OXFORD – A local graphic designer has combined his love of mixed martial arts and his design skills to launch a new brand of apparel and other merchandise which he believes will appeal to other fans of the sport.

On Sunday, Mitch Cluff will unveil the first phase of his Extreme Striker line at the AIM Fitness’ Family Fitness Day in Weiler Park.

Cluff explained that he has been a fan of mixed martial arts and its premier competitive forum, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, for several years. He even trained for a time to become a fighter, but decided, at the age of 32, that he was too old to start competing.

“I still wanted to stay involved in the sport,” he said, and the idea for Extreme Striker was born. In October of 2008 he began to work on his business plan, and formed Striker Athletics, LLC. In the following months, he spent time researching trademarking issues. He also researched other companies whose success he wanted to emulate, particularly TapouT, which bills itself as the “premier lifestyle brand of the MMA.”

According to Cluff, TapouT’s founders started the company with only a few thousand dollars of start up capital, selling t-shirts out of the trunk of their car at events. In just over a decade, they built the business into a global brand grossing hundreds of millions of dollars a year. In addition to their clothing line, they also sponsor fighters and events, and even have a reality TV series.