Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Johnson.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was raised on the northwest side of Chicago. At a very young age, our parents enrolled me and my older brother in a martial arts program that would become the start of a lifelong journey in combat sports. The gym cultivated a unique community of weekend warriors (doctors, firemen, restaurateurs) and professional fighters (kickboxers, boxers, MMA competitors) – truly becoming our second family. We were total gym rats there – it was grueling training, but we loved it! My brother and I maintained our training routine (focused more on the boxing/kickboxing side as we got older), sparring every week.
Professionally, I was exposed to the world of consumer start-ups in finance and operations roles at Trunk Club (in Chicago) and at MVMT Watches (a role for which I moved to Los Angeles years ago). Being around the respective Trunk Club and MVMT teams during such rapid growth was incredible. Many of my coworkers inspired me to want to pursue my own entrepreneurial dreams.
My brother and I discussed running a business together for many years. We grew up in ‘90s Chicago, die-hard MJ-era Bulls fans and lovers of all things sneakers and fashion. We wanted to capture some of the magic of sneaker culture and bring it to the boxing glove and fight gear space – crafting truly elevated products in both form and function.
This desire to build a consumer brand together around a shared passion fueled the founding of Tensho. Translated as “revolving hands” in Japanese and named for a martial art form we learned as children, Tensho is dedicated to the role models in our lives, both from our immediate family and our gym family. Much of how we designed the Tensho offering, including our custom box packaging and even the smell of the leather, was inspired by our experience with Jordans as kids. The core of our team is in West LA, but we serve customers throughout the U.S. with our online product assortment of boxing gloves and apparel.
We see a tremendous opportunity to plant our flag as the modern brand in our space, both in terms of a fresh aesthetic and modern customer experience.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I have been blessed to be around and learn from incredible entrepreneurs and coworkers during my tenures at Trunk Club and MVMT. Both companies truly captured lightning in a bottle and created energized customer bases. I was lucky enough to be able to support both companies in strategic exits to larger respected businesses.
That said, there were certainly challenges of scale that were unique to each company and to my areas specifically. I learned the most when times were the toughest, even though those times were also the most physically, mentally, and emotionally draining.
Regarding the launch of Tensho, the brand was actually born out of a personal struggle. Right when my brother and I began ideating on the brand, I had a freak personal injury during a visit back home to Chicago. It was quite a traumatic experience that could have been far worse, albeit the physical fall-out did stick with me for many months. But it was also a wakeup call – it was time to live life on my own terms by starting Tensho and making the most of every single day.
I had a conversation with my boss back in LA the very next business day I returned to work post-recovery, communicating my transition plan to leave MVMT as I build Tensho.
It certainly has not been easy launching a business during the pandemic or launching right as I became a first-time parent (a wonderful baby girl!). But I am lucky to have an incredibly supportive wife, cofounder/brother, family, and friend network that always have my back.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Tensho is positioning itself as the modern gear brand in the combat sports space. The spectrum of brands in our sport tends to split between legacy brands that haven’t changed much over the years and newer companies with more over-the-top branding. We see an alternative option to carve out space for a modern aesthetic and branding that doesn’t patronize our followers or take itself too seriously.
We offer an initial assortment of boxing gloves (the Origin Series) along with micromodal/supima blend training shirts. We’re continuing to build out our assortment of training equipment and apparel, with many products launching later in the year. Overall, our product assortment is defined by a more snug, contoured fit for both our gloves and shirts, along with a focus on elevated, tonal branding.
I am most proud of the gym partner and training/coach relationships that we’re building, particularly at a time when the overall training community is just starting to recover from pandemic-related challenges. We’re also starting to sponsor professional fighters with whom we’ve built some solid organic relationships, and we’re proud of the ways we’re able to step up the type of support they get from their gear partners.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Of course – check out our site (tenshogear.com) and social (@tenshogear). And take care of yourself out there!
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: tenshogear.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tenshogear/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TenshoGear/
