Witnessing the Growth of Show the ART
Every time someone shares a Show The ART video it brings a smile to my face. My friends Abe and Marcos have created something amazing. It’s incredible how far they have come in just 3 years. They are now one of the most recognized presences on social media for grappling, with a ridiculous amount of followers through Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
Nelson (pre-tacos) and Marcos
I have known Marcos since we were purple belts. We were both Jersey guys that commuted to the city for noon class at Alliance NYC. We would take turns getting absolutely demolished by Lucas Lepri, Babs and the rest of NYC crew. That's how I became friends with Marcos and Abe. We started arranging trips to train together in NJ. I remember after one of these training sessions, they asked me to help them out with a project and told me about their vision for Show the ART. I gladly accepted and we filmed this video:
Their brand has grown quite a bit since then, to about 60,000 followers, give or take. We have helped each other out by cross-promoting, and recently we have even done collaboration projects, like our rashguard, our first gi and now our second gi. Marcos and Abe got the ball rolling picking up the color scheme and details they wanted it, Hillary “Hillarized-it” as Marcos would say, and it came out great.
There is so much BJJ content available online now. Tournaments and PPVs happen just about every weekend. It is a far cry from what we used to have when I started. Back then only a few matches would make it to YouTube, and if they did, the quality was awful. I remember saving up and pooling money with friends to get DVDs of Worlds and ADCC.
Show the ART is amazing at curating short clips to highlight talented grapplers. I truly look forward to seeing what they put out everyday. I love how it can be a Brazilian world champion black belt one day, and a teenage competitor from NJ the next. Even yours truly has made the cut a few times. Abe and Marcos have an amazing eye for beautiful jiu-jitsu, and they really take the art to heart, and not only BJJ, but music, photography, movies. These guys really nerd out about it.
If you've been living under a rock and haven’t checked out their Instagram feed yet, please go and take a look. While you are at it give, their podcast a listen. They do a great job and they had some amazing guests on it, including some Nelson guy. Here are some of my favorite ones.
