Any tricks to softening up a karate gi?

D

dennis63

Yellow Belt
I recently got a new, heavier-weight gi. The brand tag says MAP2. My older gis from this brand are as soft as an old T-shirt, so I tried washing it several times. It's still very, very still, so I tried some tricks I read about online.

1. Washed the gi five times in warm water and tumble dried it.
2. Added a generous amount of fabric softener to one wash.
3. Added 1/2 cup of baking soda to the wash water
4. Tried tumble drying in the dryer with a large ball of aluminum foil

It's a little bit softer -- maybe 5 percent -- but the arms still want to stick out when you hand the gi on a hanger.

Anyone have any advice on how to soften up the material, shy of just wearing it to a few hundred practices?
 
dennis63 said:
I recently got a new, heavier-weight gi. The brand tag says MAP2. My older gis from this brand are as soft as an old T-shirt, so I tried washing it several times. It's still very, very still, so I tried some tricks I read about online.

1. Washed the gi five times in warm water and tumble dried it.
2. Added a generous amount of fabric softener to one wash.
3. Added 1/2 cup of baking soda to the wash water
4. Tried tumble drying in the dryer with a large ball of aluminum foil

It's a little bit softer -- maybe 5 percent -- but the arms still want to stick out when you hand the gi on a hanger.

Anyone have any advice on how to soften up the material, shy of just wearing it to a few hundred practices?
Click to expand...
How curious! Is it pure cotton? You seem to have done everything suggested online. Have you ironed it at an appropriate temperature? Have you considered wearing it in bed? It’ll get hours of bending and flexing that way.
 
Gyakuto said:
How curious! Is it pure cotton? You seem to have done everything suggested online. Have you ironed it at an appropriate temperature? Have you considered wearing it in bed? It’ll get hours of bending and flexing that way.
Click to expand...
I'll be trying that tonight! Thank you! :)
 
The new gi is adding some "drag" to my technique. I can hear it now: "Sorry. I would be faster, but my gi is not broken in yet."

This reminds me of a time when I performed a kata in front of an instructor many years ago. He was a very serious, very dry guy who did not say much or often.

His one correction -- that my kiai was about a second too early.

Then he thought for a second and said, "Actually, your kiai was on time... Your body was just late."

It was the funniest thing he ever said to me.
 
dennis63 said:
I recently got a new, heavier-weight gi. The brand tag says MAP2. My older gis from this brand are as soft as an old T-shirt, so I tried washing it several times. It's still very, very still, so I tried some tricks I read about online.

1. Washed the gi five times in warm water and tumble dried it.
2. Added a generous amount of fabric softener to one wash.
3. Added 1/2 cup of baking soda to the wash water
4. Tried tumble drying in the dryer with a large ball of aluminum foil

It's a little bit softer -- maybe 5 percent -- but the arms still want to stick out when you hand the gi on a hanger.

Anyone have any advice on how to soften up the material, shy of just wearing it to a few hundred practices?
Click to expand...
Seems like you've done all the right things. I used to wear MAP2, but haven't been able to find them online anymore. Can you tell me where you found them? I've tried a few of the others over the years, but like the way the MAP2 fits best.
 
TSD_BrewNinja said:
Seems like you've done all the right things. I used to wear MAP2, but haven't been able to find them online anymore. Can you tell me where you found them? I've tried a few of the others over the years, but like the way the MAP2 fits best.
Click to expand...
The gi was purchased new about seven years ago from my national organization -- Shotokan Karate of America. They came with a black tag on the bottom tail of gi top that had the SKA symbol on them, but the inside label, directly under the collar, said "MAP" in large letters and "2" in a small letter after the MAP. I'm sure it was a brand of gi.

I don't think the organization uses this manufacturer any more. I recently bought a medium weight gi from SKA and it was so soft you could put it on straight out of the bag with no problem.
 
dennis63 said:
The new gi is adding some "drag" to my technique. I can hear it now: "Sorry. I would be faster, but my gi is not broken in yet."

This reminds me of a time when I performed a kata in front of an instructor many years ago. He was a very serious, very dry guy who did not say much or often.

His one correction -- that my kiai was about a second too early.

Then he thought for a second and said, "Actually, your kiai was on time... Your body was just late."

It was the funniest thing he ever said to me.
Click to expand...
By extrapolating his logic, I guess he might have suggested rather than thinking about how to soften your gi, think about howto toughen your skin until your gi feels soft in comparasion🥸
 
I think the one I have is a size 4. I found it on facebook market place. Kinda a pain to use. As I understand it the search feature is limited to a 500 mile radius. So to seach the entire country you need to do several searches, i.e. search NYC, then Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Dallas and Reno. at least thats the way I did it. Seems like they should be a way to seatch larger area, like ebay does. Patience and free time is required. Good Luck.
 
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