Ground Force Premium BJJ Gi Review
There’s a new premium gi on the market and it got my attention right away. It’s the first premium gi from the relatively new brand Ground Force. It looks great, it feels great and is very affordable. If you’re into flashy designs, this one might not be for you though. Being a fan of the clean designs that Ground force brings, this gi naturally caught my eye. But let’s have a more in-depth look at what this gi has to offer.
Specifications
The gi has a 420GSM cotton jacket and 300GSM cotton drill fabric pants. So, the gi is made of 100% cotton material. Overall weight for a size A2 is 1.6kg. It’s not the heaviest gi, but also not the lightest. Maybe not the best choice when you can barely make weight at tournaments but the gi feels like a premium competition gi to me. For the guys that are always on weight anyway, this could be a great option. I’ll be sure to try it out myself on the competition mat too.
IBJJF Legal
The design is so clean, if it’s legal to use at tournaments won’t be an issue. I haven’t tried it out yet, but I think it would be very nice to compete in this gi. With the overall weight being really acceptable I feel this can be one of my favorite competition gis. Really like that the fabric is thicker but not too thick that it would hinder movements. Just enough so it’s difficult to hold on too.
Fabric
The fabric feels really nice and soft and at the same time super strong. I thought it was actually pretty unique. Even though the fabric is made of 100% cotton I didn’t experience any stretchiness of the fabric. I did have this with gis from other brands before and that’s why most of the time I like a poly/ cotton blend a bit more. Another benefit is that a poly/ cotton blend shrinks less. I didn’t notice too much shrinking with this one, just the normal amount. Guess not all cotton is created equally. But it’s good to know before purchasing a 100% cotton gi that the shrinkage is not too much. I always really hate it when you finally have a gi you like and wash it a couple of times only to find out you should have bought up a size. It’s good to know that you don’t have that problem with this one.
I think with premium gis it shouldn’t just be the design that’s an upgrade compared to a more basic model. You should really expect a better-quality fabric as well. It’s good to see Ground Force took care of this. The fabric is really premium material. Compared to other premium gis the price for this type of quality is a steal. You can already get the gi for only 99 euros.
The gi design is so clean. You don’t really notice this is a premium gi when you see it from a far. But when you feel the fabric, I guarantee that you will be convinced. When you see and feel the embroidery you do see that they spend some extra time to create a premium product though.
Fit & Feel
The jacket fits a bit tight but if you are familiar with Ground force’s previous models this won’t be a big surprise. The problem with this could also be that I’m wearing an A2 while needing an A2H. I’m 176cm tall and about 84-85kg and this one really is slim fit. Especially if you are used to a brand like Inverted Gear for example. It would be good to buy up like half a size.
It is a bit of a downside that the gi is not available in size A2H yet. Let’s hope that it will be in the future.
The pants fit really good. This one also has the crotch a bit high but it’s not in the way at all. It might feel a bit odd when you try the pants on for the first time, but you’ll notice soon enough it doesn’t make a difference. The pants are just drill fabric cotton. For me this adds so much value to the whole feel of the gi. I really don’t like the rough feeling when ripstop gets all sweaty. Really solid choice to go with just drill fabric pants. I think ripstop is also not really necessary when the material is thick enough. You should probably only use it when you want the pants as light as possible and don’t want them to rip during your first training with them.
Overall feel of the gi is great. The fabric feels really nice, and I loved the drill fabric pants. This being a 100% cotton gi makes it very breathable as well. The only way you get overheated in this gi is by putting your spaz-mode into turbo.
Design
The design is very clean. The logos are all embroidered and are shown only very obscure. The quality of the embroidery is very much high definition though. The finish on the embroidery is really well done. Here you do see that we are dealing with a premium gi.
I do think there could have been more branding on the gi. I like clean designs, but I also think that when the quality of the embroidery is so good you should show it more. Don’t hide something that looks good. You can still have a clean design and show the logos more I feel. But who knows, maybe next time.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a new premium gi with a clean design and don’t want to spend too much money, this gi is worth looking at. It’s definitely strong enough and not too heavy, so you can even use this one for competition as well.
For me it was a bit of downside that the design was so extremely clean. The embroidery looks really good, and they should show it more. The fabric felt very nice though and the overall fit and feel doesn’t undermine any other premium gi.
Great thing about the new Ground Force premium gi is that it’s made from 100% cotton and doesn’t shrink that much. That’s really a big plus and shows great quality.
Ground Force really made a complete premium kimono. It looks premium. It feels premium but the price is very reasonable, even a bit on the cheap side I would say. This one will be only 99 euros. That’s really great value for your money.