This post contains affiliate links, and I’m a Hayabusa ambassador — my code is LILO. I only ever recommend gear I actually train in. 💛
Hey friends, it’s Lizzie! Hayabusa just launched a rewards program, and they’re kicking it off with a Friends & Family event where members get 20% off. A bunch of you asked whether it’s worth joining, so I signed up, went through the whole thing, and took a real order to checkout to see exactly how it works. Here’s what I actually found — including the redemption that’s a straight-up trap.
The Short Version
It’s free, it’s worth joining if you buy Hayabusa gear more than once, and the points are worth roughly 10–13% back if you redeem them correctly. Most people won’t, because the most tempting option on the page is also the worst one. More on that below.
The Three Tiers
Core is where you land the moment you sign up, and it’s free. You earn 1 point for every $1 spent, get 50 points on your birthday, and free shipping on orders over $75.
Elite unlocks after $250 of lifetime spend. Points jump to 1.5 per $1, birthday points go to 75, free shipping drops to a $30 threshold, and you get early access to new products and sales plus member-only promotions.
Apex unlocks at $500 spent. That’s 2 points per $1, 100 birthday points, free shipping on any order regardless of size, and a much longer list of things you can redeem points against.
The Redemption Trap Nobody Warns You About
This is the part I genuinely think is worth knowing, and it’s why I bothered writing this up.
On the redemption page, “$5 off” costs 200 points. Right next to it, a free pair of Perfect Stretch Hand Wraps — a $19.99 product — also costs 200 points. Same price in points, four times the value.
And the best deal on the page is better still: the Gauze Boxing Hand Wraps are $19.99 and cost only 150 points. At Core tier that’s 150 dollars spent turning into about $20 of gear — roughly 13% back.
The $5 option works out to about 2.5% back. So the single most useful thing I can tell you about this program is: never redeem for the cash discount. Always take a product.
What the Points Are Actually Worth
Running the numbers at each tier, redeeming for the 150-point hand wraps:
At Core (1 point per $1), you spend $150 to earn them — about 13% back. At Elite (1.5 points per $1), you only spend $100 to earn the same thing — about 20% back. At Apex (2 points per $1), it’s $75 spent — around 26% back.
That’s a genuinely meaningful difference, and it’s the real argument for consolidating your gear purchases with one brand rather than spreading them around.
How My Code Works With Sales (And the One Exception)
I want to be upfront about this, because it’s the question I get asked most and I’d rather you hear it accurately.
Normally, my code matches whatever promotion Hayabusa is running. That’s the part people don’t realize — you’re not choosing between my code and the current sale, because my code meets the sale. So you can use it during a promo and land at the same discount, which means there’s never really a reason not to use it.
This Friends & Family event is the one exception. It’s a member-exclusive offer tied to the launch of their loyalty program, and it’s the first one I’ve seen that my code doesn’t match. I found that out the honest way — I took a real order to checkout, a pair of Surge wrestling shoes at $139 discounted to $111.20, and tried to apply my code on top. The site told me flatly: “LILO couldn’t be used with your existing discounts.” Hayabusa allows one discount per order, so for this specific event, take the member offer. I’d rather you pay less.
Outside of this one week, here’s what my code actually does:
It’s evergreen and never expires. It isn’t tied to a campaign or a season — no signup, no account, no waiting for the right week.
It matches the current promo during future sales. So when Labor Day or Black Friday rolls around, you don’t have to choose.
It still gives you a discount when nothing is on sale at all. That’s the part that matters most, because most weeks of the year there is no site-wide event running — and on those weeks, my code is the only discount available to you.
How to Earn Points Without Spending a Dollar
This is the bit I’d have missed if I hadn’t gone digging, and it’s genuinely the best-value thing in the whole program.
Joining gets you 50 points immediately. That lands in your account the moment you sign up, before you’ve bought anything.
Writing a review earns up to 125 points. That’s the big one. Remember that the free Gauze Boxing Hand Wraps cost 150 points — so a signup bonus plus a single review puts you at 175 points, past the threshold, without spending anything at all.
Your birthday adds 50 points at Core, 75 at Elite, 100 at Apex. You have to add your birth date to your profile for it to trigger, so do that when you sign up rather than discovering it later.
Put together: join, add your birthday, review something you already own, and you’re most of the way to free hand wraps on a $0 spend. That’s a better return than anything else in the program.
The Tier Clock Nobody Mentions
One detail worth knowing before you plan around tiers: tier progress runs on a rolling 12-month window. My account says I need to spend $250 more by August 24, 2027 to reach Elite — a year from the day I joined, not indefinitely.
So Elite and Apex aren’t lifetime achievements you slowly accumulate toward. If you’re going to chase a tier, it’s worth doing it inside a single year rather than spreading purchases across two.
So Is It Worth Joining?
If you buy Hayabusa gear more than once, yes. It’s free, the free-shipping threshold alone pays for itself, and the points do add up to real product if you redeem them sensibly.
If you’re buying one pair of gloves and never coming back, the honest answer is that it barely matters — join anyway since it’s free and takes a minute, but don’t expect it to change much.
When to Actually Buy
The deepest discounts of the year cluster around the major holiday weekends — Labor Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Week are consistently the strongest. If you’re eyeing something expensive and you’re not in a rush, those windows are when the underlying prices drop furthest.
The good news is you don’t have to pick between waiting and using my code, since it matches whatever promotion is running. And if you’d rather just buy today, the code still takes something off — which is the whole point of it being evergreen.
Not sure which gloves to get in the first place? My full T3 review and the T3 vs T360 comparison are where I’d start.
How to Sign Up (It Takes About a Minute)
There’s no application or approval step. You create an account on the Hayabusa site, and you’re in the Core tier immediately. Points start accruing on your next order rather than retroactively, so if you’re planning a purchase, join before you check out rather than after.
Worth knowing: your points balance and tier live in your account under the loyalty section, and that’s also where the redemption catalogue sits. You redeem points there and it generates a reward you apply at checkout, rather than points automatically coming off your total.
The Free Shipping Math
This is the perk people underrate, because it’s boring. At Core you get free shipping over $75. At Elite that drops to $30, and at Apex it’s free on any order regardless of size.
If you’re the kind of person who orders wraps or a mouthguard on their own — small, cheap, frequent purchases — the Apex threshold is genuinely worth more over a year than the points are. Shipping on a $20 order is a meaningful percentage of that order.
What I’d Redeem First
If you’re sitting on points and unsure, my order would be: hand wraps first, because you can always use another pair and they’re the strongest points-to-value ratio on the page. Then the smaller protective gear — knuckle guards or a mouthguard — which are the same 200 points for the same $19.99 value.
The Discipline T-shirt at 600 points is fine if you want it, but it’s a worse ratio than the wraps and it takes four times as long to earn. And the $5 discount, as I said, I’d never touch.
One Thing to Watch
Because redemptions come out of the same points pool, it’s worth deciding what you’re saving toward rather than cashing out the moment you cross a threshold. Redeeming 150 points for wraps the second you hit 150 is fine — but if you’re close to a tier bump, the higher earn rate afterward changes the math on everything you earn from that point on.
Not a big deal either way. Just don’t burn points on the low-value options because they’re the first thing you can afford.
Your Questions, Answered
Is Hayabusa Rewards free to join? Yes. Signing up puts you straight into the Core tier at no cost, and you start earning points on your next order.
Can I use a discount code and the member discount together? No. I tested this at checkout during the Friends & Family event and got an explicit error — Hayabusa allows one discount per order. Use whichever is bigger.
What’s the best thing to redeem points for? A product, not the cash discount. The Gauze Boxing Hand Wraps at 150 points are the strongest value on the page; the $5-off option costs 200 points and is the weakest by a wide margin.
Does the LILO code expire? No. It’s evergreen, isn’t tied to any campaign, and always gives you a discount — including on weeks when Hayabusa isn’t running a sale at all. During future promotions it matches the current offer, so you don’t have to choose between them. The Friends & Family launch event is the one exception I’ve found where it can’t be applied.
Can I earn points without buying anything? Yes, and it’s the best value in the program. Joining gives you 50 points, writing a review earns up to 125, and adding your birthday gets you 50 more each year. That’s enough to clear the 150-point hand wraps without spending a dollar.
How long does it take to reach Elite? $250 of lifetime spend, which for most people is roughly one pair of quality gloves plus wraps.
