As early as in 2001 our circle of acquaintances has established friendly contacts to the Philippines, which resulted from several journeys there. Driven by adolescent enthusiasm and an increasing interest in south-east-asian martial arts, we were looking for contact to several distinguished masters and were grateful to have the opportunity to be instructed by them. Finally, during one of these training trips in Manila, the idea of a closer cooperation was born, which led to the founding of Fightingsticks.
Robust rattan sticks - our armamentarium - were hard to get in Germany. Often, the quality was unsufficient or you had to deal with cute bluff packages, which bursted asunder on the first real impact. Others were so overpriced, that intensive training with the common physiologic wearing away became an expensive hobby. We had bought some excellent sticks from Manilas street traders several times, just to use them for our own training and bring them here for our friends. Now we decided, to import them to Germany in a professional way. It was 2006, when we sat together with our filipino friends, persuaded them of our project and became their partners. We informed ourselves about the basics and workflows of international merchandise traffic and opted for import by sea freight. From that time on, we regularly receive shipments from Manila. Our local partners there are small, independent companies. Fair conditions for all parties concerned are close to our hearts, long-term contracts and fixed minimum prices support our manufacturers and suppliers.
Quickly our sticks became common standard in numerous German dojos and training groups. We extended our sortiment and included many new artiles related to south-east-asian martial arts and realistic self-defence, which we purchase in Germany and the USA. Others are being manufactured exclusively for us in accordance with our instructions. After a while, inquiries from other european countries reached us. So, in 2007, we consequentially took the next step and made it possible for our all customers within the EU to shop with us. The enormous interest and request farly exceeded all our expectations. Numerous customers from Finland to Italy were convinced by the quality of our products, the reliableness of our service and the quickness of our deliveries. Among them are well-known instructors for martial arts, self-defence and law enforcement as well as tradespersons and martial arts stores. Since january 1st 2009 we also dispatch to several non-EU-countries, f.e. Norway, Russia, Turkey and others.
