With the holidays approaching, you may be interested in buying a gi for the lady grappler in your life. The lady grappler in my life is me.
Since starting BJJ in 2010, I’ve noticed that in general, women’s gis fall into 5 categories. So to help save you some time, when considering which gi you’d like to choose for her, first pick a category, THEN pick a gi. Tthanks to Meg for the title suggestion!
Nearly all the gis can be bought at either FightersMarket.com or at Budovideos.com and the styles are broken down by price on GiReviews.net.
Somewhere atop a rooftop in Seoul . . .
1. Men’s style, women’s size
Models like Kingz, Tatami, Atama, and Gameness come to mind. In general, they are the exact model of men’s gis, but with women’s sizing. There’s nothing here but FIT made for women. They don’t cater specifically to a woman’s “taste” or “fashion sense” but rather size.
Choose this for: women who just want to be treated like all the other guys, are sick of “women’s gis” being fashion choices, have a distinct hatred of “feminine things,” do not want to stand out, are practical minded, are most concerned about fit, or just love those brands.
Used with permission by SL. Check out her tumblr! CupcakeArmbar.tumblr.com
2) PINK! PURPLE! TEAL!
These gis use contrast stitching in a feminine color, or the entire gi is in a for-women-only color! Kyra Gracie, Atama, Fuji all have a pink, Vulkan has lilac. This is the most popular style of gi for women, I’d guess.
Choose this for: women who like to stand out, love colorful or bright clothes, want to feel more feminine while rolling with guys, love pink, love looking/feeling girlie, or are completely neutral about this subject. Note: pink gis are polarizing – women usually LOVE or HATE them. If you don’t know her preference, avoid the pink.
Used with permission of Meg Smitley – go visit her blog! Megjitsu.com
3) FLOWERS! BUTTERFLIES! HOORAY!
This uses some sort of feminine design to be attractive for women. Note that this is specifically not talking about the CUT/SIZE, but rather a fashionable element added in to denote visually that it is a woman’s gi. The Storm Sakura, OTM, Leticia Ribeiro gis – all use elements of this.
Choose this for: women who love feminine things but don’t want to stand out as much, like to look pretty, want to stand out from the guys, use words like adorable! and omg cuuuute!!, like flowers/butterflies/etc, and enjoy fashion. Or again – she’s not against any of these.
Purdy gi!
4) Breast cancer
Fuji’s Pink Blossom gi is the main one, and Shoyoroll is jumping on this as well, with their upcoming women’s gi. I predict more “for the cause” gis in our future.
Choose this for: women who are socially conscious, who have been impacted by this awful disease, like pink, like pretty designs, enjoy looking feminine, don’t mind standing out.
Awww – it’s white-belt me!
5) Fenom
I really think Fenom belongs in a class by themselves. These are gis that are made with a woman grappler in mind, but are only created for women. They now have contrast stitching or a small design appealing to women, but they’ve made their name by creating an inexpensive product, support women in BJJ, and they have great customer service.
Choose this for: a female grappler, someone who likes good customer service, someone who wants a quality gi made by a woman grappler for a woman grappler, someone who cares about the community of women in BJJ.
Yes of course, many companies do some overlap – for example, Atama has men’s style cut for women, women’s coloring, and some with cool designs. Fuji has a regular pink one, as well as their breast cancer one. Fenom recently has been dipping their toes into some of the color/design areas. But in general, this is a generalized breakdown of what’s available for women grapplers. I love them all (except for all-pink gis. No thanks!).
I’m thankful that there are several varieties of gis to choose from – more than even just 2 years ago. There is still a lot of room for growth, however, and thankfully, it DOES help curb my spending at BJJHQ. It’s really cool to be able to look and see that women have the ability to express themselves on the mats. Check out this group photo, taken at the Women’s Grappling Camp earlier this year. How many different types of gis do you see?
Used with permission by Mitch Sengson, and thanks to Georgette
Val Worthington recently posted an article about women’s grappling camps, as did Leslie Dove. You may want to wander over there – for the awesome pictures of jiu jitsu sisterhood as well as more images of women’s gis! And if you’re looking for another gift awesome for lady grapplers, giving her an all expense paid trip to women’s grappling camp would be it!
Used with permission by Mitch Sengson, and thanks to Georgette
I am jealous–I want to go to camp!
Which kinds of gis do you ladies/the lady grapplers in your life have? I have 4 gis designed for women – one breast cancer, two men’s style, and one in women’s coloring. Which style do you (or she) prefer? Please feel free to upload/link to a picture of you in your gi (if you’re a lady!).
Great post! As Triin is cool, I now have a Fenom too: looking forward to getting my transvestite BJJ on today. ;p
Excellent! What model did you pick?
It is a plain white sample version of the black one that is coming out soon. Should have a review up in a few weeks (bit of a backlog due to getting sent various gis plus all the travel write-ups ;D).
Thanks Julia! We are very excited to come out with a brand new size that has been the hardest to fit so far. It is short and curvy. Also we’ll have slim and curvy pants in each color available as a standard option starting in January 2013.
Cheers!
Hey Triin – thanks for the info. I just updated this – realized I hadn’t put any links up! I’m definitely interested in ordering a gi – I really love that fancy F on the blue gi – seriously gorgeous!
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I used to go for pink gis, and I have three – Kyra Gracie’s Atama gi, Freestyle Custom and Adidas. The rest are black with pink/purple/girly designs :). But as I progress in this sport, I tend to want my gis to be simpler. My priority now would be for my gis to be lightweight and NOT white, as I live in Malaysia where the temperature is crazy hot and I don’t want an easily-stained gi. So far, my fave would be the Break Point lightweight women’s gi in black. I like its cut and design 🙂
Hey – do you train with Su Ling? I met her when I went to Kuala Lumpur. I agree with the white – it looks so gross after a while! My favorite right now is the Leticia Ribeiro – yes white, but it’s gorgeous AND the fit is perfect. Lovely lovely lovely. My second is my Tatami top, but the bottoms are far too short. 🙁
OMG! I’m so sorry, this comment was more than two years old! No, I don’t train with Su Ling but I know her too :). Have you visited Borneo? Come over and I’ll take you around!
I haven’t! If I go, I’ll be sure to look you up! 🙂
I just want a normal blue competition gi that fits. Is that too much to ask? I’m really really feeling forgotten. I don’t want a gi for women or for kids, just a gi. I was so happy when companies started making A0 but alas they are no smaller than any A1 ever was as far as I can tell. 5’2 110 -swims in the smallest adult gis and maxes out child sizes. “Women’s” tailored sleeves are not IBJJF approved.
That’s VERY true about tailored sleeves not being IBJJF approved – I love my Tatami but couldn’t wear it to an IBJJF competition.
I’m curious – have you checked out Ok! Kimono’s gis? They have both children and adult sizing, so there might be something in between? I’ve also seen that Tatami’s sizing is very small, so you might have luck there.
Sweet! My bjjgf thanks you! She was just asking if they make pink gi’s! Now we just have to find one that won’t shrink in the dryer…
I’d like to propose another category – one for really tiny women. “Children’s gis”. My mentality fits category 1 – I just want a gi, darn it! But I’ve got a very boyish figure and I’m really, really small so on the rare occasions I can find a women’s gi that I don’t hate the look of it turns out that it wouldn’t fit me anyway.
I’ve got a children’s gi on pre-order from OK! Kimonos. It won’t arrive until next month, but I’m hopeful that it will fit well. I’m concerned about the Reddit and blog drama surrounding that brand (but all that blew up after I ordered the gi). A lot of people at my gym are active in the online community so I expect to get a question or two about the choice of brand, but my own interactions with Brendan have been positive, and that’s the only thing you can really judge a brand on.
Thanks for the article. It really helped me shop for my first gi. I ended up going with Fenom and not only were they super helpful, my gi fit perfectly. I think I am going to go ahead and order another. 🙂
Question on sizing… I was reading a sizing chart and I am I am not sure how I to buy one. I am new to BJJ and since I am about 5’5″ and 235lbs. The largest shows it is for someone over 6ft tall and if I go my height, it is for someone who is like 140-150lbs. What are your recommendations for a large femaie.
For things like this, I find it’s best to contact the manufacturer. When I was 5’4″ and 205 I had to go with bigger, but do NOT go by the men’s sizing. Really. I did and it was AWFUL. I wrote about it here. Basically – contact the manufacturer. Send them your measurements – not your weight. A 235 lb man is significantly larger than a 235 lb woman.
Very likely you will need to alter anything you get – have the legs or arms hemmed.
Also, congrats on your BJJ journey!
I am five feet tall and finding gis that fit is tough. I now have three gis, one of which I am selling at a drastically reduced price to because it never fit.
The first one I bought when I first started was the smallest size available – an A2. It looked ridiculous on me and I had to quadruple roll the sleeves. So when people tried to arm bar me the sleeve would unroll and they would often be left with an empty sleeve. I literally had to spend five minutes tying the pants securely so they wouldn’t fall off, which usually happened when shrimping across the floor. The back looked like a bustle on an old fashioned dress because it was so wide you could have fit two of me inside the waistband.
So, a brown belt who has a zillion gis gave me my second gi. It is well used and worn but he treasured the gi because the professor had given it to him when he graduated to a higher belt. He is short and slim but used to be slimmer and amazingly this gi fits me perfectly. Navy blue with silver trim and a big duck logo. What I like best is that the top has cuts up the side to the waist which makes for a very flattering fit. The trim is slightly shredded so I feel like I absorb some good karma from all the rolls that gi went through preceeding my use.
The third gi is a Fenom gi, which I researched after reading this blog. What is FABULOUS is that I could buy a top in a different size than the bottoms. I am an A0 in the top and an A1 in the bottoms.
So now I have two gis that fit and I no longer have to roll up sleeves and pants that don’t fall off.
Sorry this has been sitting in my queue for a while! You’re now auto approved, so use that power wisely!
I’m really excited when women have a gi that properly fits! I always can tell newbies because they wear these super baggy gis and have no idea that they don’t fit.
Hello! Old fat girl (49, 260 @5’5″) here, looking to start studying some bjj. Thanks for being here, you’ve already been an encouragement.
I am hoping that having a nidan in aikido will be an advantage in that I already have decent ukemi, some mat work, and I know how to train hard, steady, and often.
Of course, there isn’t a women’s gi that’ll ever fit my butt at its current size, but it was good to get a few sources. Looks like I will possibly be going with a Gorilla Fight Gear men’s gi, since they have some sizes that may realistically fit me. Fenom is the only company I have seen that lets a woman choose her top and pants sizes separately. Why doesn’t every company do that for everyone?
And really, the martial arts story of the fat person starting training and sticking to it out of love is plenty common enough (although it is still an awesome and important story) that you’d think a wise gi company would figure out how to make uniforms for overweight people. They could even make the uniforms to last only a few months, considering how nicely training takes it off of a person. Want a fat female martial artist’s undying loyalty as a customer? Make a gi that fits her….
Hello Aikixtal! Sorry – you posted this right before my wedding. I’m finally sticking my head out of the sand! You’re now auto-approved when you comment.
Very honestly, you could probably fit some A4 or A5 pants. See if you can try any on. You would need to get them hemmed up, but that’s not really a big problem.
I do agree with you that from a customer standpoint, allowing folks to buy separates makes a LOT of sense. I appreciate being able to do that.
Kekko wa omedetou gozaimasu! Congrats on your wedding!
I went to a local gi store, and I tried on about half a dozen makes and sizes. Not even A7.
Was very sad, and I got into a convo with the counter guy about how expensive everything bjj is. At the time, I was looking at a school that was $125/month, wondering if I really wanted to do this. No gi, cant afford to train. Sigh.
Counter guy hooked me up. He was a freakin pro. Didn’t sell me a gi, or anything else, but he gave me the email address of a couple guys in my town who are running a bjj dojo for free (with membership at the community center that hosts the class)! How much is the gym membership? Under 30 bucks a month. WIN. WIN. WIN!
The class is run by two really neat purple belts who I think must crap rainbows, they are so unrelentingly positive. Is that a thing for bjj teachers?
Anyway, I am still in my sweatpants, but at least I am sweating and rolling. Class is 6:30p to 7:30p. Last class, we got off the mat at 10 because the center staff wanted to go home.
Thanks for the welcome! Train hard, both off and on the mat.
Hello, Krystal! I am SO SORRY that my blog has been a black hole for new comments. You’re now auto-approved, so if you comment, it will immediately show up. I have spring break this week, so my goal is to get my blog back up to speed.
How have things gone with BJJ? Are you still sticking with it? Did you find a gi that fit? I know that Killer Bee makes a custom gi, and there are a few places that do them. Fenom also does big sizes, and they’re specifically for women.
Digging it. Funny thing, haven’t really lost a pound, gained several, in fact, but moving better and caring less about the fat thing. It is just going to be gi top and goodwill sweats bottoms for me for a while. No more or less tacky than any of the other gi/rashguard/shorts/sweats/hoodies combinations we often have on the mat.
Promotions are imminent, and I hope that I am so much not on that list. I am not there yet, and many others have grown more in the time I’ve trained. I’ll catch a stripe next round. After 25 years on the mat, I have a good idea of where I fit in a school, rank-wise. Of course, if they do hand me one, I’ll smile and shake their hands and say thank you and wear it and try to catch up with their expectations.
Are your instructors disgustingly, almost unhelpfully, positive? Doesn’t really give me anything to work on when they praise me for remembering to inhale after I exhale….
Here’s the reality – while you might view their positivity as unhelpful, they’re doing what they can to be supportive. It’s so easy for new folks who are working at a physical disadvantage (comparatively so) to get discouraged, so if they can get you coming back, they’re going to do what they can to encourage that. It can also be rough if you realize that the person’s lack of flexibility/coordination/etc is hindering them more than the actual move. For me, until my body got into better shape, I couldn’t physically do a lot of even basic movements, so praising me for breathing and coming back was actual praise. Stating the obvious “Well, you really suck and didn’t do one damn thing correctly” is unfortunately not helpful either.
Hmmm…methinks I have a blog post coming out of this. Thank you for the idea!!