Dan Diaz vs. TapouT
OC Weekly is a weekly printed magazines covering a myriad of topics centered around Orange County, California. This week’s feature…
OC Weekly is a weekly printed magazines covering a myriad of topics centered around Orange County, California. This week’s feature article is an expose on Dan ‘Hitman’ Diaz and his history with the TapouT brand. Diaz goes in depth on his history with the company as it grew as well as details information about alleged misdoings of the company and it’s management.
In his fight against the powerhouse company, Diaz, once a rising star in the action-sports clothing industry, has been bloodied and beaten to the mat. Now unemployed and living in a one-bedroom apartment with his girlfriend, he claims $1,900 per month in unemployment; his last lawyer bill was $16,000. He doesn’t wonder why human-resources departments won’t call him in for an interview. “It doesn’t look good on a résumé,” he admits.
He claims TapouT screwed him over by monkey-fucking a contract and putting his own company in a chokehold. On March 28, 2011, Diaz filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court alleging that what began as an agreement to design clothing for TapouT and its distributors ended up with him getting taken to the cleaners. He wants more than $2 million in compensatory damages, in addition to punitive damages, attorney’s fees and court costs.
“There were things going on that I wasn’t told about,” Diaz claims. “Millions of dollars in orders being processed through the company. I was developing, designing gear for TapouT. Over a million dollars in orders I was never told about or paid on.”