Today we’d like to introduce you to Carl.
Carl, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
From a young age, I am grateful to claim that I showed talent in many areas. And on the surface, as bold of a statement as that may seem, it was somewhat of a curse, in my opinion. I felt an obligation to explore most of them, and as a perfectionist, trial was not enough. I needed to be above average, at the least.
I tried and succeeded, and eventually failed at many things. Each time picking back up, to do it again eventually. Each time developing skills that seemed to be proven useless later. Over time, some of the goals became less important. And I prioritized others instead. Creativity became painting and music, sports became only wrestling.
Among the list of interests I pursued, music and martial arts (in its various forms) are what stayed with me the most.
My father was the head of engineering in General Motors, and my mother, once a high level musician and vocalist. I always felt I had inherited her musical talent as I could always play any instrument by ear. Even though I had been wrestling since middle school and would go on to compete throughout high school, into college, and even the Junior Olympics, during high school I wanted to play music.
I had played at a talent show and gained the attention of some musicians within the school and we started a band, playing small shows and becoming popular. The band participated at a battle of the bands that was sponsored by MTV, the prize was to be a part of ‘MTV’S Next Big Thing Tour’. The band won. But somewhere before launch, I had gotten into an argument with one of the bandmates and the band broke up. I still loved music and something felt unfinished now.
I spent some time away and had relationships, they were all messy and toxic. Everytime I returned to mma, my anger was released into a strategic funnel of creativity. I wrote a collection of music and paid to have it recorded and released it and it got amazing feedback. I decided I would give music a go again, solo this time. In California.
I worked a summer training fighters and working landscaping and saved up enough to buy a new car, and then left in late July or August with everything I had, to California. I had an old college wrestling partner out there who offered to share a room with me until I established myself.
When I arrived in San Diego, he welcomed me and his roommates he was renting the room from were fresh out of rehab. The apartment owners mother was a doctor in Arizona who had bought the place for him to live and start a new life away from addiction. But he was renting the place to us so that we could pay to continue it. Random strangers were always over passed out from meth and heroine binges. My friend and I were always locking our door to not have things stolen, leaving as much as possible to train and get out of the house.
A month or two went by living like this when an old friend of mine told me his brother was looking for a roommate up in LA and I took the chance to go. We stayed at a friends for some time, found an apartment, slept in the car waiting until we could move in. Then I struggled for about a year juggling everything needed to survive in koreatown. I promoted music in between working as a line cook and sparring partner at a gym owned by a famous K1 kickboxing champion from Korea, Randy Kim. My car was broken into twice, some of my most invaluable items stolen, like journals and pictures. I eventually scored a manager and he set me up with a producer back down in San Diego.
We met in Anaheim and he offered to have me stay with him while we recorded. I had been writing music for some time but for some reason when we recorded it never came out right. I was changing and the music I had written was attached to an old version of me. The politics of meeting with people and changing the sound or lyrics to gain endorsement became tiresome. I was burnt out.
A friend I knew in the Bay Area was living in his car and offered me a job at a warehouse he was working at, operating forklifts. I had nothing to lose so I took it. I followed his lead and stayed in my car as well for some time while I saved up money for an apartment. I parked my car in a rural area that lead to a road that went through mountains and then to farmland near the ocean. There was a large dam and river near by he secluded highlands where I would park and sleep. I worked the night shift but I eventually got a job as a sparring partner and striking coach at a gym nearby. I would train in the morning everyday, shower there, and then do laundry at the laundromat nearby, take a nap in the car at my parking spot and then wake up and work the night shift, get off, and sleep in my car parked under a “tree tunnel” (as I called it) and wake up naturally around 11am when my car would get hot.
There were many others scattered along this same road and there was even an old man named Pete that was like a wizard, he had everything you could think of strapped to his van, and he always helped the others with anything they needed. I tried to pay it forward by giving haircuts to the other homeless. In exchange they would tell me their stories just as I tell you mine now.
Time would pass and as money saved, and I realized my identity as a minimalist, I didn’t get excited to think about spending 2400/mo on a studio. So I stayed in the car for 8 more months until a bedbug jumped off a client at the gym and landed on me. It infested my car.
I spent a lot of money trying to cleanse it of the plague, and staying in hotels but what they don’t tell you is that you can kill the bed bugs easily, but two weeks later the eggs will hatch. My mom who I hadn’t seen in 6 years since she left our family offered to put me up in a hotel while it cleared out.
So I stayed in Dallas for about a year after the car situation was sorted. I payed her back by staying with her and paying some of her rent. It also felt like I was completing a chapter with her I had never finished.
Covid 2020 my brother was not doing well in Michigan so I left to go back and stay with him and keep an eye on him. We had a great time. His old gf didn’t like me so it was good to see him after so long.
I met a girl. Wasn’t really looking, I was happy to feel like I needed no one or no thing to bring me happiness. I was entirely adaptable. But after 8 months of seeing her and working a job installing docks we moved In together. I started training again. She encouraged me to do what I loved.
I got a job at a boxing gym in Detroit and we got an apartment closer. I made great progress as a fighter sparring with them and learned a lot from the owner on how to and how not to conduct business. Regardless people requested to train with me often and they were paying 90$/hr.
Eventually I got sick of the way the business was ran and the energy there, it was toxic. And I started WARGARDEN IN 2022.
It started as a mobile training gym, where I would travel to clients with everything they needed to train, meet them at parks or their house or even the gym they preferred. And I slowly began building clients until it paid all my bills.
Eventually I wanted to try my hand at creativity within the business element and began to design gloves and other combat sports gear. They became popular. Now numerous gyms around Michigan sell WARGARDEN products at their gym, the website was built and began yielding as well.
That was my means of a living for two more years until I decided I missed the thrill of challenge and after a lot of train up and a lot of time thinking, I enlisted into the US ARMY. The business was halted temporarily, but looking to relaunch very soon as I have more time following my departure from the Special Forces pipeline. It’s been a wild journey but I am proud to share with any who will listen, and I am proud of this brand that’s endorsed by numerous professional mma fighters, including current UFC contenders, UFC veterans, and even world champions in other organizations such as ONE FC.
Relocating the business base to North Carolina where I am stationed now but i could never forget where it all started back in Detroit, Michigan.
First combat sports brand out of Detroit, Michigan, and first Combat Sports brand to be active duty military owned and operated with the help of my wife (and now a son one day hopefully).
Thank you for your time and consideration to give a read.
You can purchase WARGARDEN gear after the relaunch at WARGARDEN.us.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There were many struggles along the way. Mental struggles. Distractions. Injury. Distractions were the biggest for me, people’s energy and manipulative attempts are so subtle sometimes. You can look to understand them, some get upset, but all is a waste. Learn to read the translation of their words and actions in simple form and be numb to it. Like reading the weather. Change direction and avoid until you’re back on track. Don’t waste your time trying to understand the irrational.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
WARGARDEN is the first active duty military brand owned and operated by someone who has experience in the fight world. And each item is designed from scratch with the help of a handful of great suppliers that allow me to design unique products with a purpose, where many of today’s brands use a template where all that varies is the logo and color printed on it.
The modifications have started small, but I have a lot of models unreleased that I can’t wait to see how the combat sports world accepts them. I know that the true artists will appreciate and I can’t wait to showcase!
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I bounced around from a lot of different things. When I was very young I was very sheltered, so as I grew older I learned to thrive in conversations and interaction, but it wasn’t always that way. Now I can look back and be thankful that things happened this way. Being an outcast programs you to think that you are different, and I think that’s required to stand out in a positive way as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://WARGARDEN.us
- Instagram: @wargarden.us
- Facebook: @wargarden.us
