Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and creative director Ivan J talked about gym gi uniform policies on a recent podcast episode.
“I will never be in a gym where they force me to wear something,” he said. “I went to a public school. I didn’t go to a private school where I was supposed to wear a uniform for a reason.”
From there, Ivan J framed the issue as one of American values.
“Censorship is un-American,” he said. “I find it funny when mostly legal immigrants like myself are trying to force something on people that are actually paying.”
He connected the policy directly to money.
“If you are paying to go to a gym, if I go to a gym to do yoga, they’re not going to force me to wear the same thing that everybody else wears. Why does it happen in Jiu-Jitsu?”
“Because it’s part of a business model that somebody came up with. Someone who probably was an immigrant and hey, let’s make the most money possible. Well, maybe that’s an outdated point of view.”
Ivan J backed up his opinion with a personal story. While training at a well-known gym in New York, he showed up on a Saturday wearing a white gi.
“The guy, a very famous guy, came to me: ‘Ivan, just so you know, on Saturdays we only wear blue gi.’ I never went back. I was like, ‘F**k this. I’m paying you 200 bucks and you’re telling me what I have to wear? I have to now buy another gi? I’m done.’ So I left.”
He described the practice plainly.
“I feel that it’s an crazy concept of forcing adults to buy your own stuff. I wear the craziest gis and I want to feel my gi as part of my flow, my personality. I just don’t want to feel like I’m in a private school.”
Ivan J also drew a line between personal expression and making a statement on the mat.
“Self-expression for me would be the 10th Planet guys. They wear those crazy colored rash guards. You’re like, ‘Okay, they’re having fun because the way that they do Jiu-Jitsu is different, fun, good.’ But a statement is different than self-expression.”
He made clear what kind of gym he intends to open.
“The idea would be that I’m not going to force anybody to wear a single gi from my brand.”
His closed his thoughts by saying,
“If a gym pays me to show up there, I’ll wear whatever they want. But that’s not the case. So I come here to learn Jiu-Jitsu. I’m going to wear whatever I want.”
