Does anyone's club insist on a specific gi design?

[muttley]

I have reached the point in my new found love of training where I am looking at my first grading in my new style. As I have an old, plain gi (very comfy but it looking a bit shabby now), I asked my sensei if there was a specific style of gi I should be looking at buying for myself and my daughter as she has taken up training.

Now, I don't know when it changed, but when I was training before, any gi would do so long as it was a Karate gi and not a judo one etc, the only stipulation being that it had to be white.

Having asked my sensei, it seems I need to have a specific gi with the clubs kanji embroidered on it. These do look fantastic BUT will set my wife and I back £100 for gi's for my daughter and I. Does anyone else have a club that insists on a specific gi?

[Wado Heretic]

I generally insist on a Gi cut with the sleeves clear of the wrist, and the legs above the ankles, so that I can check for proper alignment visually. I was influenced by Aragaki Shihan's annoyance at longer cuts though.

I have encountered some kyokushin clubs which insist on the particular Kyokushin cut, and it is not news to me to hear of a club insisting on people having it's particular emblem present on the Gi. In most ways it is a spread in the access to once difficult to access resources. For example, I can order a Gi with the Kodokan kanji printed directly onto it if I want, and the extra cost is minute, depending on the gi quality. Even just a short while ago, it would involve ordering a made-to-order patch, and then putting it on the gi myself.

Some have taken the direction of making it mandatory because the excuses for not having it have become more difficult to accept. I do not take much issue with it, because if one wants a blank gi they are simple enough to find and order. However, £50 is rather extreme; what quality of Gi are you attempting to purchase?

[muttley]

The ones on the clubs website are a poly-cotton mix, 55% cotton, 45% poly. I have no problem in buying the gi's, they do look smart and I appreciate uniformity, but the cost is quite high.

I would rather order my own plain gi for training and then add the kanji when I do grade, but I don't know if this is possible!

[sensei8]

As far as cut goes, nothing specific, just as long as the fit isn't long or touch the ground at all. I've never been a fan of extreme short cuts; to me they seem to appear as though they're wearing their little brothers gi. I understand the short cuts, just not my preference. Students can purchase a gi from whomever they want just as long as the gi meets our minimum requirements.

Shindokan patch is required free of charge to the student. Kanji is specific with "Shindokan", yet that's found on the patch already. "Karate" is allowed, but only on the left extremely lower label.

[Wado Heretic]

Mixes are usually on the higher price end, and to be fair you will get more life out of them, with the benefit of being able to have a lighter weight. I would ask about being able to buy your own Gi, and apply patches when and if you want to, but one does get what they pay for; at £50 I imagine they should be good quality.

[LastKing]

Our club insists only on black bottoms, white top. It's practical in that the trousers don't show dirt, but impractical in that it might mean a student would be tempted to let them fester if the dirt doesn't show.

[Nidan Melbourne]

My club doesn't go "You must buy this cut of gi!!". We sell our 'basic' gi which has the logo on it. Generally 90% of our students buy that one upon signing up, but the other 10% generally have another gi that they own because they have come from another school.

But my sensei does offer students who need to buy a new gi various gi's that are better quality than our 'basic' one. He also offers to have the clubs logo put on it for a little extra.

We usually sell the Tokaido, Adidas and Arawaza Series to the higher ranked students, but still available to lower ranked students.

A few of us have the Seishin Gi's which are AMAZING!!! But unfortunately sensei doesn't order them in because they are usually in limited quantity. So you have to order yourself.

But in terms of colour of Gi, sensei requests that we wear all white. But he does allow us to have the black pants with the white top. Along with the Black Belts allowed to wear all Red Gi's but not many of us have them (I don't know what happened to mine!). But he does not like gi's of any other colour (Got told off for wearing a full black gi).

[sensei8]

I once, and I want to stress once, was berated by Soke AND Dai-Soke AT THE SAME TIME, and that was quite unnerving to say the least, for wearing a Blue gi to the Hombu.

THIS very same gi...

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii31/sensei8_2008/089.jpg

Needless to say, I didn't make that mistake again!!

[JR 137]

A lot of Kyokushin dojos require an Isami brand gi with Kyokushin kanji embroidered. Being that you're training in a Kyokushin spinoff, I'm assuming that this is a carry-over. My understanding of it is it's done for uniformity (no pun intended), and the whole everyone wears the same thing and is on an equal level (no one walking in flaunting $300 gis).

That's all fine and good IMO so long as you like the gi, it fits right, and it's priced competitively. If it's an Isami gi, it's a well made gi that's worth the cost (relative to gis of equal quality). For a kid, that's another story, as they outgrow things a lot faster than we would.

If it doesn't fit right, respectfully ask if you can get a different brand gi embroidered. I think they prefer the embroidery as it's more professional looking and less temporary looking. Again, Isami gis are quite good gis, they're just not very popular in karate outside of Kyokushin for some reason. I think they're a lot more popular in judo and maybe non-Brazilian jujitsu.

[Titanium]

Our Wado-Kai dojo specifies white Gis.

I do know that some allow different colours such as black, blue etc...