The Concept for this Rash Guard Design
It started as a 10th Planet Masury Instagram post.
When the final season of Stranger Things dropped, I made a graphic for 10th Planet Masury where I turned our actual gym into the Upside Down—our building, just flipped into that dark, stormy world of the mind flayer.
The members demanded: “We need this on a rash guard.”
At that point it wasn’t even a project yet—it was just a concept people connected with.
So I took that same idea, built it out into a full design that actually works on a kit, and that’s when the Strangle Things name clicked.
This Isn’t Just a Graphic — It Has to Be Built for Production
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This is the part most people don’t realize.
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Designing a rash guard isn’t just making something that looks cool on Instagram.
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The manufacturer can’t do anything with a flattened mockup or an AI-generated image. If you send them a JPEG, you’re stuck.
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I’ve talked directly with manufacturers and they all say the same thing: they need real files.
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That means:
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high-resolution artwork
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properly separated elements
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clean layouts that match how the garment is actually constructed
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files that can be printed, cut, and sewn correctly
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Every piece of this kit—the front, back, sleeves, and shorts—was built with that in mind from the start.
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So when it goes to production, there’s no guesswork. It just works.
The Front — Built Around the Concept
The front of the rash guard is where the concept lives.
Everything is built around that upside down environment—red sky, lightning, clouds, the mind flayer from Stranger Things—and it’s not just layered randomly.
And this is 10th Planet Masury's actual building. I took the photo myself before jiu-jitsu one day, knowing exactly what I was going to turn it into.
The design is structured so the logo still reads clearly, even with everything going on behind it.
That’s something a lot of designs get wrong. They either:
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overpower the branding
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or play it so safe that the design feels flat
This keeps both.
And after all the time that went into building the full scene, the detail people notice most is simple —“Masury, OH” flipped upside down.
That’s the stuff people connect with. The little details.
The Back — Adding Depth Without Breaking the Design
The back is where the design pushes the Stranger Things concept further—but it’s still controlled.
The storm builds, the lightning intensifies, and the whole environment leans heavier into that Upside Down feel. But the focal point is still the 10th Planet Masury logo. That comes first.
Everything else is built around it.
Vecna sits in the background, blended into the storm so you might not even notice him right away. And that’s intentional.
The goal wasn’t to hit you over the head with it. It’s one of those details you catch after looking at it for a second, and once you see it, it changes how you read the whole design.
The lightning helps drive that structure too. It’s not just there for effect—it’s guiding your eye back toward the logo so the branding never gets lost.
And like the front, the fade into black at the bottom is deliberate. That transition makes the rash guard connect cleanly into the shorts so the whole thing reads as one full fight kit instead of separate pieces.
Sleeve Design — Where Details Live
The sleeves are built off Vecna’s skin texture from Stranger Things.
Instead of trying to force more storm or background elements into them, I kept it focused on that organic, almost vein-like texture so it feels like it’s part of the same world as the back—but still different enough to break things up.
It gives the whole kit a more aggressive feel without turning it into visual overload.
Running down the sleeve is the “Strangle Things” type, placed vertically so it reads clean but doesn’t take over the design.
And then there’s a small detail most people don’t catch right away—the “010” tattoo on the arm.
That’s pulled directly from Vecna’s “001” tattoo in the show, but flipped to “010” for 10th Planet.
It’s not something you notice immediately, but once you see it, it makes the whole concept click even more.
Fight Shorts — Built to Complete the Kit
The shorts carry the same storm energy as the rash guard, but they’re simplified so the whole kit doesn’t feel repetitive.
If you mirror the top exactly, it turns into one big, busy graphic—especially once you’re moving. This keeps the same lightning and atmosphere, just controlled so it reads clean on the mat and on camera.
Placement is doing a lot of work here too. The leg logo is positioned to stay visible, the vertical “10th Planet” hit adds identity without taking over, and the waistband detail ties everything back to the concept.
And just like the rest of the kit, this isn’t just designed to look good—it’s built for production. Shorts have seams, stretch, and paneling, so everything has to be mapped correctly and delivered in proper files (not mockups) for a manufacturer to actually use.
That’s what turns this from a design into a real custom BJJ fight kit.
Let's Design a Custom Rash Guard for Your BJJ, Jiu-Jitsu, or MMA Gym
If you’re looking to get custom rash guards or a full fight kit made for your gym, team, or brand, this is where most people get stuck. They have an idea. Maybe even a mockup.
But when it comes time to actually produce it, manufacturers can’t do anything with a JPEG or an AI-generated image. They need real files. That means:
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high-resolution artwork
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properly layered designs
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correct sizing and placement for each panel
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files that are actually built for production
If that part isn’t done right, the final product doesn’t come out the way you expect. Simple as that.
That’s where I come in.
I am not only a BJJ practitioner, but a professional graphic artist. I design custom rash guards and fight kits for jiu-jitsu gyms, 10th Planet affiliates, MMA fighters, and teams that want something original—and something that actually gets produced correctly.
Everything is built from scratch and structured the right way, so when you send it to a manufacturer, they can use it without guesswork.
No templates. No shortcuts. No “hope this works” files.
Just a clean, production-ready custom BJJ rash guard design that looks exactly how it should when it’s printed, worn, and put to use.
