Satisfaction with current martial arts’ uniforms and purchase intention of new uniforms

Introduction Martial arts refers to various systems of training for combat, including Karate, Taekwondo, Kung Fu, Judo, Jujitsu, Tai Chi, Aikido, Hapkido, Muay Thai, Mixed Martial Arts, etc. (Rousseau 2015). The martial arts industry has grown tremendously (Ko 2003). The total revenue of the martial arts studio industry in the world was $3 billion in 2014, and the average annual growth rate was 1.2% from 2009 to 2014 (Diment 2014). As the number of people involved in martial arts increases, the demand for martial arts uniforms increases. Although martial arts clothing has been a high growth product, academic research has focused little on it. Previous research conducted on martial arts mostly emphasized how to prevent injury (Kochhar et al. 2005) and few patents therefore focused on developing protective devices (Chi et al. 2004). No study has examined martial arts practitioners’ clothing needs, whether, practitioners are satisfied with their current uniforms and what types of uniforms they prefer to purchase are unclear. Therefore, Abstract