What makes a good uniform / starting a business

Hi. I am currently designing martial arts uniforms for a possible home business and wanted to get some advice about a few things. I’ve trained in ninjitsu, hapkido, and muay thai, but haven’t spent too much time grappling or in too many gis/doboks. What do you look for in an excellent uniform? In terms of material, construction, design, etc.

Which weave do you like better: twill, drill, canvas, goldweave, double weave?

What’s a good all around weight: 8oz, 10oz, 12oz, 14oz, or more? For training? For grappling? For competition?

Do you like to have the same material for the pants as the jacket?

What are some common flaws in gi construction?

I see a lot of jui jitsu gis with tons of patches….what’s with all the patches??

What do you think is the best way to get a new ma uniform line’s name out there? If it were you, where would you advertise?

Thanks for any comments, help, feedback, etc….

(A)

well, it depends what kind of art you are aiming at catering for or whether you are trying for an all-rounder.

I personally like something which absorbs the sweat. My TKD org once changed to some mixed fabric (rather than plain old cotton) and it felt horrible having something which didn't fully absorb and meant I could feel the sweat dribbling down my back and felt plain sticky.

I like the jacket, as with a Judo gi, a bit heavier than the legs. One thing I don't like (although it obviously comes with the turf) is something rubbing against my neck too much.

What might be interesting is to experiment with weight, strength and flexibility. A gi is often more rigid than street clothes are and sometimes harder to grip and use. OK, this is necessary for repeated practice, but it would be good to have something which is nearer to street style clothes.

have a zip up the front for convenience. make sure the stitching attaching the zip is heavy duty.

the school I go to uses a 65%polyester and 35% cotton blend. it controls sweat pretty well and also it helps make it mark resistant...that is to say dirty marks not people called mark :-p

Is that ITF or Tukido? I seem to recall both using zips.

Problem is, how practical is it to have a zip in a grappling gi; might it not break the zip or rip the stitching?

I would definitely like to see more uniforms tailored towards women. Most that I've tried don't take into consideration a womans body shape. I'd also like to see a uniform with a stretchier material in the pants for flexibility.

Laura

How do you mean, Laura? I thought lots of suits just don't take anybody's body into acount. You look like a sack, male or female.

Granted it probably has a lot to do with my own body shape, but I find that uniforms that otherwise fit, don't take a womens hips into consideration and the v-necks don't really need to open all the way down to my belly button either.

And I don't really think it would hurt manufacturers to consider that there are more and more "well padded" folks taking the martial arts these days to get rid of some of that "padding", so it would be nice to be able to buy a uniform that wasn't twenty feet too long, just so it fits around the mid section.

I really don't like having to buy a uniform and have to spend the time and money to get it hemmed. Would it be too much to be able to buy a size x uniform with the lengths, petite, medium, and long as options? We can get everything else from china, why not this?

Laura

Ah yes, I see what you mean. Being tall, I oftn find the problem is that they assume long legs means large midrift and don't always allow for tighter fastening. Upshot is that I look like my legs have started shrinking half way through a warm-up.