Rener Gracie talks shop on reality series and clothing line: The question isn’t if, it’s when

By Victor Rodriguez @VicMRodriguez

One half of the dynamic duo with his brother Ryron, Rener Gracie has been a ball of energy that never stays happy with reaching one objective. There’s always another shiny object to pursue with him, and it’s led to venturing outside of his academy in Torrance, CA to his online courses, DVD packages, and a TV pilot for a reality series.

Now he’s on to another big move, starting his own apparel company and keeping it all in line with his Jiu-Jitsu background. After an appearance on the ABC series Shark Tank, Rener’s still not done.

He sat down with me to talk shop and what led to all of this, and he’s as vocal as ever.

Victor Rodriguez: So when you came up with the concept for the reality series, how did you come up with that concept and then present that to the network when you were going in for that pitch?

Rener Gracie: So what happened was we had always had a lot of experience using Jiu-Jitsu to change people’s lives — whether it was bullied children, law enforcement officers, Navy Seals, everyone in between — that we just always felt that there was a chance here to show the rest of the world how life-changing Jiu-Jitsu can be. We had met with a few different production companies and we settled in with one that really understood the vision and wanted to help us bring it to life. It was pretty exciting and that’s kind of where the idea came from. It’s always been on our mind that what we do here is very special. The impact that Jiu-Jitsu has on people is very unique and very profound. If we could kinda show that to the world, we could possibly inspire more people to train Jiu-Jitsu to build confidence and and learn self-defense but more importantly just become better as individuals.

VR: Right…

RG: We wanted to make sure people understood how it was practicable as a martial art, inspiring people more, not with the professional fighter aspect of the art, but what the everyday person can gain from Jiu-Jitsu.

VR: You made a pretty curous choice for the pilot — you had a guy that had a pretty sad backstory, a guy that had been through a lot of struggles throughout his life prior to the incident that made him internet famous. Was he the first option, the only option that you guys had? Did you plan on choosing someone else a guest?

RG: No, he was the first pick and we were able to get a hold of him. We had seen the video of him, he got beat up in that street fight, and we didn’t know what we were gonna get. So we reached out to him and once we got a response that he was willing and able to partake in the training, we went for it. We were very happy with the results since we never knew what we were gonna get, but we knew no matter what came to us, Jiu-Jitsu would sort it out. And we were right.

VR: Do you have any idea if he’s still training to this day?

RG: Yeah, he trains on and off at certified training centers of ours. He moves around a lot from New York to Arizona, so he doesn’t really stay consistently in one location, but he’s definitely kept training, yeah.

VR: That’s great, that’s fantastic. Good that he’s able to continue on that path. Once you start and it gets its hooks in you, it’s hard to stop. So I guess I’ll have to ask the question about the not-so-great news, right? You finally produce the pilot, you present it, and it all came down to one person in the production room who I guess wasn’t very thrilled with what he saw. Why do you think that was, or what reason would there be if you had to guess for them to not greenlight the show?

RG: Well, it’s kind of the ebb and flow of what a network is looking to put out at any given time. What’s right for a network one year could be wrong for the network next year. It was that situation where the network was going through a major transformation and something like this with this close a tie to — especially with the first episode having a degree of violence in it with the fight that we were referencing, and LJ’s background. So it was something that you know, may have spooked someone that’s sitting in the big chair and once they decided against it — even though everyone below them was super enthusiastic and loved the pilot — everyone was just totally on board and the production company we were working with was just like “man, this is one of the best pilots we’ve ever made“. Everyone was about it, then it just got blocked at the top. That was several years ago, and here we are.

VR: Are you at liberty to say what network it was?

RG: I don’t know if it’s… I don’t know if we should, or need to

VR: That’s perfectly fine. So you have the rights to the program back, you put the show on YouTube, do you have any potential suitors as of yet or are you still sort of shopping it around?

RG: Yeah, it’s still being passed around. A lot of people are super excited about it, there’s like almost two or three hundred thousand views on YouTube, so that gets people excited. And we had some friends pass it along to the executives at Netflix, so we’ll see what happens. This is not… this is an exciting thing that can happen, but is definitely not something I need to have happen for my life. If it does, great. If it doesn’t, it’s no problem. But I think it’s a good thing, I think the world is ready for the show. Because of the popularity of Jiu-Jitsu and MMA, and the fact that it’s much more than what MMA makes of it. Jiu-Jitsu is much more to many more people than professional fighters that use it in the octagon. And because of that, I feel that the show eventually happen no matter what. The question isn’t if, it’s a matter of when.

VR: Well you do have a lot of things going on, so I guess we’ll move from one adventure to the next. Recently you were on Shark Tank and you were going out there to pitch a proposal for your apparel line. I gotta say, I don’t really watch the show very often, so number one, you did something that was close to impossible, which is getting me to watch the show. But you also got me to enjoy it, because it was actually a lot of fun to see you go in there, and you went in there guns blazing. I don’t think they were expecting you to have not just the energy that you brought, but to be as prepared as you were with all the information you needed out there. What was that experience like for you, and did you anticipate that things would go pretty much the way they did?

RG: The experience was wild, and yeah, you deal several months in advance with the production company and people telling you what’s gonna happen. Just kind of fill you in on the details of the situation, so I was aware. But you know, it’s more intense in the moment when you’re in the tanks with the sharks there. They don’t know anything about you, right? Never met you, they know nothing about your business or about you personally, so it’s a truly authentic interaction, and that reality takes to where it’s real. Real thoughts, everything you see happen, obviously, you’re in there for an extended period of time so they really chop it down in terms of how much is actually shown on TV. I was in there for 45 minutes. That got cut down to about ten and a half, eleven minutes. Besides that though, it all went down, it was real. I just thought to myself “as long as I don’t stop selling, don’t stop pitching my product and my company, I can’t go wrong.“ I had worked on this company, Quikflip Apparel for the last year and a half, two years now, and everyone who sees it loves it. The quality of the product, the convertibility, and I’ve been showing it all over the country at shows and on the streets and just anywhere I get a chance. Every single person who sees the product loves it. So I was confident that I had something unique and special that would intrigue the sharks, so I was very… like Jiu-Jitsu — I knew what I had going into the fight, you know what I’m saying? I knew I had the leverage, I knew I had the technique, I knew I had what it took to make it happen, it’s just a matter of whether or not things go your way in that very intense 45 minute interaction. And fortunately for me, they did. It was very successful, we had three offers, from different sharks and we were able to seal the deal with Lori (Greiner).

VR: It was funny, because I remember Lori saying something to the extent of “are you always this animated?“ or “do you always have this much energy?“ and as someone who has been watching interviews or hearing interviews that you’re in, I was sort of like “oh, lady… you’re gonna learn today…“

RG: (Laughs)

VR: And then Daymond (John) had asked “are you gonna let us talk?” and I sat back up again and thought to myself, again, “you’re gonna learn today.“ You really went into very extensive explanations into not just what the product was and what you were trying to do with it, but you also brought out your brother and it was cool to see you get one over on him there as well.

RG: Thanks.

VR: I just want to know, how involved is he in all this?

RG: No, Ryron’s not involved in Quikflip at all, he was just supportive and for that I needed a badguy so I can show how effectively secure the backpack is during the conversion process and he was willing to come out and put some pressure on me to show I can do Jiu-Jitsu even with the backpack on.

VR: I’m glad it was him. I suppose it was either him or Bubba Gracie, am I correct

RG: Exactly!

VR: If I know one thing about Rener Gracie, it’s that he’s not a guy to sit there and rest on his laurels. I’m sure you’ve got something else cooking now, don’t you?

RG: Oh, man! (laughs) That one’s top secret.