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Some groups feel pretty strongly about dress. I used to be in that category. Over the last fifteen years or so I have found myself training outside in my garden, in the courtyards of Washington University. or in parks more often than in proper dojo. There have been stints where this has not been true, but taken in total I think this is an accurate statement.
It is not easy to get grass stains out of a karate gi and they are not cheap. We like to throw each other in TKRI. We like to use strikes to unbalance our partners, we like to grab most any bits of cloth or flesh that happen to be within grabbing range (we are a close group), and it is not uncommon for us to go to the ground when the spirit moves us. Add to this a fair amount of falling practice, some sit ups, push ups, and who knows what else, and you have got gi hell.
It took about a decade (some of us in the karate world are evidently a bit slow) for me to discover that it was not necessary to always wear a gi when training. I found I liked it. There are a lot of advantages to training in shorts, with or without a tee-shirt. Seizing feels much different without the thick cloth of a gi’s sleeves. The sleeves both absorb sweat which makes grabbing much easier, and the material is itself easy to grab.
It is not that unusual, in our Saint Louis club, for our male students to train without a gi top or a tee-shirt, sometimes our female students will wear a sports top. This immediately reveals postural, balance, and technical problems. In yakusoku kumite it allows for much more precise targeting.
Some people may counter that a gi mimics the vulnerabilities one should be aware of when wearing everyday attire. Coats, shirts, jackets, and ties are all easily grabbed more easily than bare flesh and change the nature of many attacks. This is true of course, and I am not advocating the abandonment of the use of the gi altogether, however I have found that old coats, shirts, jackets, and even ties are also effective stand ins for coats, shirts, jackets and ties if one is interested in approximating real world encounters (the similarities truly are striking).
TKRI has several important events every year around which our schedules revolve. Both the Virginia and Missouri branches have special training to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The clubs collaborate on the demonstrations at the annual Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Gardens held over Labor Day weekend every year. The Ferrum Virginia clubs host a weekend long summer camp towards the end of June or the beginning of July every year. Each club tries to host at least one major event over the course of the regular school year. These are all big productions. We often have guests. During these sorts of activities we wear our gi (to be truthful the Ferrum group usually trains in gi) and try to make ourselves presentable.
I spend a lot less money on gis now. It is a big help. I do not want to even imagine how much I have spent over the years on karate. I am more prone to wear my gi at the beginning of a semester when we are trying to bring the group together. Mostly my gi functions sort of like formal wear (with sweat stains).
I tell my students all of the normal stuff about appropriate dress for special occasions and visiting other clubs ; wear all white traditional gi without patches and do not wear jewelry on the training floor. I tell them that regardless of their rank in our club they should be prepared to wear a white belt when they visit any other club (unless invited to do otherwise by the host).
We may get the odd student who does not have the sense not to wear “ninja” gear or tee-shirts proclaiming themselves to be a sensei, master, shihan, grandmaster, soke, or my favorite; ni dai soke, but we nick that in the bud pretty quickly. In fact there is nothing quite like working with a bunch of sweaty, grass stained, very fit, slightly bedraggled looking people who are more interested in how to knock one another down on their butts then they are in ranks, certificates, and titles, to take the piss out of any self proclaimed expert.
Admittedly about half way through the summer the group, when we are hot, muddy, grass stained and bug bitten looks a bit like Captain Jack Sparrow’s crew. I like it though (arrrrrgh).
10/8/09 Note: Earth-Gi is on indefinite hiatus due to the shifts in the economy and resulting increase of the cost of importing hemp fabric.
Earth-Gi carries the distinction of being the only 100% Hemp fabric gi on the market. Hemp isn’t just a hippie obsession; the fabric from hemp plants is superior in many ways to cotton- for starters, it’s four times stronger than cotton fabric and hemp will naturally resist yellowing and rotting over time. Industrial hemp is NOT at all the same as the variety that produces marijuana; so no, there is nothing psychoactive or drug-related about hemp products. Unfortunately, industrial is illegal to cultivate here in the United States. The materials for Earth-Gi are imported from Canada and the gi is hand made by a husband and wife team who make hemp active wear for karate practitioners and yogini. According to their web site (www.earth-gi.com), each gi is made to order and Earth-Gi will craft custom size gi at no extra cost. Orders are shipped within 1-2 weeks. Embroidery is also available.
Earth-Gi can stand by the fact that it is not produced through sweatshop labor, something that many gi manufacturers cannot claim. Hemp canvas is also an environmentally responsible choice, as it requires none of the harsh pesticides that the cotton industry uses, and does not require nearly as much fertilization. The end product is a very well made gi that more than holds it’s own alongside comparable commercial brands.
I received my Earth-Gi just in time to test it out in an evening karate class. Right out of the box, the 12 oz. hemp fabric feels like a good work shirt that is broken in just right. The fabric is free from flaws and the stitching is clean and straight. Based on measurements that I sent to the Earth-Gi team, the gi fits me closely enough not to be a flapping nuisance, but is loose enough that it does not restrict movement, especially in the legs and midsection. The overall cut of the gi is very much in line with the “traditional” cuts of the Meijin and Tokaido gi that I have used in the past. The jacket is slightly longer which keeps it from pulling out of the belt. Above all, this is a very comfortable gi to wear.
A difference that is immediately apparent is the color- this gi is not the crisp bluish-white cotton that is a bit of a fetish amongst karateka, but a mellow creamy tone. The hemp fabric is not bleached for two reasons: bleaching is extremely destructive from an environmental standpoint; and bleaching significantly weakens the fibers in plant derived fabrics such as cotton and hemp. Although it may look different than the typical gi, the Earth-Gi will last longer than bleached fabrics and does not contribute to water pollution. As an aside, the uber-white gi is a relatively modern artifact, as industrial bleaching was not around in pre-WWII Japan.
The construction of the jacket reminds me of a cross between a good Judo top and Carhartt work clothes. All jacket seams are triple stitched with heavy thread. The inside of the sleeves are reinforced with a second layer of hemp fabric, and the lapels and front panels are two layers thick and stitched with five lines of thread. For those of us who engage in rugged karate practice with much pulling, shoving and throwing, this extra reinforcement means that the gi will last for far longer than a few months. Although sturdily made, the jacket is not bulky or noticeably heavier. It feels just as strong as my old Judo gi without being nearly as thick. In fact, it closes and maintains the same profile as a lighter weight gi despite the thicker, much stronger fabric. Just for grins, I had the largest student (a football player with arms the size of my thighs) in my class pick me up by the lapels and throw me around a few times. The jacket seams did not show any signs of stress or tearing.
One of my biggest complaints about the “traditional” heavy cotton gi is that the pants often bind on the top of the thighs when kicking, especially after a good sweat- it’s counterproductive to have to readjust for each kick. The Earth-Gi pants allow for full range of motion without any obstruction. The draw-string waist does not bunch excessively when pulled tight, leaving plenty of swing room in the crotch and legs. The inseams are reinforced here as well. It also does not hold sweat the same way that a cotton gi tends to, making this a very breathable gi to train in.
I immediately noticed that the draw string loop of the pants is far sturdier than in other brands. In all of the gi I’ve owned, the loop is one of the first things to rip from regular use and abuse. The Earth-Gi design is inverted, meaning that it’s horizontal as opposed to vertical. The loop is of folded and stitched hemp that is secured to the folded waist band of the pants with more reinforced stitching. If you like to roll around and toss each other across the dojo, this feature is worth looking into.
So why is a hemp gi so special? A gi review is no place for preaching from the soapbox, but bear with me for a moment. Modern karate is the product of globalization, the mingling of cultures and individuals exchanging ideas. An art that began on the relatively small island of Okinawa has spread to every continent and been embraced by people from myriad nationalities, religions, languages and walks of life. This implies a certain kinship, a responsibility to relate to each other not only as karateka but as human beings who share something that has become the property of the global community. That awareness extends to our decisions about where or food comes from, how our products are made, and who is affected by these processes. Certain choices can have a positive impact on those who produce these goods for us. Please see the bottom of this review for some facts about the human and environmental cost of modern cotton production.
All environmental and ethical reasons aside, the Earth-Gi is worth looking into. The investment is worth it when you consider that the fabric will outlast cotton, and that the manufacturers are real people who you can deal directly with about custom sizing that’s actually made to order, not just mix and match sizes. The price is comparable to a heavy-weight Tokaido or Meijin gi. Compared to the 12 oz. gi offered by other brands Earth-Gi is designed and made every bit as well- possibly better, when you consider the attributes of hemp fabric for this use. I recommend Earth-Gi to anyone who is serious about good training equipment and about their footprint on the rest of the planet.
For more information, visit:
http://www.tkri.net/tkrisupplies.htm
or email: tim@earth-gi.com
For more on the human cost of pesticide-dependent cotton production, visit:
FSRI Blog 
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