Piranha Gear was a martial arts supply company based in San Jose, California. Started originally in 2004, it became a “full-time gig” in January of 2007. It was run (with glee and stoicism) by the owner, Bill Herndon, until the end of April 2018. Bill’s background in martial arts started in 1980 with Kenpo (which he still does) and a very heavy dose of other styles – especially Aikido, Koga (a law enforcement variation of Aikido), and HEMA (fencing with “real” swords).
If you really REALLY still want a shirt or something, you can try emailing “Closed2018” followed by the domain name “@PiranhaGear.com”. Spam along was too much on the “Customer Service” emails, so those are just going to bounce as of 2019. No guarantee that it will get a timely response, but it’s the most likely way to get in touch with someone at this point.
PLEASE put a bunch of “@@@@@”s together at the start of the subject line to help it stand out from any of the spam that still shows up.
The Twitter profile is still up at the moment, so a direct message to @PiranhaGear might also work. Or a comment on one of the blog posts will likely get some attention… 😉
And yes – sad to close, but everyone ended up OK in the end.
On to the next chapter…
Piranha Gear's Blog 
The first 3 gis that I ever bought were from Pirahnha Gear when I started BJJ back in 2010. I still have them, in addition to others, and they vary in their degree of weatheredness. Two of them are double-weaves (they still have some miles left) and the other was the basic all-around grappling gi (it’s almost a long sleeve shirt at this point).
I wish you well in your next endeavours and thank you for making high quality training gear.
Regards,
Rob
I’m glad to hear the uniforms are still banging away! A good reminder to me and others than it’s not just about making a buck, but people really do appreciate quality, durability and being treating like online workout partners! 🙂
My first grappling uniform was a Piranha Gear double weave. I was just cleaning my desk and found the receipt (with sticker) from 2011. It’s still holding up beautifully. I wore a ‘Shock Wave’ training last night from almost the same vintage. It’s pretty weathered, but structurally sound. Sorry to hear you had to close up shop. Good luck on your further adventures.
Matt – glad to hear and the comments are appreciated, but what about the poor sticker… 😦 pick something, put the sticker on it, and make it happy! 😉
Just learning about this. Sorry to see you go brother. What’s your new gig? Osu!
Thanks – got an offer a few months ago to take over as Controller and Business Manager for a company here in the Bay Area. Company doing well and I’m looking forward to growing with it. Nice people and the new owners and I get along well. “Working for the Man”, but it’s been a pretty good gig so far and they seem to be happy with me too. Things could have turned out WAY darker, so all-in-all it really worked out in the end – just a different direction than I expected. I hope your path is working for you.
Right on man. I wish you a peaceful and prosperous path ahead. Thank you for your many contributions. Piranha Gear will be missed!
My first Gi was a Piranha Gi. I remember walking into class and my instructor poking fun for how thin the Gi looked – telling me not to wash it in the dryer because it would shrink, or that the lapel would just tear off. Of course, I dried it on the dryer – because my Piranha Gi was already pre-shrunk.
The little guy lasted well after I became the senior student at the dojo. My instructor then praised the Gi because of it’s quality and light weight.
Going back into the scene after 4 years idle and of course I wanted a new Piranha Gi.
Good things come and go, memories last forever. Thank you guys for all your hard work and dedication to the world. We love you and know you love us – we are family.
God Bless.
So very kind of you! I wish we could have kept plugging along, but it wasn’t meant to be! At least you’ve got those memories! 😉
Would you mind telling, what circumstances forced you to give up your brand & business?
It’s pretty much described in the post about closing. Amazon was completely unhelpful and actually in one significant way they actually *helped* companies claim they sold my products or listed counterfeits. Each item this happened to would get multiple 1 star ratings and returns, then Amazon would tell me the quality of the item was unacceptable and remove it from searches “until I can fix it.” I didn’t want to close down, but wasn’t up for the legal fight that was looming. It also became tiring to spend so much time “fighting the bad guys.” Then I was approached with an offer to run another business and it didn’t make sense to keep up the good fight for seemingly little payoff and significant risk.
Just learned about your closing and I am sorry to hear this. I purchased your hand and foot gear in 2017 and absolutely love them. They have worn very well and still look brand new. Good luck with your future plans.
Dick – thanks so much. I was lucky to make gear I liked that others liked too (great way to pay for my “custom stuff” when no one else made those things *just right*). Good run and certainly paid off for myself, my family, and my employees. It was a shame that it had to end with the “bad guys” winning, but I’ll let other/younger people continue the fight… 😉 Just glad that I ended up using the experience in another career and my employees were able to leverage things too. We still do “company lunches” and have remained friends, but I do miss the time together and working for so many great people like yourself!