Tapout; douchebaggery or throwback jersey?

Everyone knows someone who wears TAPOUT clothing. Shirts embossed with the above emblem in varying colors, or maybe the extreme-sportsesque stylized tees with cage print, or blood spatters, or a dude with fire for hair or...whatever. But do they wear these because they're a bunch of wannabe, douchebag jerks or are they supporting their favorite sport?

Haha. Let's go over an experiment I did.

It's become apparent that a certain stigma surrounds people who rock Tapout. I had to test this theory.

I bought a red tee with grey TAPOUT on the chest, the plainest design I could find. Also, I saw one of my more favorite fighters, Dan Hardy, wearing this while he was practicing for his title shot against my #1 favorite fighter, GSP. (DISCLAIMER: I wear it to work out in. I think rocking it to go out in as party attire is a bit much.) The first day I wore it to the gym, I was on the look out for people eyeballing me. It didn't have much effect on people in the weight room, but the people in the crossfit section who were A. Overweight B. Older certainly hooked me up with an evil eye. More so when I put on my training gloves and started doing bag work. I thought it was making me look like less of a poser to actually be doing MMA related stuff in the gym, however, people were a lot more passive agressive than usual. (I hate that about the gym, people not making eye contact, but still paying attention to you with no words exchanged, what's the big deal?)

Next I was on my way to the cardio/weight machine room. Every day in the treadmill area of Ft. Huachucas gym are the same people I see every day there. The army guy in the sleeveless shirt reading romance novels while he hits the elliptical, the fat kid and his mom not doing cardio, but sitting on the leg press/ab machines, the hispanic ladies who are going way too hard, but are in obvious shape because they run for like, hours. Anyway, this hardcore group didn't seem to care what shirt I was wearing, or even notice that anyone else was in the room. I like the cardio room for this reason, because most of the time, the majority of people in there are working out, and have really, really cool haircuts.

But what really drove the fact home was something on my way out of the gym. Up to this point it was on the fence whether or not people who wear Tapout are douchebags in general. However...

I was walking back to my car when two Jersey Shore extras were approaching on foot, orange skin, carrying racquet ball equipment and actual K-Swiss Tennis shoes, designer everything, and they had popped collars and aviator glasses. I was like "oh man, what douchebags." And, sure enough, as I passed by in my TapouT shirt I got a "What's up, BRO?" with a chin-up head nod.

Son, I am disappointed.

I now officially cannot wear anything that says TapouT on it unless I am at the gym, because I literally don't care what I look like in there. However, gone are the days that TapouT is acceptable to hit a bar in, or to go to the movies.

Dethrone, that's where it's at.