Hey everyone! Welcome to our first official blog. The first of many, we hope! In our blogs, we will be touching on choke topics: Jiu-Jitsu, Jiu-Jitsu lifestyle, Hawai'i stuff, and many others. It is our hope that you'll get to know us, as well as our brand and the values and ideas surrounding it.
Choke Aloha started in May 2014 as a Jiu-Jitsu brand. At the time, we were training on Kaua'i and had no idea how to run a business, let alone have a plan for the brand. Who would have known that years later, our brand would be as far reaching as Europe, Australia, and Brazil!
Since 2014, we left Hawai'i and moved to Washington State, and most recently, Texas. While it was bittersweet leaving Hawai'i, the lack of opportunity and growth drove us to the "mainland." We found a new home, new Jiu-Jitsu friends and networked throughout the Pacific Northwest. During that time, while running Choke Aloha, I was a jiu-jitsu blogger for another well known Jiu-Jitsu brand and had to essentially conceal my identity with Choke Aloha to avoid overlapping interests in the BJJ world. If you didn't know me personally, you would have never known who the face behind Choke Aloha was.
Fast forward to today, I have long since blogged for that other company and website. We are now located in Texas, surrounded by many islanders who have moved away but still perpetuate the cultures. In this sense, this has motivated me to not only build the brand from the ground up again, but also start blogging very relevant and current happenings, as many Jiu-Jitsu news outlets are only out for the click bait these days.
I hope that you stick around to get to know us and the brand, as well as read some cool stuff that will hopefully resonate with you. Chances are, you're here because of Jiu-Jitsu. And in a very real sense, so are we.
Stay tuned!
Aloha, Lea
Leave a comment