The Colorful Gi Phenomenon

So as I understand it from my illustrious instructors (who are totally great people, I just wanted to use the word ‘illustrious’ today; next up will be the term ‘proliferate’) once upon a time the only gi was a white gi. Nothing camouflage shaded, no bright red or green or yellow.

Just white.

Then they decided to throw tradition out the window, get a little crazy and have blue gi’s (I think it was suppose to be a summer thing, from what I recall)(and I would totally not be surprised if alcohol had some sort of influence in this decision).

Nowadays there are gi’s every color of the rainbow, and some most certainly outside the rainbow as well. There are some schools out there fine with their students wearing all different kinds of gi’s (personally my favorite is when someone wears the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle green), and there are some academies that want their students to wear the more traditional white, and a blue uniform when they are more of a regular competitor, since the colors are restricted at more of the bigger tournaments around the country.

Honestly, I’m not sure what to think. As fun as it is to see some of the different colors gi’s come in (and who doesn’t want a traffic cone orange gi, really) I kind of like the idea of holding the tradition, especially the lower ranked belts. When you’re a black belt you can show up in a gi with the outline of a woman in a bikini, or a design reminiscent of the dick towel and no one will really stop you, because hey, there’s a good chance that it’s your academy and you’ll do whatever you want.

But I digress.

I would never hold it against someone if they chose one of the more unusual styles, but call me dull and uninteresting, but I wouldn’t want to purchase something that I would never be able to wear in competition (gi’s for IBJJF must be all white, all blue, and I think just this year or last they allowed all black).

What kind of gi’s do you guys wear when training? Did you buy one of those neon colored gi’s? Are they comfortable to train in? I’m curious.