A note from Brendan: This is a guest review from Cristobal Hernandez. You may remember him from an article in Jiu Jitsu Magazine and an interview I did with him about using BJJ to lose over 140 pounds! I was pretty excited about the story and wanted to support him so I sent him one of my brand's gis. He emailed me to tell me he'd like to review it for GiReviews.Net and without further ado, here's his review of the Ok! Kimonos Adult Lightweight BJJ gi:
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So here it is!
My review for what is hands down one of the best Gi's I've had an honor to roll and train in.
Company Background
OK! Kimonos is a company ran by the fantastic Brendan Hufford. (Check is in the mail Cris! 😉 – Brendan) I had the honor of him reaching out to me through an article written in Jiu Jitsu Magazine about me and my weight-loss story. He got a hold of me and told me he'd love nothing more then to send me one of his fantastic kimonos to go out and train in.
I was beyond excited.
I mean a free Gi is great and all, but a free Gi from a company who truly believes in the happiness and satisfaction of there customers? A Gi from a company who personally takes the time to inspect the quality of each Gi individually? A Gi from a company who first started with nothing but the vision of providing children with high quality kimonos for a reasonable price? Sign me up.
Quality
And yes you read that right, OK! Started as a company making Gis for children exclusively. Parents and friends fell in love with the quality of the Gi that they were demanding he make one for the adults as well.
Let me tell you now the quality of the kids Gi carries over to the adult one oh so well.
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First off, in my time training, I've owned a few Gis. I've got the oddest build in the world because I'm very tall and lanky. 5'11” and about 170lbs most Gi's either fit me well up top and the pants are WAY too short, or the pants are a fantastic fit and the coat up top fits me like I need to go hit the bench press at the gym for a few months to fill the massive gap in the coat.
The Basic Adult Gi in A2 fits me like a GLOVE. I gave it just one wash before I had what I felt was truly the ideal fit.
Jacket
Let's start with the coat. Between the VERY nice and slick black stitching all over the coat, the fully reinforced lightweight goldweave material, and the fantastic OK! Logo on the upper right sleeve and the OK logo inside the coat (which I'd like to mention all of the artwork on the Gi's are from the legendary MEERKATSU) I love it.
The skirt of the coat isn't too long and sits a little below your waist, the sleeves rest right around your wrist and the coat isn't constantly opening up every five seconds as your doing warm-up drills or rolling.
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Pants
Now lets move onto the pants. These things are PERFECT. My biggest problem with pants being an individual who has long legs is pants are either too short for me or much too long. Once again these are what I'd call a perfect or ideal fit. They end right around my ankles.
The pants have the same black stitching as the coat which truly gives the gi such a nice look. On the lower left leg you'll see another great OK! Logo to remind you this is in fact an OK Kimono. The material of the pants is 12oz ripstop and it's got 6 belt loops with an awesome stretchy draw string.
My biggest problem with pants next to them being too long/short is the draw strings.. well to make it simple and to the point SUCK. Lots of Gis have awkward belt loop setups and really simple draw strings that easily pull out or even rip. This draw string has not once given me one issue and I RARELY have to retie my pants while training.
When I'm rolling I never have the fear of someone gripping my pants and having them fly right off.
Also as an added bonus there’s a little pocket inside the pants to hold a mouth piece if that's your thing.
Rolling Performance
Next let's talk about performance and rolling in this bad boy. This is seriously my favorite Gi to train in.
Once you start to sweat most gi's go from weighting a few pounds to feeling like you've got 20 extra pounds on you. This gi manages to avoid that. During sessions of training from an hour to two hours I've never felt like I've wanted to throw the Gi off and catch my breath. It truly feels like it's a part of you, a second skin.
As I stated above my biggest problem when rolling is even without someone yanking it out, my coat opens up and my lapels constantly fly out. This can be problematic because you will have to constantly fix your coat between rolls AND if someone has a game that revolves around catching your lapels they are gonna have a field day. With this coat, the guys I roll with have to work to get that lapel. If you tie your belt properly it, in fact, stays put.
The pants stay on and hardly sag or drag down even when going hard. Like I said before, I hardly have to retie the draw string on my pants or readjust them in class. Once you get this Gi on, it stays on.
Design
Style wise I feel the Gi is very simple, clean and functional. It's got a few OK! Logos slapped around and it's a very clean white. You can go crazy and patch it up if that's your thing or you can keep it simple and leave it as is.
That's actually one of the biggest reasons I love this gi. It's so clean.
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Don't get me wrong, I'm one of those guys who loves flashy fancy gis. I thought long and hard about dropping some big dough on MEERKATSU's heavenly kimono… But sometimes you need something simple and functional because in the end as much as you want to look like the cool kid in training, you really want something that performs well.
Conclusion
Overall I'd recommend this gi to anyone and everyone.
To the new student looking for his first Gi to go out and train in, to the veteran jiu jitsuka who needs another Gi to add into rotation, and even to the collector who wants something clean and simple in his Gi collection, this is the Gi for you.
Like I said before it's functional, clean, and fits like a glove. It stays on when you roll, and it truly feels like a second skin. I for sure plan on picking up a second one as one as one of the Gis in the premium line.
And let me just say this… if the “basic” gi is this fantastic… well I can only imagine how amazing the premium one will be like.
