Sunday, September 06, 2009

The Atama Mundial #9

Just received my Mundial #9 and hoping it will shrink a fair bit. I ordered it in the female sizing, F3. [See edits with size comments below.] For reference I'm 5'2" tall and right now weigh about 135. Like the Mundial #7, this version has pants made of sleek, light ripstop cotton. In fact it's identical to the #7 except for the embroidery color AND the fact that they make it in female sizing as well.

These pics appear originally in stu3ufc's great post on sherdog, the link is below...





The gi lapel is also ripstop, and the fabric is a silky soft honeycomb weave. The "ATAMA" on the shoulders is black and looks sharp. This is the gi I'm planning to have Happy Kimonos tiedye for me. Check them out here! I can't compare weight to my #7, which is mens' sizing A1, or to my female sized Atama which has the traditional twill pants, but it definitely doesn't feel heavy like my Gameness pearl or the Golden Tiger gis.

The pants fit fine, perhaps a tich long (they touch the tops of my feet) but I think they'll shrink length-wise. The jacket fits well around my chest and waist, but the sleeves are silly long (falling halfway between the end of my palm bones and the next/first knuckle on my finger, when my arms are down at my sides.) I have been reading the review threads on the net and plan on shrinking with a hot water wash and hot dry if reported results point that way. Some reviewers say the #9 pants are bigger/baggier in the bum than the #7 (which will be fine with me.)

Here are some links to other reviews...

One from Sherdog's forum.

Exhaustive photos, measurements, and comparison of an A3 #9, new, with a 6 month old A3 #7 here, by stu3ufc.

It's selling for $143 at Razorback Jiu Jitsu, here, which is the best price I found. Only male sizes though.

I bought mine here from the Atama website, $161.

EDIT: The shrinking process was perfectly successful. Washed it in hot water, dried on the hottest setting in the dryer. The sleeves lost about 4.5 inches in length and now hit right at my wristbone; a little circumference lost as well but still legal by IBJJF standards (though soon the color will be distinctly illegal for Mundials/Pan Ams. Bummer. However-- the rules say gis can be blue or white. What about a blue and white tiedye??) Anyway-- the gi top has a much trimmer fit around the torso and the skirt length shrank about 3" so it comes barely to the top of my thigh, just where I like it. The pants didn't shrink nearly as much... maybe one inch in length if that, and no noticeable difference around my rump.

I absolutely love the ripstop fabric for the pants. They're so much lighter and cooler, and the fabric doesn't stick to your legs when soaking wet the way the ordinary twill/denim of mortal pants will. I can't WAIT to show you the tiedye outcome.

7 comments:

dannymack said...

Can't wait for your review. My Sirius should be here tomorrow. I will let you know how it is after I roll in it once or twice.

Cruisin Toddler said...

wow cool thanks for the review. Is it basically the same as an atama 7 except for the color? this got me thinking I will review my 2 new gis I just recieved. thanks!

Elyse said...

DUUUDE! An Atama women's gi that doesn't have PINK on it?!?! The apocalypse isn't coming, is it?

HomeImprovementNinja said...

I just bought a new gi when I was down in Rio. I had my eye on an Atama, but I ended up with a gi I hadn't heard of before. It was pre-shrunk and fit me perfectly and had some other nice features, besides being cool looking.

Besideswhich, I promised myself a blue gi if I competed as a blue belt and didn't embarass myself. Here is the one I got:

http://www.dogsstyle.com/

Douglas Christian said...

Georgette,

Those are nice and thanks for the plug for www.bjjgi.net. Just a quick note about availability at Razorback Jiu-Jitsu, we will order anything from Atama or Gameness you need whether we list it on our site or not. What is listed is immediately available. Everything else requires 4 days to get from our suppliers.

Keep training,
Douglas

Ryan said...

Georgette, did the sleeves shrink 4.5" each, or is that measurement cuff-to-cuff?

Georgette said...

No, that was shrinkage of EACH... keep in mind this was a female-fit (F3) as opposed to the standard A1 or whatever. But yes, the length of the sleeve went from covering my entire palm and almost down to the first knuckle of my finger, with arms down at my sides, to right at my wristbone when arms down. I don't know if the F3 vs. A1 makes any difference, seems to be the same material my A1 Mundial #7 is made of.

And for reference, I didn't tiedye this, as the pants have some nylon in the fabric and nylon won't take the fiber-reactive dye. So it's going to stay white, amazingly.