Amidst the Covid-19 crisis affecting countries around the world, many Dollamur businesses have continued to thrive with the help of trustworthy and quality Dollamur products – Kimber Martial Arts is one of those businesses! With the help of Sensei, Steve Wagner, we’ve interviewed the owner, Kimber Tyree, about the success of their Martial Arts business. Read on to learn more about them!

Kimber Martial Arts was originally founded in 1994 under the name of Modern Martial Arts Academy by Damon and Kimber Hill.  Passionate about making a difference for families through martial arts, they started karate classes for kids and adults ages 8 and up and then quickly expanded to include programs for children as young as age 3, as well as fitness kickboxing for adults in 1997.  As the school continued to grow, they added summer camps and an after-school program to better meet the needs of their families in 1999.  In 2008, the Hill’s divorced. Kimber bought her husband out of the business then rebranded the school as Modern Martial Arts Academy, Inc. DBA Kimber Martial Arts.  Between the divorce and the Great Recession, enrollment dropped from over 400 students to approximately 200 students.  We believe that between the diversity and quality of our programming, our phenomenal team, and the extraordinary customer service we provided, unlike many, we were able to keep the school going through those tough times.  Although it was slow growing during the recession, business systems learned from the Martial Arts Industry Association and Championship Martial Arts had us working smarter instead of harder and realizing bigger profits than when we had 400+ students.

Now today, those same qualities are responsible for us having a record year financially amidst the Covid-19 crisis, allowing us to upgrade our facility with a custom Dollamur mat system during the temporary shutdown of our country in the Spring of 2020.  Switching from gymnastics flooring (carpet bonded to foam) to a custom Dollamur Flexi-Connect system (vinyl martial arts mats) makes it much easier to clean and disinfect and allows us to keep our school at max capacity while ensuring the safety of our students.  Not only do they look amazing, but the confidence that the families have in our commitment to take care of our students during these challenging times has made the transformation worthwhile.  So much so, that many of our members have stepped up as volunteers to help us with student curbside check in which includes temperature checks and sanitizing hands as well as disinfecting the facility between classes.

“Teamwork makes the dream work” is our motto.  Whether we are talking about our paid staff, our student leaders, our parent volunteers, or our vendors, our teams have really stepped up and worked together to make the challenges of 2020 a bonding and successful experience.  Kimber’s new husband, Chris, installed the new Dollamur floor as well as repainted the entire facility and remodeled the bathrooms.  Sensei Steve, Chief Instructor of KMA, kept students on track via Zoom classes while we were closed and now that we have reopened, continues to develop our students into outstanding Black Belts.  Our General Manager, Ms. Teresa, is the glue that keeps all the moving parts working together.  And our Summer Camp Director, Ms. Jess used the time working from home to design the best and most successful Summer Camp we have run to date.  Several of our high-ranking students took on Leadership Training so they could be an extension of our paid team in providing an extraordinary customer experience during these unprecedented times.  And our karate parents are the absolute best!

Dollamur as well as the Martial Arts Industry Association, Century Martial Arts Supply, and Championship Martial Arts are all included in that shout out to our vendors.  When the country shut down and everyone was working from home, we realized that we needed a new training floor before we could reopen to confidently handle the enhanced disinfecting protocols. David Torres at Dollamur took my initial call for information and held my hand through the entire process, all while working from his home in California.  He went above and beyond in making sure all my questions were answered, my design was perfect, and my budget was met.  For those who know Kimber, you know that is a tall order and he fulfilled it all and on time.  We are so glad we went with Dollamur and so grateful we were able to work with David.

Now with the world shifting to more online training, we are in the process of filming training videos for our current students as well as hoping to engage potential new students with our online training platform.  The best part is that our logo is in every video since it is part of our new mat system!

Dollamur is glad to help businesses thrive during tough times and there are many ways we are making this possible! Give our team a call to learn more about suiting your dojo with Martial Arts mats or visit www.dollamur.com!