If you are in Rio for training one of the things you might want to know about is where to buy mma/jiu jitsu gear. So I thought I would dedicate a post to that and the places I know of so far where you can buy some gear.
How many Kimonos/Gi’s to bring?
Some people may wonder how many kimonos/gi’s to bring down. My answer would be that it all depends on how often you are going to train. If you plan on training alot (2x a day, 5-6 days a week) it would take a little planning ahead to rotate your gis so you’re not always training in sweaty smelly ones or missing class because they’re in the wash.
Alot of places have at least 3 or 4 jiu jitsu classes a day 5 days a week, with an open mat session on the Saturday. Usually I try do classes a day (a morning and afternoon/night class) a day and catch the open mat on Saturdays, so that’s around 10 or so classes a week. Sometimes I might do 3 a day (a boxing or extra jiu jitsu) if I feel up to it or to catch up on the days I’ve only been able to do one class.
When I came here I didn’t have any gis but bought 2 basic gis (R$160 each) at the gym. I’d probably use each for gi or two days, alternating and letting one dry before using the other. When the weather is sunny you can wash a kimono out and it’ll dry in one day or less but if it’s the rainy season you’re really going to have to plan it out because they might take up to 2 or 3 days to dry.
If you’re wanting to buy gloves or any other kind of gear I’d say just bring it from home. Pretty much any overseas brands imported into Brasil is going to be expensive.
Although there is a sale on at SNC on Avenida Olegario Maciel in Barra da Tijuca selling about 1kg of protein powder for R$99. SNC also have a number of outlets in Barra at Citta America, Barra Shopping and some other places.
Sports Nutrition Centre (SNC) website
Avenida Olegario Maciel, 440 Loja D
Barra da Tijuca – Rio de Janeiro
Tel: (21)2494-3522
Pride Fightwear
Pride Fightwear make some good lightweight kimonos, they also have MMA shorts, rashguards, shirt, singlets and a few other fashionable items. Alot of the guys from Gordo’s wear Pride Fightwear gi’s to training PLUS they dry quickly compared to some other gi’s which might take a few days to dry.
When you go enter the building take the stairs at the end up to the next floor (2nd) and you should see the store right in front of you on the other side of the hall.
You can see the Pride Fightwear sign in the top right.. and left of the pictures. Also the gold buddha statue is pretty hard to miss.
Pride Fightwear Address:
Pride website
Avenida Armando Lombardi, 949
Barra da Tijuca
[...] Rio and there's the Pride Fightwear store in Barra da Tijuca i did a post on this in my blog MMA shopping in Rio de Janeiro… DirtyWhiteGi __________________ My blog on BJJ training in Rio de Janeiro and more… [...]
Dude, next time you go over invest in a couple of Kauai Kimonos. Probably the ultimate travel and hot weather Gi. They dry in like 15 minutes and are very very light. Actually they’d be perfect for training Darwin too.
http://www.kauaikimonos.com/brazilian-jiu-jitsu-gis/ultra-light-100-ripstop-gis
cheers mate.. i’ve heard of the brand name and will be keeping an eye on them
Great blog! A pleasure to read.
[...] are reasonably cheap but it depends on the brand and where you buy them (Check out my post on Buying BJJ/MMA gear in Rio). I bought a black Atama gi through Rafael dos Anjos for R$250 which was around AU$200 at the time. [...]
Could you teach the idea at length?