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Bad Boy Pro Series Lightweight vs Gameness Feather Jiu Jitsu Gi Review

BJJ, Gi Reviews and Art, Reviews 9 Responses »

Jul 182010

Okay. I’ve wanted one of these for a long time. I like the new, lightweight generation of BJJ gis coming out, and Bad Boy is old school, up there with Vulkan and Atama. When they came out with the Bad Boy Pro Series Lightweight Gi, I was all like, “Damn. I have to get one.” Then I saw the price tag and was just like, “Damn.” So, I bought a Gameness Feather, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite gis. It’s lightweight, affordable, well made and… well, I dyed mine Wedgewood Blue, which makes my BJJ like 10x better.

But two things happened. First, I saw what a terrific job Seymour is doing reviewing gis on his blog. His thorough and honest reviews have inspired me. Second, MMAOutlet.com offered me a discount in exchange for some link love, and hopefully some referrals and business their way. I felt like karma had swept in and given me a big smooch on the lips, practically begging me to buy the more expensive gi and find out whether it’s truly worth the hype.

The Gameness Feather is manufactured in Pakistan, while the Bad Boy is made in Brazil.

Disclaimer and Pricing:

In the interest of full disclosure, I am not sponsored by Bad Boy or Gameness. I purchased both gis with my own money, although I got the Bad Boy Pro Series Lightweight Gi at a discount. The following is a full and honest review of the gis. As of the posting of this review, these gis are both available from MMAOutlet.com. The Bad Boy for $199.95 plus s&h and the Gameness for $124.99. Another gi in this lightweight family is the Vulkan Pro Light.

Weight and Fit:

I’m 5’10” tall and about 185 lbs. I have a long torso and short legs (30” inseam). I have a wingspan of approximately 72”. I am measuring the Bad Boy gi both before AND after washing. The Gameness Feather has been washed several times. It’s likely that the Bad Boy will shrink a bit more, although I believe based on experience, that this will be relatively minimal. Both Gis are A3.

I wash my gis every time the same way. I wash in warm water, cold rinse, and dry them completely in the dryer. I purchase the gis specifically anticipating maximum shrinkage, so with only a very few exceptions, I tend to buy an A3 for my size.

I’m not including weight for these gis, because at the time of this writing, I just don’t have a scale that’s accurate enough to weigh them. I’ll update this review when I’m able to weight them. Also, in the chart below, I’ve included measurements for the Bad Boy out of the bag, as well as after washing twice. I didn’t measure the Gameness Feather out of the bag, so obviously, I can’t include them in this review.

GI DIAGRAM

	Gameness Pearl	Bad Boy Pro Series
Weight (lbs)
Measurements (Inches)	Post Wash	Pre/Post Wash
A	62.5”	68”/64”
B	30.5”	32”/31”
C	20”	20”/19”
D	7”	7”/7”
E	38.5”	38.5”/37.5”
F	10”	9.5”/9”
G	27”	29”/27”

Jackets:

The weave is remarkably similar. It’s a soft weave that’s comfortable and lightweight. Both feel strong. Having worn both, I’ll say that the Gameness seems to expand a bit when sweaty, while the Bad Boy remains tighter. Not a strong knock against the Gameness, but the nod is for the Bad Boy.

Fit is comparable, with both being comfortable and plenty big for me, even after washing in warm water and drying completely in the dryer. The jackets are both well constructed and durable.

The cuffs are both reinforced well, and I think that both will stand up well to the rigors of gripfighting. You can see on the left that the Gameness Feather gi is finished with a trim patch matching the trim on the outside bottom of the jacket. This is a nice finishing touch that was present in the Gameness Pearl as well. I don’t know whether anyone really notices it or not, but it’s nice to have.

The Bad Boy is reinforced with what looks like heavy canvas stripping. It has a much more substantial feel.

Collars:

The collars are approximately the same thickness with the slightly thicker one being the Gameness Feather.

The Gameness Feather features a rubberized collar with ripstop fabric, which might be marginally lighter. It’s noticeably spongier when you squish it. Many gi manufacturers have gone to using some kind of lightweight, rubber material in the lapels so that they’re lighter and dry faster.

The Bad Boy collar is MUCH stiffer, made, if I understand the sales verbiage correctly, of some kind of rolled cotton (“lapel that is filled with the same high-quality material of which the Gi itself is made.”) The end result is a tougher feel, and a more traditional look. The collar fabric is also a more traditional canvas, rather than the newer, trendier, ripstop fabric. Will it make you harder to choke? Maybe. I don’t know. I think that the sponginess of the Gameness gi will make it a little easier to grip.

Pants/Trousers:

The pants both have two drawstring loops, with a flat, fabric style drawstring (as opposed to a rope style like the SYR and older Gameness pants use). The Bad Boy pants are slightly heavier.

The fabric in the Gameness Feather is ripstop. It’s very different, however, from other ripstop pants I’ve seen, such as the Atama Mundial 7 and 9 paints. While the Atama ripstop fabric is soft, the Gameness Feather pants are stiff. Is this a bad thing? I really don’t know. It just is, I guess. They’re really wrinkly and stiff, but also very light. The knees are reinforced.

The Bad Boy pants are a light canvas material. Much softer than the Gameness, they’re more of what you’d expect to find in BJJ gi pants with heavily reinforced seams, knees and other stress points.

The cuffs of the trousers are noticeably different in that the Gameness pants are finished at the bottom, but not really reinforce, while the Bad Boy pants don’t look like they’re going to ever wear out.

Patches and Stitching

Both gis feature some requisite pieces of Flair.

The Gameness Feather features several patches. There’s a new design on each shoulder with what looks like a stylized “G” and some block letters.

On the chest, there’s a lapel patch which is pretty familiar to anyone who’s seen the Gameness Single Weave or Platinum Weave gis that have been around for years. The thing is, this lapel patch really doesn’t match, and was mercifully absent from the Gameness Pearl designs. I had intended to remove it when I purchased the gi, but decided to keep it only because I wasn’t sure I could get the patch off cleanly. It’s stitched very close to the seam on the collar, and I was going to have to cut the fabric on the patch to get it off. After dying it, I still don’t like it, but I like it a whole lot better.

Other patches include the small patch on the left that features the Gameness Bulldog logo, and the trim patches also seen on the left and inside the cuffs on the jacket. It’s a nice touch inside the sleeves that finished the seam and also reinforces it.

That’s it for the Feather. Unlike on other Gameness gis, the ripstop pants that come with the Gameness Feather are absent any bling.

The Bad Boy Pro Series Lightweight gi features a much more coherent graphics scheme than the Gameness. I mean, there’s consistent repetition of only one version of the company logo, and it looks like some thought was given to the entire process, creating a much less haphazard appearance. It’s also very clean looking, without too much going on. The overall effect is professional looking with enough branding that it’s easy to see.

The picture above left is along the bottom edge of the jacket, with a trim patch that finishes the jacket and a small logo patch. Above right is a picture of the shoulder patch. All three patches feature the Badboy eye logo with the company name in block print.

The pants have three patches, including trim along the outside seams that matches the jacket trim, a small square patch (above middle) that is on the front towards the top of the pants, and an embroidered patch of the eye logo that is down at the bottom of the right leg.

The patches on both gis seem to be sewn on well.

Conclusion

Bottom line is that the Bad Boy is clearly a better made gi in every category. The verbiage on the websites evokes images of little old ladies sitting in a big room, hand sewing each Bad Boy gi with needle and thread, and maybe a little love, too. Obviously, that ain’t the case, but you can see that every seam is straight and clean, every panel is reinforced and well thought out. The whole thing just feels well constructed. I like the lines of it, and the sharp looking patches are enough to look good without being gaudy. If you can afford to spend the dough on a Bad Boy gi, you won’t be disappointed. The only issue I have with my Bad Boy is what color to dye it. I’m thinking fire engine red.

The Gameness represents good value for the money. While the stitching isn’t quite as clean, the seams aren’t quite as well reinforced, and the graphics aren’t quite as well thought out, at more than 1/3rd less cost, it’s a very good gi for the money.

Both Gis are available from MMAOutlet.com.

Good Luck At the Revolution

BJJ, Blogroll, Community, Competition, Gi Reviews and Art, Reviews 3 Responses »

Jul 142010

I’m leaving tomorrow afternoon to head out to my wife’s 20th High School reunion. Woohoo! I love my wife, and I’m looking forward to a roadtrip with her, but at the same time, I don’t know any of her friends from high school. We’ll see how this goes.

Good luck to all of the Lotus Club jitsuka competing this weekend. You’re all an inspiration and I wish I were able to be there to cheer you on!

In other news, I’m finishing up a gi review that I hope to post soon, so stay tuned for that. I’m also anxiously awaiting a Tatami Zero G gi that I ordered from the UK. I’m pretty excited to see this one. If it’s as good as I’ve heard, it’s a terrific deal, even accounting for shipping from the Uk. In the meantime, go check out Meerkatsu’s AWESOME gi reviews. He reviewed the Zero G, but I’ll post one in American… dude’s all centimeters this and kilograms that. Who uses those funky measurements anyway?

What’s that? Most of the world? Oh… well…

Have a great weekend all. I expect a full report when I come back.

“Pewter” Dyed Vulkan Pro Light Gi plus Quick Review

BJJ, Dyeing and Batik, Gi Reviews and Art, Reviews 11 Responses »

Jun 272010

This is a NICE color. I used Pewter, which I honestly thought was going to be a lighter tint, but it deepened up into a very cool, greenish-gray color. At first, I thought it was going to be very similar to my “Wedgewood Blue” Gameness Feather, but it quickly started moving from blue to green.

The Vulkan Pro Light gi itself is extremely well made. Since the Vulkan ads always say that shrinkage is not an issue on these kimonos, as these are “100% pre shrunk,” I ordered an A2. The last time I went with an A2, I got burned a little as it shrunk up way too small and I only got to wear it a few times. I wash all of my gis in warm water and machine dry them, so I try to anticipate shrinkage, but that can be a problem if the gi truly doesn’t shrink.

As expected, it fit perfectly out of the bag. I was surprised at how light the top feels. The pants are light, too, but contrary to the recent trends, this gi does not use the ripstop fabric in the design.

Patches are pretty clean and the seams are nice and strong, reinforcing the gi everywhere you’d expect: armpits, collar, etc.

I’m happy to say that I’ve washed the gi in hot water several times as a part of the dying process and it still fits well. The sleeves shrunk up just a little bit, but not enough to make a huge difference.

Color-wise, the Vulkan Pro Light gi comes in blue, black or white, but I think that the pewter is pretty badass.

Orange Crush Koral Gi

BJJ, Dyeing and Batik, Gi Reviews and Art 26 Responses »

Jun 162010

For Bingo. I tried to batik a design inspired by the biohazard symbol. Once again, I’m getting the fickleness of fabric, but I think it turned out okay. The orange is awesome. I’d give myself a 9/10 for color, but maybe a 5 or a 6 for the design. My son says it’s at least a 7, and I think he’s awesome for that!

Punisher ShoYoRoll Super-Lite

BJJ, Dyeing and Batik, Gi Reviews and Art 19 Responses »

Jun 132010

Coach Foster is a comic book guy. He likes all the superheroes, but the Punisher is his favorite. He’s usually running around with a Punisher t-shirt, has a Punisher patch on most of his BJJ gis and the logo is pretty badass. So, when I took his gi and offered to dye it for him, I thought this would be a perfect second project for my burgeoning batiking skills.

If dying fabric is a skill, batik is a true art form. In theory, the idea of applying wax to fabric as a resist for the dye is a pretty simple thing. You melt some wax, put it where you need it and voila. Right? Wrong.

There are different waxes out there. I use a mix of Bee’s Wax and Paraffin Wax. The more paraffin wax you use, the more crackle you’ll get. I wanted a significant amount of crackle in this, so I used a bit over 50% paraffin.

I use a little 7” electric skillet to melt my wax. It works great. In fact, this is exactly the kind I bought, although I got it locally on sale for under $15.

But here’s the thing. According to the interwebs, the wax melts beginning at about 160F and the smoking point is around 240F. Somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot, where the wax is just right. Too hot and it penetrates to much into the fabric and you don’t get any good crackle. Not hot enough and it sets too much on the surface of the fabric and crackles right off.

I am not good enough yet to have total control over this, so I’m trying to pick projects that are forgiving.

Where you see it looks darker, that’s where the wax was too warm and the saturated the fabric. In those spots, I can expect it to be completely white in the final product. Up toward the top of the skull, I wasn’t quite warm enough, and that wax just flaked right off in the dye.

Here’s an action shot while it’s still in the tub. Bear in mind that the color is darker than it will be in the final product because it’s still wet. This is after about 10 minutes in the tub.

And another one below after almost 30 minutes, just before I added the soda ash. The second one is from my iPhone, but you can see on the forehead area where the dye has broken through the wax.

And after removing the wax, it’s pretty clear that I didn’t get the wax to penetrate nearly enough in the forehead. It’s okay, though. I think it turned out really good. The bottom half was perfect and looks EXACTLY how I’d hoped it would.

The picture below is after taking off the wax, but just before washing it one last time. I like the color a lot and in the picture below you can get a better sense of the final product. I was hoping it would end up more toward red than purple, and while I was pretty confident it would lighten up some, it’s always a little iffy using a color I haven’t used before. As you can see, it’s a bright red, on the darker side but definitely not purple. The flash was on, so it looks brighter than it will once washed and dried completely.

And here’s the finished product. After seeing it out of the wash, I have to say that I’m really, really happy with how it turned out. I would have liked a little more skull to have stayed in the top right part, but the overall effect of it being messy is intentional and came out pretty much how I thought it would. Bear in mind that the color is actually in between the two pictures. The first is without a flash and the second is with the flash.

So, there it is. A one of a kind gi for James Foster, owner of Foster BJJ in Kent, WA.

Mundial Finals, Modern Family and Vulkan PRO Light Gis

BJJ, Competition, Gi Reviews and Art 2 Responses »

Jun 062010

Quick post here. If you missed the live, streaming coverage yesterday, it’s okay. You’re still good. The finals are today and the coverage is going to be AWESOME.

Log into Budovideos now. Do it now!

Also, I was watching an old episode of Modern Family on TiVo and Ed O’Neil shows the son a little brazilian jiu jitsu. He ends up putting his son to sleep with a rear naked choke. Pretty funny.

And last, I took advantage of the Budovideos 15% off coupon to purchase a Vulkan PRO Light gi. I’ll write up a quick review and compare it to the Gameness Feather I just bought, dyed and reviewed.

Quick Gameness Feather Review

BJJ, Gi Reviews and Art, Reviews 13 Responses »

Jun 062010

Depending upon who you ask, the “best” gi at any given time will be something that fits them well, incorporates what are considered the latest features and has a good balance between cost and quality (in other words, if it’s inexpensive, some cost cutting in the design/construction is expected and forgiven).

I’ve tried a ton of other BJJ kimonos, but my favorites over the years remains the Gameness Pearl. I own two. I picked up the first one shortly after I started training in BJJ, so I’ve had it for about 3 years now, I’d guess. The second one is a couple of years old. The only noticeable wear on the older one is some fraying beginning to show on the lapels. Otherwise, both still look great, fit great and have worn very well as a part of my regular rotation.

My wishlist of the top three “light” gis I’d like to buy was narrowed down to the Gameness Feather (the new version of the Pearl), the Vulkan PRO light gi, and the Bad Boy Pro Series Lightweight Gi. I’ve seen all three gis in person and they all seem really nice, so it came down to price and brand loyalty for me. The Gameness Feather is significantly less expensive than either of the other two choices.

I’m 5’10” and about 185 lbs. I’d say I have an average build. I have shorter legs for my height, but nothing too crazy. I purchased an A3, which according to the Gameness sizing chart will fit guys between 5’10” and 6’ tall, and 167 to 200 lbs. Quite a range.

The Gameness Feather out of the bag was big for me. I don’t remember honestly whether the Pearl shrunk at all when I first got it, so I was a little nervous. Around the waist and in the shoulders, it was too big. The sleeves were 2 to 3 inches too long and the pants were a good 2 inches long, as well. After washing in hot water and machine drying, It shrunk up to just where I want it. It fits perfectly now.

The gi top was soft out of the bag, but the pants were really stiff. The ripstop fabric is super light, but it was like a starched shirt. The top is a tight weave fabric that looks to me like the pearl weave I’m familiar with. After the initial wash, the pants didn’t let up at all, and if anything, got stiffer, while the top softened up even more.

Quick tip for anyone thinking about dying a gi, you should plan to wash them and dry them completely to shrink them up. If the gi you’re thinking about dying has been line dried and you’re worried about shrinking it up, you might not want to dye that gi. Chances are, like my A2 Shoyoroll, you’ll dye it and end up having to sell or give it away because it shrank too much.

Anyway, back to the Feather, the dying process is rough on fabric and the gis come out of it like cardboard, but washing it with the Milsoft fabric softener brought it right back. Subsequent hot washings doesn’t seem to have shrunk it much more, if at all.

Mundial Coverage and a new Gi

BJJ, Dyeing and Batik, Gi Reviews and Art, Uniforms 4 Responses »

Jun 052010

I purchased a Gameness Feather gi from Budovideos last week and like it quite a lot. My favorite gi over the years has been the Gameness Pearl, so I was pretty sure I’d like this gi. Of course, I didn’t know when I bought it that Budovideos was going to offer 15% off with a Mundials coupon code. So, I took that as a sign that I should also buy the Vulkan Pro Light gi I’ve been wanting.

The Gameness Feather is a light gi very much like all of the others on the market right now. It seems to be well made, with ripstop pants and a light but sturdy top. I wasn’t a big fan of the front patch, but after ordering the Vulkan, I thought I’d go ahead and dye the gi to see how it turned out. I used Wedgewood Blue that I bought from Dharma Trading a while back.

I really like how it turned out and I was pleasantly surprised at how the front patch took the dye. The white around the Gameness script pops, but the patch as a whole took the color. Otherwise, the gi dyed a nice, even color and I’m looking forward to wearing it to class.

While dying the gi, I was watching the Mundial coverage from Budovideos on my netbook. Good job, guys. Switching the cameras was great, and the mix of matches was much better than last time. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow and the finals.

If you haven’t watched it yet, you’re still in luck. Beginning tomorrow morning at 9am Pacific, you can watch live, streaming coverage of the Mundial finals. During the finals, they go down from 10 mats to just one, so the coverage should be comprehensive. I’m really looking forward to it.

Gi Dye/Batik Project: Warrior One Gi

BJJ, Dyeing and Batik, Gi Reviews and Art 10 Responses »

May 312010

I finally got around to dying my Warrior One gi. For anyone not familiar with the Warrior One gis, check out this review on Lockflow.com.

I started this particular project a while back, and for several reasons, just couldn’t get around to finishing it until now.

This is my first try at using a process called Batik to add a pattern to the gi. I tried something relatively simple for my first try, opting to avoid layering the dye. Instead, I added melted wax and kept the design simple. What you see is the lotus blossom design that is part of the BJJ affiliation our school belongs to.

Batik is essentially a process where you add wax to areas that you don’t want to dye. In researching the process, I found some truly stunning works of art done on fabric using this process. Real artists essentially work backwards, using negative space and an understanding of how colors build on each other to lay down some wax, dye the fabric, lay down more wax to protect additional areas, dye it again, repeating the process until they’re finished. Check out some of these images on Google. Incredible.

I toyed with the idea of adding the text around the lotus blossom, but as I said, I wanted to keep it somewhat abstract.

I’ve dyed several BJJ kimonos now, and feel pretty confident that I can tub dye pretty much any white gi and do a good job. So, I wasn’t too concerned about getting the color consistent without any undue splotchiness. What I wasn’t sure about was what the design would look like after I dyed the gi and then removed the wax.

I started by just drawing my design in pencil. Then I melted the wax in a small… very small electric skillet. This thing is great. Before I saw the electric skillet, I was really stumped as to how I was going to keep the wax at a consistent temperature where it was melting but not overheating and smoking.

As you can see, I used a candy thermometer to make sure I wasn’t getting too hot. The little skillet was like $12 at the store.

And here’s what the design looked like after I added the wax. This is really more difficult that it looks. I mean, dumping wax isn’t hard, and to be honest, staying in the lines wasn’t all that hard either. What’s going to take some practice is adding the wax so that it’s not too thick or thin on the fabric.

I got to this point about a month ago, and there it sat until tonight.

This is what it looked like after I was done. While some variation in color is really a part of the process, and crackling is actually desirable, I’m sure I can do a better job next time. I think this looks pretty cool, though.

Below is a close up of the back.

Overall, I’m pretty happy. I’m not entirely satisfied with the final look of it, but I learned a lot about the process, and I’ll have some more confidence going into my next project. I think the gi is wearable and it’s definitely unique. Ultimately, while it’s not perfect, I’m pretty happy with my first try and look forward to playing around with this some more.