A Record of Making Our First Gi

We’re preparing to release our first gi. Today, we want to leave a record of the process that brought it here.

From the beginning, there was no goal like “making the best gi.” There are already many well-made gis out there, and we never set out to compete with them.

Over years of training, certain standards formed naturally. Not too flashy. Something that lasts. Something that doesn’t get in the way.

While thinking about materials that fit those standards, we arrived at hemp. That’s how the first sample came to be.



The first sample was made last summer. When we received it, it felt heavy and stiff. After repeated training sessions and washes, it gradually started to break in.

We felt it needed to be worn almost every day for at least one to two months. So we kept wearing the same sample over several months.

We trained in it, washed it, and put it through the same cycle repeatedly. We also wore it alongside other cotton gis we had used before. After going through that process, there wasn’t much we felt needed to be changed.

At the final stage, we added the logo embroidery and label. At first, we expected the embroidery to come out perfectly uniform (looking back, we think we focused too much on that).

In reality, there were slight variations.

We considered refining it further. At the same time, we began to think about the nature of the process. These are made in a factory, but still done by hand.



We questioned whether continuing to adjust it would really make a difference. Given enough time, it might get closer to perfect uniformity, but that didn’t feel realistic.

At some point, we came back to a simple idea. This is not something made to be displayed. It’s something meant to be worn in training. With that in mind, we decided to move forward with production as it is.

At first, we didn’t know when it was the right time to begin production, or how much testing would be enough. Because of that, it took longer than we expected.

Production is now underway. The sample gi was tested over about seven months of actual use.

In the next entry, we’ll go into that process in more detail.