The Gracies’ latest push into law enforcement training has stirred controversy in the BJJ world, with plenty of people calling out the timing as tone-deaf. The recent Minnesota arrests involving federal agents have put restraint methods back in the spotlight, and SafeWrap landed right in the middle of the conversation.
Rener Gracie and Ryron Gracie have positioned their Safe Wrap system as a solution, though online discussions suggest many practitioners view the business model with skepticism.
The Safe Wrap draws from fundamental grappling movements. It combines what is essentially a gift wrap control with a leg lace, both well established moves within grappling arts.
In marketing materials Safe Wrap emphasizes its “patent pending worldwide” claim, using it to make unlicensed use sound like a legal issue. In reality, you cannot patent a physical move or restraint technique outright; patents only cover specific, novel and non-obvious processes, not general methods.
The famous Bikram Yoga case illustrates this principle. The Ninth Circuit shut down Bikram Choudhury’s attempt to claim copyright over his fixed series of yoga poses. The court clarified that while his book describing the sequence was protected, the sequence itself was not, because copyright does not cover functional systems. The “patent pending” label is primarily marketing, intended to intimidate organizations into paying for a license rather than reflecting any real legal risk.
This means there is nothing stopping any grappler from teaching the same technique under a different name and charging less or nothing at all.
The pricing structure has become another point of controversy. Safe Wrap’s two-day certification in Torrance carries an $850 price tag. This figure is notable when compared to what elite instruction actually costs in the competitive grappling world.
Gordon Ryan is hosting a five-day intensive camp in Hungary for $1,300. Even Ryan’s private sessions at Kingsway HQ, priced at $1,000-$1,200 per hour for up to four students, break down to $250-$300 per person, still cheaper per day than Safe Wrap’s offering. And Ryan is arguably one of the most dominant grapplers alive while Rener and Ryron Gracie haven’t competed in more than a decade.
In his latest pitch, Rener told NBC:
“Since departments are notoriously resistant to giving more training time for the basic skills that every officer should have to protect themselves and to protect civilians, it’s like we’re taking it upon ourselves to say, no, it’s not good enough. The minimum two, three, four hours a year, we don’t accept that.”
“If you want the benefits Safe Wrap offers with this proprietary system, then we need you to invest in your officers”
The contrast is obvious: for less money, you can study complex systems built to work against skilled grapplers, not just random bystanders, while SafeWrap charges top dollar for a repackaged pair of classic moves, gift wrap and leg lace, sold as some “proprietary” breakthrough.
The pricing discrepancy has reinforced suspicions within the BJJ community that Safe Wrap’s value proposition rests more on liability protection than on genuine self defense. Making matters worse, Safe Wrap requires annual recertification.
Safe Wrap is also part of a bigger self defense course Gracie Academy offers for an even bigger price tag.
SafeWrap is lesson 7 in the GST system.
And there’s another controversial selling point. According to their official website: “Gracie University will provide expert witness support to certified staff if litigation arises over the use of SafeWrap techniques.”
After all, Rener Gracie has experience being an expert witness. Gracie testified against a black belt that accidentally paralyzed his student in the infamous $46M dollar lawsuit and was compensated roughly $3000 an hour for the ordeal.
While some defend the Gracies for offering a standardized course, others see it as an ongoing revenue stream presented as quality control.
Some draw parallels to medical certification requirements, noting that healthcare workers regularly pay organizations for recertification. This is likely what inspired the Gracies to start offering the course to begin with.
Critics have raised concerns about the optics of marketing restraint techniques after controversial law enforcement actions.
“This feels in pretty awful taste. You know what they could have done instead? Train at Gracie Bjj
for the low low price of $500 per month to learn better grappling techniques.”
The Safe Wrap System predates the recent Minnesota incidents but it has been consistently criticized as a marketing ploy. The Gracies have also pivoted to teaching it to law enforcement officers despite earlier versions of the program being aimed at healthcare workers.
The Gracie family’s long history of commercializing Brazilian jiu-jitsu techniques has made them both influential and controversial within the martial arts community.
Whether Safe Wrap represents merely another chapter in the Gracies’ marketing strategy may depend on perspective. What is clear is that the family has once again demonstrated their ability to identify market opportunities and position themselves at the center of contentious conversations about the practical application of grappling techniques.
