TapouT was founded in 1997 by Charles with an initial start up capital of just a few thousand dollars. Launched out of a small unfurnished San Bernadino “apartment” (a room in the back of someone’s house), he would drive a borrowed car to small regional MMA shows and sell the few t-shirts he had in the parking lot out of his car trunk.

The landscape of Mixed Martial Arts was very different back then. Senator John McCain strongly opposed the sport calling it “Human Cockfighting”. He championed the cause of outlawing MMA and sent letters to the governors of all 50 states asking that legislation be put into place banning the promotion of these events. McCain was successful in 37 state and almost all pay-per-view providers pulled the UFC, from their programming. Because of this, many of these local shows Charles, later accompanied by Dan aka Punkass and Tim aka SkySkrape would attend with their TapouT apparel were hosted in Native American reservations.

There was no reason to believe that MMA would become as huge as it is today, but Charles, Dan, and Tim, believed in their hearts that the sport would overcome it’s opposition at the time. They had a passion for the sport and what they were doing. They felt it was something that was needed. People would call them dreamers, idiots and retards for essentially banking their futures on a sport which would most likely be gone in a few years.

The three forged on with Charles as their leader. They worked hard getting their brand out there, Dan fulfilled online orders as Charles and Tim drove to local shows selling their inventory by any means necessary. With no marketing budget, Charles, a lifelong comic book fan created alter egos for the crew and thus he became “Mask”, Dan became “Punkass”, and Tim became “SkySkrape”. They would go to shows dressed in outlandish costumes emblazoned with the TapouT logo and became the center of attention wherever they went. They began sponsoring fighters when no one was sponsoring fighters. With so little money this was difficult for them to do in the beginning, but they did whatever they could. Jeff Sherwood from sherdog.com tells a story about how Charles asked him to take a huge duffel bag of TapouT gear to a UFC show with one of their sponsored fighters Scott Adams. Before the show started, Scott went into the crowd and sold every t-shirt in the bag. The few hundred dollars from those sales was his sponsorship money.

Through their hard work and dedication, TapouT generated $30,000 in revenues in 1999. The three were ecstatic. In 2008, TapouT generated over $100,000,000 in revenues.

With Ukulele Underground, I frequently looked to Charles’ story for inspiration. No one gave a crap about MMA or TapouT but they pressed forward because of the passion they had. People called them idiots, dreamers, and they were able to prove all the doubters wrong. More than the money, I looked up to these guys because they were able to provide for themselves by doing something positive for something they really loved.  When looking at their story, it made me feel like we could do it too.

A month or so ago I had the idea of somehow getting in touch with Charles to tell him how much he inspired me. I knew he would know more than anyone what it feels like to do what we are trying to do. With Ukulele Underground, there is no doubt that it will be something huge. It’s never a question of if this is the right thing that I should be doing, the feeling is just there. I know he would understand the elation we feel after each victory no matter how small, and the excitement of inching your way towards a goal.  Somehow I convinced myself not to try yet because Ukulele Underground is still so tiny and it would be a waste of his time. That telling someone like him about an Ukulele website is something he would laugh at. I told myself that I would contact him when it wouldn’t be a waste of his time.  I wish I had sent that email or placed that call anyways. Now I’ll never have that chance.

Tapout.com has a mini-documentary and Charles last interview up and I would recommend everyone to watch it. Also, sherdog.com has a tribute radio show to Charles which, although it is heartbreaking to listen to, it will truly give you insight to how great person he was. His was a life that is worth celebrating. Rest in Peace Charles Lewis Jr.