#79 The Best Gi I ever Had: Not all BJJ brands are created equal, what makes a great Gi and what to avoid.

How many Gi’s do you own? Which brand is the best? Both JT & Joey have their all time favourite Gi for very different reasons. Do you go for the look, the feel or the function? When you train a lot you will need at least 2-3. Here are some recommendations and cautionary tales a like for you to draw from to make an informed decision when you next purchase the BJJ pyjamas.

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, it’s JT and I’m excited because I’ve just booked my flights and I’m coming to a city near you . I will be in Poland and Germany in July. Then I’ll be in the UK and Scotland in August. Then I’ll be making the trip over to United States and Canada for September. If you would like a Bulletproof for BJ J seminar , contact us, email JT, Bulletproof for bj.com and book your seminar today

Speaker 2: 0:30

Better listen. Very careful. A

Speaker 3: 0:34

Good martial artist does not become tense,

Speaker 2: 0:37

But ready, essentially at this point, the fight is over. So you pretty much flow with the goal who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limit this power. I am ready,

Speaker 1: 0:55

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for BJ J podcast. I am JT and I’m the brains of this operation. And I’m Joey. I’m the muscle. <laugh> The humor. But say what you say. Let’s talk about it guys. The best GE I ever had over time, you know, the GE gets less popular, but I remember the first ski I ever, what does the gig get less popular? I don’t know . Maybe it’s just no gig gets more popular, right? Yeah. But I believe that most people in the Jitu , they will buy a GE or two. They probably buy a terrible one, but they might buy a really good one and or they buy one that just lasts. You’re like , wow, still got it. Still going, getting the mileage out of it. There’s nothing worse than paying a bunch of money and having the product kind of fall apart on you . Yeah. That’s not cool. No . And it might be neglect on your buy guys today. We’re gonna be calling out some of the big players in the GE fact <laugh> revealed. Yeah . Sprung. But maybe if they were a sponsor, us we’ll change our stance . Yeah. Cause that’s what we can do as podcasters. <laugh> what’s your favorite GE . Okay. So actually my favorite G of all time is the ma one lightweight GE ah , it’s. The cheapest is actually cost me 90 bucks. I have two of them . I have a white one and a black one. Yeah . Yep . They’re six years old now. Still strong. Didn’t tear. Didn’t up dry in about six hours you wash ’em it provided it’s not raining and terribly humid outside. They are dry in a day. Wow. If you wore it in the morning, you Chuck in the wash, it’ll be ready for night class. Wow. That’s what I’m talking about. People that’s functional right there. That’s huge. You can’t beat that kind of convenience. And it’s been thrashed. I’ve thrashed. Both of them . You gave me one back in the day you gave me black one, which is up here at the , in our it’s like one of our trial GE isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. And it’s solid. It lasts . It’s always been solid and it’s good shape. And look, I’m not, you know, I’m not sponsored by ma one. I did work for , I did for , well , I’ll have a chat to Simon Carson at a point in time, I worked for the company. So I was like, oh , I’ll , I’ll wear their merch. See how it goes. Their merchandise is actually quite good. Right. And what can I say? It lasts it dries quick. It does the job and yeah, I’ve paid triple the cost for GE that kind of out. Yeah. They do Craig Jones stuff. Don’t they? They do Craig Jones. Lockie Giles, shout out absolute MMA, all the equipment for , uh , absolute and many other gyms is supplied by ma one , uh , combat. Okay. And so they, yeah, they do. They do good gear. Where does it come from? Like, is it a Azzie brand? Uh , it is an Australian brand. It is manufactured overseas. They’re all manufactured overseas. Aren’t they ? They , they are, but , but it’s, Azzie brand. It is an Aussie brand. Okay . And , and they do what they can to support small clubs. Yeah . So they , you know, they do a bunch of stuff, which is, which I think is really cool. That’s cool. And the founder of that company is Simon Carson, who is, I think he’s a black, he could be a black belt now who is also a legit boxer and MMA dude , right on . Yeah. My favorite GE is not actually like, I didn’t put it on, I don’t put it on every time and be like, oh , this is my favorite GE . Okay. But just when I look back, I’m like, that’s been a good GE whole time is the very first Alliance GE that I bought from Adam that was made by storm ah , storm. Yeah . Storm maker . Great. GE I worn this thing for like, since I started with him. Yeah. And it’s still pristine. Wow. And like, I mean, I , I don’t, I haven’t trained a huge volume in recent years, but, it’s been through some wars and it actually, it just shows. Absolutely. No , like the shape is good. It’s same thing. It’s lightweight. So it dries super quick. Mm-hmm <affirmative> not great for competition cuz it’s easy to get grips on. <laugh> like you grab that lapel and you’re like, oh , I’m never letting go of that. That’s the only downside to a lightweight get isn’t it? Yeah . Yeah. It’s true. Um , yeah like that same thing. You’re like, this thing is practical. Yes. And I’m just, I’m blown away that it hasn’t torn. Yeah. Well that’s man. Yes. I mean, storm Comona is very reputable and I think the thing is out there, if you haven’t bought a GE or maybe you’ve got a GE because your gym sells them and you want a second one, it is worthwhile to read reviews because some cuts of GE are better than others for people. Yeah . Depending on your body shape , depending on your body, like I’m a , I’m a chunky human. So I kind of need like an, a two thick <laugh> I need a , I need like an, a three, but have it tailored. So it’s a bit shorter, but you know, I , if it’s a boxier cut, there’s that like a show, your role actually suits a skinny human , right? Like show your roles are made for lightweight humans. Whereas like storm kimonos actually known for having a longer skirt. Ah , is that right? Yeah. I do have a show role and I like it. Yeah. You know , it’s , it’s , it’s been a real nice gear , but it’s not something I’ve worn a lot. No, it cost me a million dollars . It does cost too much. Right . And that’s the thing, you know, they’ve, they’ve incorporated those, those very profitable elements of fashion, which is, oh , here’s a gee , you can’t wear and comp, but just buy it cuz it , it looks cool. And I mean, you know, whatever, it’s like, it’s fun. Yeah. It’s fun. And you’re like, Hey , this is a sport that I’m doing and I wanna be able to wear some cool. Yeah, yeah . I can get around it. This is not even a plug, but I love the style of the scramble GE that we got. Yeah. I got the dark blue and you , is it the , I got the light blue. Blue. Is it the yellow CCA I think is the , is the , is the style totally not competition like approved at all. No, but it’s a slick game . It’s a great game. Beautiful fabric. Like nice cut . Yeah. And they always do good design things. Yeah. That’s the thing I like about scramble. It is cool because they put some shout out to our boy in Japan, Billy scramble, Billy scramble. He just had a , uh , was it an MMA fight or was it a Nogi grab ? Like , is it no match ? I think he had a octagon. A super fight . Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Didn’t come off . He came off second best. Yes. But good on you bro. Yeah, man. He got in the arena. Billy’s a legend. And he does some design work for scramble and yeah. It’s cool. I think that , that’s the thing. You gotta find the thing that not only does it do what you like, but when you put it on, you’re like, oh yeah. Putting on the , putting on the badass. Yeah . You know, you feel like you’re you feel good in it? I think that’s the main thing. And you don’t have to spend a bunch of money to do that. And I think that’s the cool thing now mate, the first guy I ever bought from Peter to be shout out Pete hope you will mate. $320 for a corral . M KM. Oh my God. Tax what’s in like , like mid two thousands. No , this is my first ever GE in 2008. That is like astronomical prices cautionary because he was the only one. And he said , chief. Yeah . He didn’t call me chief at this time. Bels is the best ski you’ll ever buy. I still have it. It still exists. Wow. It’s got all my OG patches on it. Peter dub , bean patches. Danter patches like a NASCAR driver mate. It’s covered in patches like stickers. Like you see even I’m real beat up old cars with heaps of bumper stickers all over it. Yeah . It’s kinda like that, but I still have it. I don’t wear it. I just have it there because I’m like, I paid so much money for that. <laugh> that’s antique. My son use that. Yeah . I’m keeping that it was crazy. And it , it is a good GE and coral , you know, K O R a L say coral at coral GE , but I believe it’s coral . Um , I remember a guy at one of when I was back train JT in the day talking about his , uh , his favorite GE was his game <laugh> oh , I got the Gamina GE I love it. And someone’s like, oh , GA . And they’re like, do you mean gameness <laugh> he was like, oh yeah. I thought it was go <laugh> my joy O yeah . Got my Australians go . He was a <laugh> I think he might have had a bit of Macedonian background, just sure. Different pronunciation, right . Different cultures. Right . It is what it is. Um, my first gear , here’s a cautionary tale for, for anyone listening. My first GE , which is an iconic GE for me too, was a black , uh , a Tama AMA GE a three, whoa, little Joey coming in at like a , a ripe 75 kilogram coach is like, yeah, no, this is the one you need by this. And I was like into it. Yeah. And I never grew . And I look back at these photos of me and white belt com and. And I’m just swimming in this black fabric, you know? And it , it served me well for a long time until I realized, hang on a second, this guy is like way too big way too big. Um , but I think I wore it like up till purple belt. Wow . At least that GE is now here in the jungle brothers. Gym used for pullups right? Yeah, because we have a , in half. Yeah . So off bits of old mangled GE , which used to sling over the bar to do pullups yeah. It’s harm . So like I’m , you know, I put it on actually, when we did our first Bulletproof shoot , we did. Yeah . But it’s it’s , I’m glad that it still lives on. Yeah. It’s still there, man. Just quick reference to ESE . Shout out sunny man . Sunny for a birthday gift bought me this beautiful white Togi . It was one of the most pristine things I’d ever seen. I was like, wow, this is legit. Japanese like expensive. Super nice weave . Amazing. My mom did me a mad favor of washing it for me. Oh no . On hot. Oh no. And then put it in the dryer. Savage E even sunny couldn’t wear it. <laugh> like shrunk out . So small. It went small than a zero and all the rubber in the , um, like, or the , the lapel lapel, like bunched up and it was like a dress. Oh , it’s like a little weird dress skirt, like top thing. Oh , I couldn’t even put it on. I never wore it. And I tried to like go , uh , and like, I didn’t wanna be rude to my mom cuz she’s trying to do me . She’s like, don’t wear it just yet. Wash it first. You don’t wanna get trench armpit or whatever , whatever. You don’t want the chemicals from production getting on you. And then it was unwearable. Oh , that’s so disapp . It’s tragic, right ? Yeah. Sunny , upset. Sunny was disappointed. Yeah. I think she was probably more disappointed. She , she couldn’t wear it. <laugh> I think she would’ve loved it when you buy a gift for someone, but you actually wanna use it yourself. But uh , yeah, she was a bit disappointed, but here’s the thing. Don’t put your GE in the dryer. People for longevity just saying. Yeah. But what about this? As a , as a logistical thing, you you’re traveling, you’re backpacking. You’re in Brazil, you know you’re and , and you go to the laundry of course. And you’re like, Hey, can you, you know , can you , can you clean my? That all goes in the dryer. Doesn’t it? Well maybe, but that’s where you gotta have a, think. You need to have access to a washing machine. You should have more than one gear . That’s what I’m saying. Some people just do no gear . Yeah . When people travel, it’s easier to do no gear . Right. But how’s this my first trip to Brazil. It was so humid. I mean we’re there in June, July, whatever Al geese went moldy in the cupboard dry. Oh wow. I lost a gee to mold because big Tom, big Polish, Tom said, oh no, no . It put in the dryer. It’ll kill the mold. And where the mold was disintegrated. It ate like we put it in the dryer. Oh . And it just, it killed the mold. But then wherever the mold was on the gee , it just went. Got it. Just disappeared. Oh my God. Yeah. So it was just like, man, lesson learn streets of Brazil are dangerous, bro . <laugh> cups of Brazil. <laugh> just your gear up. Yeah. So that’s the thing like I , I think you can only have a GE for a long time, if you, in my opinion, cold, cold wash and just hang dry. That thing, drip dry don’t that’s that’s a good topic for another episode is like ultimate key maintenance, key maintenance. So you get some longevity out that bad boy , man . Thank you for listening today. Hey, if you wanna support us, you can jump in our program. It’ll support us, but it’ll also help you to get super strong and flexible for jujitsu . Go to Bulletproof of bjj.com. And if you’re not interested in doing that and you’re like, man, I’m already on the training vibe. I just love what you guys do. You could sponsor us on Patreon. Oh yeah. And you could be paying for JTS next cup of tea. Ah , that I would appreciate that. We love you guys. See you next time.