I searched high and low for a review of KI International double weave Judo gi and couldn’t find any longer than a few sentences. After taking the plunge and purchasing one, I decided to write a detailed review for my first post.
I’ve owned two KI Judo single weaves in the past. While well made and good for the price ($46 for a size 4), they were rough, and the pants sucked; essentially karate pants with reinforced knees, typical of the cheaper Judo gis.
My order was shipped the day of purchase and arrived two days later. I ordered a size 4 (for reference, I’m 5’9” and 140 pounds). Shipping weight was billed at seven pounds.
KI has vastly improved the quality of their products. The jacket is a little thicker than my Howard Combat double weave and very well constructed. The outside is rough not but overly abrasive, while the inside is soft. The skirt is also nice and heavy. Almost all of the seams inside the jacket are taped, even the edges of the underarm reinforcements. The collar is a little stiffer than that on my Atama single weave. As far as I can tell, this gi conforms to IJF regulations.
The jacket fabric weight is listed as 32 ounces on the KI website, but also as 900 grams. 32 oz sq/yd is 1087 grams, so I wasn’t sure which is correct. I contacted them and they said 32 ounces – heavy. In case you’re wondering, the jacket can stand on its own.
I bought this gi expecting to replace the pants with a quality pair. The pants provided have been improved over previous models – thicker fabric (a little heavier than my Fuji single weave pants), improved reinforcements, two drawstring loops in the front and knee reinforcements from about mid thigh to the cuff. Very nice.
After being washed cold and hang dried, the gi fits me well. (I didn’t bother taking any pictures of the gi before washing, as I figured most people are gonna wash their gi at least once.) Sleeve width is right around 8”. The pants fit right to my ankles. My biggest complain is that the drawstring loops are too far apart; the drawstring always ends up resting a few inches above the pants.
When air dryed, the gi isn’t stiff and doesn’t feel like sandpaper as the older KI gis did. In fact, I noticed a slight blue tint to the gi top after taking it out of the washer – a sign of good quality cotton.
Most who know of KI International considered their gis good for the price. With the improvements they’ve made, I can say this is probably the best deal on a gi out there. The quality looks and feels equal to Mizuno gis that cost twice as much. At $69 for a size 4, you really can’t go wrong.
Pictures and measurements will be in the next post.
this is my first double weave, my other ones are single weave. I think I will ask my girl to get me the blue one for christmas!
