Why "Black Flag"??
“It is a blessing for a man to have a hand in determining his own fate.” -Blackbeard
Actually, one of the number one questions we get asked by new clients… Why the name Black Flag? Why a pirate gym? Well here’s exactly why we settled on the name “Black Flag Gym.” Number one- we 100% knew we would never open up a chain gym. Not our style and in our opinion if you’re going to open your own business you should have the freedom to do it your way without a corporate franchise over your shoulder.
Number two- we went through a list of around 120 names all of which were extremely different than Black Flag and about 100 of those were already being used all over the country by multiple businesses. We could’ve stolen some generic name and it would’ve worked fine but again, not our style. Charleston is rich in pirate history and we took that into account…
The reason we chose Black Flag wasn’t just by default or process of elimination. What we set out to build was a gym not affiliated with any particular camp. Why did pirates create their own flags? Because they had no affiliation with any particular country, state, province nor did they answer to any higher body. We’re not a powerlifting gym, we’re not a CrossFit, we’re not a bodybuilding gym. It’s our belief that if you settle into one particular camp it will hinder your progress throughout.
What rules did pirates follow? Short answer is none. But… pirates had their own codes and these codes were unbreakable. This goes back to not opening a franchise. Honestly, it would’ve been easier. They give you all the marketing tools, systems and backing as long as you pay a franchise fee. We’ve broken almost every rule in the book when it comes to how things “should” be done.
We weren’t business majors, had zero management experience and frankly had no idea what we were doing. We were told it was a bad idea, the logo was too scary, it was going to be too hard blah, blah, blah. But, we knew gyms…we knew strength and conditioning. Build your own code and live by that. Don’t listen to the rules…in fact break the rules at every turn- there might be something great that comes from it.
Lastly, pirates are awesome…