The fox that wouldn't stop showing up, and what it taught us about building a Jiu-Jitsu brand.
People ask about the name a lot. VULKX.
Here's the actual story.
Before there was a club, before there was a logo, there was just me walking around Battersea trying to work out what this thing was supposed to be. I'd been training and competing for over 15 years by that point, and had run a school before, but starting a new club brand is a different challenge entirely. It's not about your story with Jiu-Jitsu. It's about what you're actually building and why anyone should care.
I knew the why, but was still trying to figure out the what. I also knew I wanted a brand that resonated with the story of Jiu-Jitsu in London. Not just the story that had already happened, but the story that hadn't happened yet.
One night, walking near Battersea Park, a fox stopped in front of me. Just stood there. Didn't bolt, didn't creep off, just looked at me for longer than felt normal.
I didn't think much of it. London's full of foxes, especially round here.
Next night, I went for another walk. Same thing happened, but this time she got closer and let me pet her before walking off and watching me again from a distance.
Then it happened a third time.
I'm not a superstitious person. I'm not going to pretend a fox was sending me a message. But three times in a row is enough to make you stop and actually look at the thing in front of you instead of walking past it, which, funnily enough, is basically what I'd been failing to do with the brand for weeks.
So I looked at it properly. And it made sense almost instantly.
Foxes don't survive in a city like London by being the biggest or the strongest thing around. There's nothing about a fox that wins a fight against most of what's out there. What they've actually got is attention. They know the streets. They know when to move and when to hold still. They read situations better than almost anything else living here.
That's Jiu Jitsu. You don't win by being bigger. You win by paying more attention and being smarter than the person across from you, by knowing when to move and when to wait.
So the name is literal, once you know it. VULKX comes from Vulpes, the Latin word for fox. The K is from Kaizen, the Japanese philosophy of getting a little bit better on purpose, every day, forever. The X is for experience, because I always wanted a club that puts a good experience as a top priority. Put together, that's the whole idea in one word.
I didn't want to build another gym where people show up to perform for themselves. I wanted somewhere you could turn up exactly as you are, get thoroughly outclassed by someone half your size, and leave a bit sharper than when you walked in. Battersea felt right for that.
The fox isn't there for decoration. It's the reason the club exists in the shape it does. Every time you see it on a gi or a hoodie or the wall of the club, that's what it's there for. A reminder that instinct beats size, and attention beats force, every time.
Not by force. By art.