Any Martial Artists Here?

[AZRedhawk44]

If so, who makes your favorite gi / uniform?

Price per dollar, I've been extremely pleased by Juka uniforms.  I've used the lightweight uniforms all students tend to start karate training with, the premium offering from Century, Juka's silver and gold line uniforms and I've had one Tokaido.

That Tokaido was expensive... I bought it in the mid 90's for about $200.  Didn't last nearly as long as I would have liked.  My Juka's held up a lot better.  They weren't quite as nice, but for only $125 or so instead of $200, I didn't complain.  Especially with the longevity issue.  I've heard rumors of quality control problems for Tokaido uniforms over the last 15 years.  Can anyone confirm or shed any light on this?

I'm back in karate after a few years off.  My Juka silver just disintigrated in the wash after being stored in a box for forever.  It was probably pushing 15 years old, anyways.  My Juka gold is still doing okay, but has one small hole in the small of the back that needs mending... about the size of 1/2 a dime.

Anyone know how to mend a non-seam area of a karate gi?  Do you stitch the hole with white thread, or do you use a patch?  What's the correct way to do it?  It's 14 ounce cotton fabric.

I'm having my sensei order me a new gi... he has a brand he recommends called Tokon.  Speaks pretty highly of it, but I've never tried one before.  Also don't know the longevity of them.

I also ordered a replacement for my Juka silver gi.  I think that was probably the most pleasant uniform I've found so far.  That gives me 2 new uniforms and 1 serviceable one as soon as I mend that hole before it grows from repeated washings.

I typically use 2 uniforms a week when training at full intensity.  I wash them as a pair and allow them to line dry, which takes 2-3 days.  So, I need 4 uniforms in total.  I only have 3.

Anyone have a uniform that they highly recommend?

[theken206]

atima judo/bjj gi's

[El Tejon]

I do CMA so we don't have uniforms (well, we have club t-shirts), but when I did BJJ/FMA (Eskrima) I wore a Howard.  It was heavy and could be hot in the summer but it was very sturdy.  I am told that Howard makes summer weight dogis now.

[BridgeRunner]

Mizuno.  But I think they only do judogi--heavier tops, designed for grappling.  I could be wrong.

Personally, I would use a cloth (not iron on) patch, something of mid-weight broadcloth, a little lighter than the gi fabric, and sew it down on a sewing machine with rows of wide-ish, closely spaced zig-zag stitches.

[AZRedhawk44]

Someone else has suggested darning the hole.

I think I'm going to give that a try.  The hole is small and is hidden by my belt (probably developed due to friction with the belt when exercising).  I have some white cotton thread handy.  Darning is typically done for larger, coarse fibers and this uniform has fairly fine thread making up the fabric so it might not match exactly, but I think it will match close enough.

[Thor]

When I was playing Judo, I wore either Sakura or Mizuno. I had more problems with the pants wearing out than anything else.

[AZRedhawk44]

Personally, I would use a cloth (not iron on) patch, something of mid-weight broadcloth, a little lighter than the gi fabric, and sew it down on a sewing machine with rows of wide-ish, closely spaced zig-zag stitches.

I ended up mending this hole yesterday.  I don't have a sewing machine so anything I attempted had to be done by hand.

I had someone else suggest darning, like one would do with a wool sock.  I started down this road but realized quickly that the heavy cotton fabric was woven much too tightly.  The needle holes were too big in the fabric, and the darning pattern would have to be extremely tight to even begin to appear properly patched.

I went for a hybrid patch/darn approach.  I cut a patch from an older ruined gi jacket.  I used a running stitch to attach a patch from the inside of the jacket.  I then created a light web/weave on the outside of the hole, attached to the patch.  Finally, I darned the web/weave into both the frayed ends of the hole as well as into the patch.  This should halt the fraying from progressing, it seals up the hole, and it looks presentable.  Not necessarily professional, but presentable.