From Funeral Home to Fight Gear Empire: James Hogaboom’s Journey to Building Cageside/Toro Brands
James Hogaboom “Boomer” - founder of Cageside/Toro Brands:
I was on the high school wrestling team for 4 years. My final match was in 1993, & at age seventeen, recognizing I wasn’t collegiate wrestling material, I thought - “that’s it, I’ll never do this again!” .
Fast forward to February of 2006, & I’m working as a funeral director & embalmer. After thirteen years, I realized I was very unhappy & unfulfilled with my career. Call it fate, but a mixed martial arts gym was, coincidentally, under construction adjacent to the funeral home where I worked! I was really excited to attend their opening day! So there I was, thirty years old & hooked on a new passion: American style kickboxing & MMA!
Soon after beginning kickboxing & MMA, the equipment intrigued me, too! Boxing gloves & shin guards became my new pursuit; so in addition to eBay, I set-up my own website: BoomersMMA.com. I started to get some wholesale accounts with several major fight companies in the U.S. By November of 2006, Boomers MMA became Cageside MMA, & in February of 2007, we were producing Cageside MMA gloves & shorts.
This was a very exciting time, I had found my true calling! Working 50 to 70 hours a week at the funeral home, in addition to countless hours growing Cageside; filling orders at night, & trips to the post office during lunch breaks; I somehow still found time to train.
Our product line continued to expand, while still distributing for other major fight brands. In February of 2008, my wife had her full of my exhausting work schedule, so after a discussion, we jointly decided that I would put in my two weeks’ notice at the funeral home. With her unwavering support, I was going “ALL IN” on Cageside . . .
Who Remembers the "CAGESIDE VAN"?
