Capoeira gear designed by the people who train in it

Dendê Arts sells martial arts pants for capoeira practitioners across the US, with a custom Netlify storefront and Swell powering products and checkout through the API.

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines combat, acrobatics, and music. Two practitioners play inside a roda, a circle of musicians and other capoeiristas, exchanging kicks, sweeps, dodges, and acrobatic movement in time with the rhythm set by the berimbau and other instruments. It's practised in more than 150 countries, with growing communities across Europe, North America, Asia, and Latin America.

For practitioners in the US, finding gear that fits the practice has always been difficult. The major martial arts retailers stock for karate, taekwondo, and jiu-jitsu. Capoeira suppliers exist but most are based in Brazil, which makes shipping slow, cumbersome, and inconsistent. Most capoeiristas settle for these suppliers, unsatisfied with the quality of the product.

Dendê Arts was built into that gap.

Dendê Arts makes pants designed specifically for capoeira. The cut, fabric weight, and durability are calibrated for what the practice demands of clothing during floorwork, high kicks, and sustained movement. The brand has grown by word of mouth through the classes and rodas its customers frequent.

The business is run out of Newark, NJ by Chris Rodriguez, a capoeirista and web developer who started making the pants because he couldn't find Abadas that fit well. Word quickly got out about the flattering look, feel, and comfort, and Dendê Arts grew from there.

Dendê Arts is a solo operation. Design, storefront, orders, and fulfilment all run through one set of hands. The customer base is concentrated in the US, with smaller pockets of demand from capoeira communities in Europe and Latin America.

In addition to the Abadas, Dendê Arts will soon add an online training program and an e-book covering capoeira fundamentals. Both are scheduled to return as part of the next phase of the business.

Dendê Arts launched on Swell directly, with no prior platform to migrate from. The deciding factor was Swell's headless-first approach. This gave the most flexibility to customize the storefront with the company's design and feel.

The site runs on Netlify, with Swell handling products and checkout through the API. When the storefront needed product reviews and the available integrations didn't fit the setup, a custom reviews form was built directly against Swell's API. It was faster than working around an off-the-shelf solution.