In downtown Phnom Penh, right by the royal palace, one will find a true case study of symbiotic entrepreneurship. A café, a gym, and Phnom Penh’s main supplier of martial arts equipment, all existing in perfect harmony. The martial arts equipment store is owned by a short-statured man covered in tattoos with an infectious smile, Swedish Matias Andres.
Matias was born in Chile, but grew up in the tiny village of Timmele outside of Gothenburg, Sweden. As a kid, he loved reading, writing, and playing video games, and martial arts games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, things he would take with him into adulthood. In his early 20s, like many young people, Matias desired change and adventure. So, in 2014 Matias booked a one-way ticket to Thailand.
“I knew who I was in Sweden. I didn’t know who I could be in Southeast Asia.”, he says.
After partying in the streets of Bangkok for months, Matias found himself in northern Thailand, where dirt roads through the cloud-covered highlands brought him to a small town called Pai. Here Matias encountered Muay Thai.
Matias had taken an interest in Muay Thai classes while living in Scandinavia, but in Pai it was completely different.
“It was dirty. Open gyms, dogs running around, it felt so real,” he remembers.
The intensity allured him. The intimacy of two fighters, face to face, 1 v 1, skin to skin, pure strength. It didn’t matter who you were, if you were the best in the fight, that was all that mattered.
Matias started training in Charn Chai gym in Pai. But one day, he realized his visa was running out and he had to leave.
In a panic, Matias booked the cheapest ticket out of Thailand he could find and ended up in Phnom Penh. Here he discovered and fell in love with Kun Khmer, a slightly different martial art style to Muay Thai.
Matias was working as a writer doing the odd writing job here and there, but he soon discovered a world of online media reporting on martial arts. Before long, he started writing for the biggest martial arts media outlets back in Sweden.
“I told them I could do it better, I could do it more, and I lived in Southeast Asia, so I could do it cheaper,” he says with a grin.
Since then, Matias has worked as an chief editor for multiple Swedish outlets like MMAnytt, Maximum Sports, and Frontkick Online.
Writing about martial arts and fights happening brought Matias in contact with the people in the industry. He started making friends with fighters, gym owners, and brand workers. Here he discovered a problem.
“I realized that a lot of the fighters had really shitty equipment. And I had connections to brands,” he says.
He started working as a middleman, selling fighting equipment to fighters. It started small, but word got out, and more people started to ask Matias for equipment. What had been a side business started to take up more and more time. His wife, Chornai, who is an accountant, started running the numbers, and when the couple realized how much money they were making, Matias decided to make an official business.
Originally it was just a shelf in his living room. The best-selling brand was called Fairtex, an international company selling gloves, shorts, and other equipment for fighting worldwide. But Fairtex did not have any direct salespeople in Cambodia. So, Matias became the main seller of Fairtex equipment in Cambodia, which remains to this day the best-selling brand in his store.
In 2023 Matias also started their own brand of Kun Khmer equipment. They named the brand “Nokor,” which is Khmer for “Empire.” It is still a small brand, but Matias is proud of it.
“I am very happy to have my very own brand of something I love,” he says. “I would love for Nokor to be something Cambodia could be proud of. Cambodia is a country I love and that has given me so much. As an immigrant here, I love the opportunity to give a little back.”
In 2023 Matias opened the store in the alley off Preah Ang Yukanthor. The store is accompanied by a gym owned by a Dutch friend of Matias and a café for charity organized by a British friend. This place is Matias main focus now. He has given up the editorial duties and is putting all his focus into the store.
“People come here to train in fighting in the gym. They buy equipment from me, and then they get a coffee at the café afterwards. It just works,” Matias says with a smile.
Such an Intriguing brand, as a fighter myself, I’ll have to look into it