TUC Magazine

TUC: Was fashion your first love? TW: Definitely ,fashion has always been there for us. In general, we love to shine! We love designer clothes.

TUC: Talk about the vision behind the brand Traps-Wear? TW: Our vision behind Traps Wear is to support the fashion scene with street- and urban inspired clothes with a touch of clean fashion design. Its very important with high quality clothing. Many brands get bored and trite. Our vision is to sell limited collections only.

TUC: Talk about how living in Sweden has influenced your clothing line? TW: We have listen to trap music in many years. Recently the trap scene has blown up in Sweden. We want to be a part of it and support it.

TUC: Do you see your brand being a huge power house clothing line one day , up there with Ralph Lauren & Versace? TW: We hope so. We will go to war for this brand.

TUC: How's the reception to your clothing line been since the launch? TW: The reception so far is very good. The hype is much bigger than we thought. Its really fun. We got interest from people all over the world.

TUC: What do you love about being a fashion designer? TW: I love creativity. I like to connect with people, artists and every day is unique. Its awesome to create clothes that I love to wear by myself.

TUC: So how many member's are involve in the brand? and who? TW: We are two people that are involved in the brand. Traps-Wear consists of one founder/designer and one chief marketing officer.

TUC: So does the name Traps-Wear have anything to do with music? TW: Yes! The most of our inspiration comes from trap music and hip-hop.

TUC: What's next in the future for Traps-Wear? TW: First of all we want it to go big national, and after that international, global and VIRAL!

TUC: After all is said and done what is the big goal for Traps-Wear? TW: Our goal is to get so big that we can't stand it. We want to make history.

Photos From:Traps-Wear

Denielle Johnson: How did you start off boxing in Detroit?

Johnathon Banks: I was 14 and I couldn’t wait until I got to a rec center or gym to start boxing. I’ve been wanting to box all my life - that’s all I ever wanted to do.

DJ: Who did you look up to?

JB: Before I got started? Nobody. I just knew I always wanted to do it, but when I started studying and learning boxing I looked up to Muhammad Ali, Joe Lewis - they are some of my favorite boxers ever. So then, I started learning more about the game and I got into Sugar Ray Robinson...Thomas Hearns, and different cats from Detroit.

DJ: You’ve held so many titles: The WBC International Title, NABO Heavyweight Title, NABF Heavyweight Title, IBO Cruiserweight Title, and the NABO Cruiserweight Title - which one sticks out the most to you?

JB: In 2012 when I started training the Heavyweight champion, Wladimir Klitschko, while I was preparing for my heavyweight fight too. [Klitschko] fought in Germany on Saturday, November 10th, and then on November 17th I’m in Atlantic City battling for my own title. In between those weekends, I was at a funeral burying my father-figure and mentor: the late-great Emanuel Steward. So, that was the greatest moment because I had to persevere through everything…

DJ: I read about that! He was supposed to announce that fight.

JB: Yeah! That was my man! He pushed me and I learned so much from him, so that was an emotional victory for me.

DJ: How has boxing progressed since when you started? You hear some boxing aficianados and previous champs picking sides between UFC and boxing, but when you first started it was just about boxing. So how has that changed since?

JB: Boxing has changed simply because the training styles have changed. You have some trainers working with ten different boxers, so they’re just training them however they want rather than teaching them the fundamentals. I want to say we’re missing that and we’ve gone away from teaching younger boxers about the fundamentals of life, how to punch….When I was coming up Emanuel Steward would train us at the gym and then say, “Why don’t you come to my house afterwards?” So we’d sit and talk about everything, but now after a boxer’s workout they just go home; whatever you do after working out is on your own time and that’s been the biggest difference in boxing. You also have to deal with social media because right after a workout your boxer is on social media, going to parties posting pictures, and doing whatever what they want to do.

DJ: Yeah and you certainly have some of your more glamorous boxers following that trend lately, but I wanted to talk about some retired boxers who are railing against the heavyweight division. Mike Tyson in particular said he was coming back to clean up the game, so how do you feel about predecessors criticizing a division that you’re still in.

JB: He’s just talking, but he has a point though because there is a lot of ruckus in boxing period. However the heavyweight division is probably more exciting now than it had ever been in the past ten years because you have one of the most dominant heavyweight champions, Wladimr Klitschko, and then on January 17th you have [Bermane] Stiverne defending his title. So, I believe 2015 is about to be hot for boxing period.

DJ: I think it’s more like how Jordan criticizes Lebron you know? It’s like when you hang it up and become a spectator that you hold the new stars accountable when the circumstances may have changed.

JB: Nevertheless Tyson was one of the youngest and greatest champions in boxing history, but even he didn’t reign undefeated for over 10 years like [Klitschko] is doing. Wladimir has set the bar really high for years to come - he’s been undefeated for 10 years reigning as a champion.

DJ: Let’s talk about your experience training Wladimir. I know Emanuel Steward trained Wladimir and you assisted him? Talk about the transition from assisting Steward and then how his passing affected you once you became Wladimir's primary trainer.

JB: I was never his assistant. I’ve been Wladimir’s sparring partner since 2004, and I’d help him get ready for his next fight...when Emanuel got sick, Wladimir called me and said, “JB I need a coach.” I said, “Okay.” He said, “Did you hear me?" and I [replied back], “Yeah, you want me to train you….Are you okay with that?” He asked me, “Are you sure?” I said, “Yeah I will do it.” He was so surprised on how quick I said yeah, and at that point, I hadn’t really trained a fighter before - I helped out guys in the gym, but that’s it. I did it, I was confident that I could do it, and I’m still doing it.

DJ: You fought on Dec. 14th and I know your goal is to be the heavyweight champion of the world, so how did you handle that loss? Are you still working towards that, are you focusing solely on training, or are you doing both?

JB: I had a minor setback - I always say I had a minor setback for a major comeback. That setback meant that I wasn’t working hard enough and I gotta work harder. Something went wrong that I have to correct and I have to dig down deeper and work harder.

DJ: Again it’s that juggling because you’ve taken on training and it’s not just any old training - you’re training Wladimir so you have to deal with the constant gruel between training him and preparing yourself for fights as well. That’s a selfless task because you are still working on your career, but you’re taking on a huge responsibility to train someone else. Do you ever feel like being a boxer takes away from training and vice versa?

JB: Yeah it does. I see why it’s never been done in history before because when you really want to help someone and you want to get the most dominate athlete in your sport ready for his fights it takes a lot of concentration. So that takes away from a lot of the things I used to do for myself; things that used to be easy for me are harder because of everything on my plate.

DJ: What’s your take on the rumblings that boxing may move to primetime channels like ABC rather than being shown on ESPN, Showtime, or HBO?

JB: ABC will always do their boxing shows, but the major ones are on HBO, Showtime, and ESPN. I believe people will always tune in to boxing because the hype is coming back. a lot of people think boxing is down because of UFC, but there’s always something that came along that would supposedly phase out boxing that didn’t work out. Boxing has been around too long, it has too many major stars - you can’t name one champion that was around in the ‘60s or ‘70s from MMA because it wasn’t in existence. Boxing has been around too long to slow down and stop now...boxing is a dynasty and it’s been set in stone. MMA has been written in pencil - I’m not saying it’s going go away, but we don’t know. We know boxing has been around for years and that it has a legacy.

DJ: Do you have any fights lined up yet?

JB: Not yet, but I will soon. The only thing I have lined up is probably on April 25th when Wladimir will hopefully fight in New York at the Barclays Center. As of now, a contract hasn’t been signed, but that’s the date we’re looking at.

DJ: So when you decide to retire from boxing, will you transition into a full-time trainer?

JB: I’m doing it now and I love it; It’s all about helping people man, and I love doing that. If I can teach somebody something and they can make money off what I taught them - awh man I love that! That’s who I am, I love teaching and helping.

Keep-up with Johnathon Bank's training and boxing career here.

- Denielle Johnson, Editor-in-Chief