Share This Article
When you think of intense, all-action combat sports, pillow fighting doesn’t necessarily come to mind.
However, the Pillow Fight Championship is revolutionizing the way we view the “slumber party” tradition.
The Pillow Fight Championship gives us the thrill of hand-to-hand combat without gruesome injuries, blood, and extreme violence.
To succeed in the sport, competitors still require good levels of skill, endurance, and strength which makes watching Pillow Fight Championship events a whole lot of fun.
The Pillow Fight Championship was founded by Steve Williams and his brother Paul and they held their first event in August 2021.
The action consists of three, ninety-second rounds where competitors score points by striking their opponent to the head with their pillow. There is absolutely no striking or grappling allowed during the encounter, however, knockouts and technical knockouts are allowed.
We sat down to interview the CEO of the Pillow Fight Championship, Steve Williams, about the rise of the sport and just how the idea came to fruition.
We love to feature up-and-coming and innovative sports and the emergence of new types of competitions.
How the Pillow Fight Championship was created
Regular readers of Business Of Sport know how much we cover developing sports and leagues; it’s a real favorite of ours (think the XFL and more). So, first up, we had to ask, where in the world does an idea for people to bash the living daylights out of each other with a pillow come from?
“The Pillow Fighting aspect was my brother Paul’s idea. It came about as I was designing an MMA show called Fight Truck which is a transforming mobile stage that is designed to travel town to town and put on local MMA fights with local performers. The plan was to be a streaming show with the transformer being the star as it would unfold and fold with the speed of the times on a SpaceX rocket. You can see it at www.FightTruck.com I received a patent on it earlier this year.”
However, Steve and Paul realized that MMA is still banned in some states which leads to difficulty when trying to promote and kickstart a new MMA promotion. Especially one that revolves around traveling.
“Paul liked the truck and show concept but pointed out that MMA was still illegal in many states and came with the baggage and expense of sanctions. So, he thought about it for a second and said why don’t you do pillow fighting. At first, I was annoyed as I thought was a stupid idea but after we discussed all the benefits of having a more G-rated sport with no blood on the ring and sponsor logos that it seemed to make more business sense.”
“Sponsorship is the key to any fighting event and the easier that was to obtain the less likely we would fail. We started moving in that pillow fighting direction, working on the rules and bought a variety of queen size pillows and pillowcases and had our logo printed on them.”
But a critical issue soon emerged in the founders’ minds – the essential product that underpins the entire sport, the pillow, needed to really pop out to grab people’s attention. Also, it needed to be a more practical piece of equipment to get the fledgling sport up and running.
Steve explains: “A month or two later we hired a few fitness models to get in the ring to make some promotional video clips and had them swinging the pillows a bit to see how it looked. That was an important day because we could see the standard pillows were boring. There was no colorful show factor, and the lack of handles on the pillow meant it looked more like a standard home pillow fight.”
“I went to a few local marine canvas companies that I knew from working on my boat canvas and asked each one to develop a handle design. They all did a great job with their designs which took a few months to get back. The new designs were good but not perfect. I took the improved designs to another shop owner and with his help, we developed the 6-loop handle design that we filed our patent on. That design provides maximum strength and control and also doesn’t have any sharp edges as all the corners are slightly rounded.”
Steve then decided to have the competitors come from fighting and martial arts backgrounds as the original testers weren’t able to keep up a high intensity whilst using the pillows. Highlighting that professional Pillow fighting is no cakewalk.
“The test fight we did had with the fitness also showed us a big problem. The girls arms were too weak to endure much of a fight and they didn’t have the passion of a trained fighter. So we made a quick about-face and decided only to use hardcore fighters. Later I was looking around for a better fabric to use that would add some color and I ordered a variety of rip-stop nylon used for kites. Once it arrived we decided to use the dark blue and neon pink as they looked great in the ring and recorded the best for TV and social media use.”
When you watch the Pillow Fight Championship, there are similarities to when you were hitting your friend, parent, or sibling with a pillow when you were young. But there is definitely something different about the thunderous thuds you here when competitors land a solid connection.
Steve added: “Later I found a type of ripstop used for sail making. It has a special polymer coating on it that gives it strength and makes it water resistant but it also made the pillows have a great bass noise when they hit someone. Sometimes it’s a bass and sometimes it’s more like a snare drum.”
“That created a lot of additional magic. You see the big colorful pillows swinging hard and when they hit it creates thunder. Your senses are fulfilled and since everyone had a pillow fight before it seems to being back fond memories. Most people we speak with including Paul and I recall those as the best days of our lives.”
Why pillow fighting can have a mass appeal – no violence, no injuries
Another major attraction to this combat sport is the lack of injuries and violence. Steve thinks we have all been through enough over the past few years with the pandemic, that the Pillow Fight Championship gives us all a relief from the stresses of the modern world.
“A bored kid with a sibling, friend, parent beating each other as hard as possible and yet nobody gets hurt. It’s quite interesting that the pillow is the only item in the universe that you can fight with, and nobody gets hurt almost no matter how hard you fight.”
“That’s the magic and in fact since people are now so beat up mentally from the pandemic and politics, it seems the Pillow Fight Championship came along at the right time. We believe the overwhelming support we are receiving now is at least partly due to this fact. There’s not a single person on earth that hasn’t been mentally hurt by the pandemic. Even people who cares well and made lots of money are not unscathed as they bore witness to the demise of others.”
“My theory is pretty much everyone has PTSD and we all need a pillow fight. I’m not saying that just because I’m the new Pillow Boss. The MMA business and even WWE exploded as the pandemic subsided. People need to see fights, even fake fights or they fight themselves. Fighting and of course general sporting competitions provide a required form of relief.”
“Not really, we kept it fairly quiet for the first two years and we self-funded. Prior to the pandemic in November 2019, we hired two golden gloves boxers to do a test fight. That fight showed us what we thought which was that we really had a great concept. We kept working on all the details, the rules, the manufacturing of the combat pillows, trademarks, and more, but then the pandemic hit and we put things away for about 18 months.”
How the Pillow Fight Championship got to pay-per-view level & acquired by Triller
A combat sport in its infant years hosting a PPV is a huge foundational step for any emerging sport People associate big MMA and boxing superstars with box office pay-per-views (PPV). And the Pillow Fight Championship was able to join the category of combat sports leagues with PPV caliber content, it was a huge milestone.
How did Steve get it all the way to PPV status?
“That was an incredible experience as we only had our first fight event on August 30, 2021. That went well so we decided to put on another one a month later on September 30th. A friend of mine named David Hudson who is the owner of SFT Combat in São Paulo, Brazil came to our second fight. He saw the fights and personally knew many of the UFC and Bellator fighters we had fighting that night. A few days later he invited us to put on Pillow Fight Championship fights inside his nationally televised events in Brazil.”
“That was a great opportunity as his production quality was better than ours and being on national TV so quickly was a big deal for us. Since then we’ve had a few more events with David and SFT Combat.”
The good news just kept rolling for the sport, with Pillow Fight Championship being acquired by Triller in March 2022. Now with Triller on board, what’s the grand vision for the future?
“The Triller deal brought us international attention and we appreciate that. They own Fite TV and their team – Kim and Owen – helped us generate and field millions of dollars’ worth of international press prior to the pay-per-view. With their help, I gave about 250 interviews between January 15 and April 30th and our social media views blew past two billion when you consider the other networks that aired our clips.”
Triller has emerged as the biggest promoter of combat sports of all types. It has promoted many cross-over combat athletes like Jake Paul in the past.
“I can’t discuss PPV numbers due to confidentiality agreements but we are planning another Pound Down 2023 on January 28th. On a related note, we have always believed that our best audience will be cultivated on broadcast TV merely because we’re a new sport that most people have never heard of.”
The fact that they are already planning another PPV event highlights the demand for the sport and also the interest level, a promising combination for Pillow Fight Championship.
Appealing to a younger generation with PFCKIDZ
A really interesting concept that Steve and the team have also pushed forward is PFCKidz.
It leans into his idea that pillow fighting is for everyone, of every age group. Instead of black eyes and broken bones, kids can get a great workout, that is fun. As the website puts it: “PFC’s style of competitive pillow fighting is also a safe, fun and therapeutic new activity for kids of all ages!”
What’s Steve’s thinking around PFCKidz?
“Our immediate goal is to roll PFCKidz out around the world as quickly as possible. We’ve been gearing up our pillow production partners and developing a platform for the kids to sign up on and for the schools and gyms to use to keep score and rank the fighters.”
“PFCKidz is a great new revenue stream for fight schools and academies to bring kids to the gym, have fun and compete for medals and international ranking. We hope to add scholarships at some point as well as have the champions move up the ladder and be featured at our championship events carried international TV and streaming channels.”
PFCKIDZ is an intriguing prospect, especially concerning scholarships, which highlights how far down the road the Pillow Fight Championship is planning.
Given how easy it is to play the sport, just how big could this become?
Steve is clear in his view.
“We think it will be huge. Anyone can do it and in fact everyone already has. The main difference though is fights with our Combat Pillows are much more intense and satisfying. It’s not a sport you can play non stop for hours like Pickle Ball or almost any other sport. 3 – 90 second rounds and you will be completely exhausted unless you are in amazing shape. The cardio is much more intense than Boxing or MMA or even Pickle Ball. I believe it generates the most intense cardio of any sport or exercise.”
It’s true that anyone can pick up a pillow and start ‘windmilling’ it at an opponent. But as Steve says, the endurance and stamina needed to be good at this sport is very high.
How ex-UFC fighters picked up a pillow to take part
As more and more “cross-over” fights happen, from McGregor versus Mayweather and beyond, the Pillow Fight Championship has had its own version already.
Ex-UFC fighter Marcus Brimage took part in their February event.
“We already have several UFC and Bellator and other pro MMA fighters. We have had discussions with some big names like Dada 5000, Hector Lombard, Luis Palomila and Cris Cyborg who are waiting for us to put together a big prize fight. But we will also get athletes from all other sports to fight.”
But as Steve puts it, don’t expect things to be easy for fighters from other disciplines.
“Just because you may be the world’s greatest boxer or MMA fighter doesn’t mean you will be the world’s greatest Pillow Fight Championship fighter.”
Big plans are afoot for Steve and the Pillow Fight Championship, beyond attracting ex-pro fighters.
“We’ll get to the big tent soon with Triller’s help as we are planning to have some of our fights during their big events. Prior to the Triller deal, we signed an agreement with Kevin Hart’s “HartBeat Productions, Inc. We’re working with the Hartbeat team to develop a Celebrity Comedy Pillow Fight Championship Series.”
How big are the plans? BIG, as Steve explains.
“Our goals are monstrous and so we are cutting deals with partners, making plans for in-country leagues for Pillow Fight Championship and PFCKIDZ.”
“We are planning to be the FIFA of pillow fighting as well as own and operate the US-centric operation and put on the big international events in various countries. It’s a massive task but for some magical reason everyone is helping us and saying yes to us. So, it seems realistic to us that we can quickly become the only sport played in every country in the world. Of course, it will take some years to develop the organization but we aren’t waiting around for perfect business conditions because right now, the world needs a pillow fight.”
The Guardian opined that “pillow fighting could be the next combat sport”.
When you put it like that, and after speaking to Steve and understanding the Pillow Fight Championship’s impressive plans, it’s hard to argue.
Pillow fight anyone?
