Last night I got to wear my new gi for the first time. My instructor Adam had ordered one in for me from Melbourne and it was taking ages to get here.
I think he forgot to order it the first time, so after two weeks I said “hey Adam, where’s my gi” and he was kind of sheepish and made some comment about slow postage. Then he took all my details onto an official looking form and wah-lah, two more weeks and I had it.
Last night I picked it up before training and gave it its first workout.
The class was the smallest Adam had ever taught, with it being just myself and another newbie, Nay. One of the guys that works at the gym, Stan, came and trained with us so we had a class of three students. I think all the other students must have been drunk from the Melbourne Cup!
It’s 100% cotton weave direct from Brazil. I had a hard time finding it online - it’s a KF brand which depending on which website you visit either means Kimono Fighter or Fighter Kimono. Eventually I tracked them back to Fighter Shop in Brazil.
Through my club I had the choice of a $100 Ringmaster gi or this which was a bit more expensive, but I think is certainly worth it. I bought a few club patches which I’ll get mum to stitch on the lapel and centre-back. Everybody has a slightly different gi, with patches and screen prints being used to customize and individualize each gi. I think it’s pretty cool how people’s personality comes through in the way they’ve “decorated” their gi. One guy has a Wile E Coyote (in a gi) patch on his leg, which is kinda cool.
I need to get a belt though, because the gi didn’t have one. I expected it would, but I was wrong. Easy enough to fix.
