I was wondering why do different schools have different coloured belts and in different sequences. I love reading the Ethos behind the colours too. I'm not too sure if they acturally put some real thought process into it or whether it was just hype to "Sell" the grades

My Sequence is:
White - Red - Purple - Blue - Yellow - Orange - Green - Brown - Brown/Black1 (Brown/white1 - kids) - Brown/Black2 (Brown/white2 - kids) - (Black/white1 - kids) - (Black/white2 - kids) - Black - Black/Red

My reasoning

White - comes with the Gi
Red - I'm a Man City Fan so bottom of the Pile
Purple - is a Mix or Red & Blue
Blue - as it was the lowest grade in Ashihara karate
Yellow - next highest grade
Orange - its a nice colour and its close to Yellow
Green - it was the next closest to Brown
Brown - always the highest Karate Kyu Grade
Brown/Black1 - Its a brown belt with a black stripe through its because these days people winge if they dont get anything more that a bit of electrical tape
Brown/Black2 - Its a brown black split belt again its because these days people winge if they dont get anything more that a bit of electrical tape and after 12 months or failing Dan grade the belt is reverse so black on top instead of brown on top. (If Stocks depleated, this would become Black/White1 belt)

Brown/white1, Brown/white2 - kids - Same as above but didn't want to have any black in a junior Grade.
Black/white1, Black/white2 - kids - Didn't want a FULL Black belt for a Junior Grade)

Black - its a Universal colour for Dan grades, No Dan Bars at all to be shown as the user should be able to portray their grade without the need to label their belts with it

Black/Red Block Belt - a Master's Belt - to distinguish between technical grades and Time served Grades. Only compulsary to be worn on Gradings and Seminars, otherwise Black belt may be worn. Choice of Colour(s) - same as the Retro Man City Away Stripe top

As you can see not pretty reasoning for the belt sequence and yes some of the grades "seem" mixed up but hey, its my school lol

What are your thoughts and reasoning behind your belts and what colours would you have if you had a choice?

The dojo I have attended start with off-the-street white and become increasingly more colorful before they settle down for the more serious mature student.
White, Yellow, Orange, Red, Green, Blue, Brown and Black.

If Sensei is absent on any given day, the highest belt present leads the warm up and instructs.

BTW, I still wear the first belt I bought in 1993. It is Beige and getting beiger.

At our dojo we have only white, green, brown and black belts.
The first three you wear at three kyu levels (total of 9 kyu, you start at 9 when you join our dojo).
I don't know if there is any deeper meaning behind it. These colours are, as far as I know, traditional in Okinawan/Japanese Karate. And it seems to work just fine!

In Tae Kwon Do they've got these colours, half-belts / stripe belts are in between

White: to signify innocence and no knowledge of the style
Yellow: signifies earth, foundation level, plant your seed of knowledge in it
Green: plant's growth as your skills develop
Blue: heavens to which the plant's growing
Red: signify danger as the skills develop but to also caution the student themselves to exercise care and control
Black: opposite of white, also impervious to darkness and fear (I guess this means being cool headed and still making the right choices )

Use roman numerals or bars for dan grades 1 to 9. Schools in the system that do award junior blackbelts give them a blackbelt with a white stripe through the centre.

White, yellow (3), Green (3), Brown (3), Black Shodan to Yondan, Black one gold stripe 5th and 6th, black with two gold stripes 7th and 8th, black with three gold bars 9th and 10th. Red and white belt when you are awarded Shihan-worn on special occassions.
I know one well known american black belt who didn't want to wear his black with two stripe belt and insisted on wearing his red and white belt because he was afraid people would think he was a nidan........
Duane

Yeh, that is what we had. They were however not half, there was a stripe down the middle of the belt.

White
White 1 Yellow (tape)
White 2 Yellow (tape)
Yellow
Yellow/Green
Green
Green/Blue
Blue
Blue/Red
Red
Red/Black
Black

Students through the system that were under 16 did not receive black belts, they received a junior black belt and I want to say it was "half" black and half red; memory not serving me now. At 16 they would then have to take the black belt test again.

This was the same at our school.

When lining up the colored belts were lined up side by side, row by row facing the Instructor. The black belts were on the left (if looking from the Instructors point of view). They were lined up one behind the other starting with the highest Dan. Age also came into play regardless of who had their belt first when belts were held by the same people. Also it was mandatory that each helped in the class and lead some classes. The Red/Black belt, it was mandatory prior to testing that they also had led some classes.

The same within our dojo. *Brown/Black belt.
When my instructor was contracted on the other side of the country and couldn't always be on time for class, he asked me - a brown belt at that time - to instruct or do the warm-ups.

@ Duane, are you training in a Okinawan karate (a guess: Shorin) school?
I have read about those stripes somewhere, but am not sure where.