Saturday, January 30, 2010

Women's gi review: Fenom gi, A1

Fenom Kimonos is run by Triin Seppel near Dallas. I've had this gi a few months and it's one of my favorites. It's designed for women and I think the cut and material are fantastic. I have a size A1, and I washed it with hot water and machine dried it to see how much it would shrink. The pants lost about 2" in length (from ankle bone to about 2" above) and the gi skirt got about 1" shorter. The sleeves also lost about an inch, but are still IBJJF legal. I like that there isn't excessive fabric in the back of the gi jacket. I would not go so far as to call it a "slim cut" but it is trim and fits smoothly without a bunch of extra fabric bunching up. I'll note that in these pictures I'm about 10 lbs heavier than I prefer being :(





Mine is black, obviously, and the color has not faded much at all. The pants are made of very soft, yet relatively thick and sturdy twill. I'm always impressed that they feel so smooth but they're not flimsy (whereas I'd call my Vulkan superlight "nearly-flimsy.") The gi top is likewise soft to the touch, but really thick, with a thick, heavy lapel. I like the pink embroidered cursive "F" on the lower left ankle and the left deltoid area. Other than that, I added the "Fueled by Fear" patch (Thanks Dev! And you can get your own from Dev here.)

The stitching has held up really well to frequent use and washing/drying cycles. The drawstring is made of the same fabric as the pants, and is not difficult to pull through and tighten. It doesn't twist much, but when it did (after months) it was pretty simple to untangle and re-insert with a rubberband and a chopstick.

Overall I give it an A. I really like finding gi pants with room for my junk in the trunk, and aside from that, the texture of the fabric made this one of my hands-down favorites.

3 comments:

Jiujitsunista said...

Yay! I am so glad to hear you love it. =) My sister in law, Allie ordered one a few weeks ago, an A2, and I wanted to wait for her to get hers so I could try it on before and after shrinkage since I am tall. I wanted to make sure it would high water on me.

She washed hers, and air dried it, and it doesn't appear to have changed much length wise.

I'll be ordering mine this week, and wearing it at NAGA on the 13th! =)

brg said...

i appreciate the review...having fun reading so many cool womens blogs and love of bjj. i am new to bjj and shopping for a first gi. i ended up ordering an atama f1 mundial #9. but based on your and meg's reviews - this one and the otm one will be 2nd and 3rd gis. :)

Happy Kimonos said...

We just dyed two of these Fenom gis for a women in Australia. They are pretty nice gis and take dye very well. The price for the gi isn't that bad either.