Does anyone know how BJJ evolved into wearing non-white plain gi's covered in patches and badges? I've heard some say that poor students in brazil could afford new gis when they were damaged so had to sew patches into any hole but I'm not sure if this is true. In Helio Gracie's fight with Kimura he's wearing a plain white gi and in the early UFC's Royce Gracie is in a plain white gi so the 'pimp my gi' factor wasn't always about.
Good question. To me it's gets a bit silly. Everyone rolling around like a fricken billboard. :bang: One or two fine... but when their is more patch than gi showing... I've noticed the Japanese NOT very keen on this sort of thing.
Even some BJJ instructers don't like it, some Gracies insist their students only wear plain white gis.
I actually think the patches distinguish the art in some ways. I like the patches. It's flashy and gaudy and I guess just suits my American desire to kitsch out everything.
slip.. with that thread yesterday, your love of thai lady boys, and advocating nude bjj.... one might wonder about you
dude. The more the better! While my Gameness Platinum has plenty of patches on it from the factory, I wear an HCK that's just BEGGING for some bling!
I think it might be part of the tendency in Brazilian culture to put the national flag on everything.
I'm not too keen on the 'loads of patches' thing, particularly as a beginner. It would seem the main reason people get em is that they like the way it looks and enjoy displaying certain brands: to each their own, I guess. I could understand it in terms of sponsorship, but that would mainly be the professionals (in that post I just linked, Yrkoon9 mentions that there are apparently places that you can get discounts if you've got certain patches). Another reason would be representing your team/club, though that would only require one patch. Finally, interesting point Yrkoon9 (yeah, I quote this guy a lot: consistently one of the best BJJ posters on the net) mentioned in one of his posts:
