, really proud of, again hats off to my brother because he designs all our stuff, is the Superare gloves we have coming out. We like to make super professional quality gloves that are very unique in a way where they are still affordable.

We have an $80 glove that’s all leather that by any other brand would be well over $100. It comes in three different colors and is an awesome entry level glove that can last you for as long as you’re doing it. As long as you take care of them and don’t lose them, of course.

New Superare glove drop

Then we like to do really special ones that we only make a limited amount that, again, if another brand and a bigger brand made these would be $300 gloves. They’re not. All our gloves come with their own individual dust bag. We like to do cool things that will allow you to express yourself in a sport that’s about expression through combat sports.

These are really cool and these are things that I am super proud that people want. I’m impressed everyday when someone comes in and they’re like, “I love your store.” That to me will never get old. Ever. It’s really cool when people come in and they’re specifically looking for our gloves and they won’t buy anything else.

Puncher: You’ve had some notable people stop by. Who comes into the shop?

Dylan:  Some of my bigger clients include Ashley Graham and her husband, who’s become a very good friend of mine, Justin. We’ve had almost every Victoria Secret Angel come in and buy boxing gloves which is really cool. Stipe Miocic gets all his stuff for his camps for his fights from our store.

I don’t know where Daniel Cormier is getting our clothing from but he keeps wearing it and I am thrilled because I am such a big fan. That’s what’s cool is that this is my brother and I’s passion in life. That’s really the difference between us and anyone else in Los Angeles that sells similar merchandise. This is what we love and this is what we live.

Chadwick Boseman, the Black Panther. I’ve sold him many pairs of gloves. This will probably let him know that I actually know who he is. I’ve never acknowledged that I actually know what he does for a living. He’s a great guy. Super nice. That’s the thing is that all these people that are into these sports are super nice. I just was tagged in a video that Kevin Hart was wearing one of our Coogi sweater gloves we have coming out which is awesome. I’m a huge fan of Kevin Hart. That’s really cool but what’s cooler to me is that he’s boxing.

When guys like that are boxing and women like Ashley Graham are boxing it shows people that these sports are for everybody. The violent aspect of it is only in competition really. All the benefits you can get from training are the non-violent aspects of it. One piece of advice I can give people looking to train is don’t be afraid. Don’t be intimidated. The nicest people in the world are awaiting you in whatever establishment you are waiting to go inside.

As long as you walk in with no ego, willing to learn, you’ll have the best time of your life. How hard is it to make friends as an adult? Like real friends. It’s really difficult to make a real new friend, but I guarantee you, you step into that gym, whatever gym you’re staring at or pass by on the way to work or on the way back home that you’ve been thinking, “Oh man, maybe I want to pick that up.” You have 50 to 100 to hundreds of new friends waiting for you inside. You bleed on people, you sweat on people, you become very close with those people.

Puncher: It’s just you and one other person mano e mano

Dylan: That’s why I love it. It’s the melting pot. I train with people of all races, colors, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, it doesn’t matter. You show up, you train and that’s it. You get to learn something new. You get in shape and you meet new friends. There’s really no downside to it. It’s really cool.

Puncher: What would you say to someone who wants to come in, but maybe is a little intimidated? Is there a store philosophy?

Dylan: We have a rule in this store. It’s about, I don’t care what you do for a living just don’t be a dick. That is our mission statement as a business: don’t be a dick. Any of my employees can vouch for that. That’s always been the case. It doesn’t matter, we run a store where no one has anything to prove. I don’t hire anyone that doesn’t train. You have our respect when you walk in immediately. If you have the nerve to walk into a fight shop, regardless of how pleasant it looks, good for you, it’s intimidating. You see we sell a bunch of boxing gloves you might be like, “I don’t belong in there” but you do. Everyone belongs in here.

We have something for everybody here and at every price point. All we care about is that you get the right thing and have the best experience ever which in a world where people are so conditioned to go on the internet, why would they come talk to me and my staff? It’s because we’re really fucking good at what we do.

My whole thing is that we’re the lowest pressure sales environment you’ll over walk into. If you come in for gloves, I’m going to show you gloves within the price range that you and I discussed. After that, if you want to buy anything else, I’ll help you with it but I’m not going to tell you, “Oh, you also need this gear bag.” You don’t.

Puncher: What does being a “puncher” mean to you?

Dylan: A puncher to me is somebody that’s motivated to learn and motivated to get better and motivated to help those within the community. To say that you train, you should be proud. To be considered a puncher in someone’s eyes, you should be proud. If you punch, kick or choke things, you are family.

In jiu-jitsu we have a saying, sometimes you’re the hammer, sometimes you’re the nail. I am often the nail, but I love it because every time I’m the nail means that down the line I’ll be the hammer for a round more. The more I get beat up the more I learn.

Make sure to check out Superare Fight Goods online or in person. Here at Puncher we’re huge fans and we know you will be too.

Read our next exclusive interview “The Bruce Lee of Krav Maga: Interview with Roy Elghanayan” Here.

To learn more about the history and practice of martial arts check out the other articles in the Puncher “What is” series on Judo, Boxing, Karate, Taekwondo, Muay Thai, Sambo, MMA and more.

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