Product Review - X Guard Webslinger Gi.

Most people who know me know that I like Spiderman.

So when I got the opportunity to review the X Guard Webslinger Gi from JitsGi I was happy to say the least!

I normally go for white Gi's but for obvious reasons this one caught my eye! The details on this are really subtle but great.

Straight out of the bag the quality on this was brilliant. Fantastic details with loads of little touches that generally go unnoticed that lead to a quality Gi (like triple stitched seams on stress areas).

Here are some details of what the Gi provides,

PREMIUM QUALITY, SOFT AND LIGHTWEIGHT BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU KIMONO.  CONSTRUCTED USING ULTRA SOFT HONEYCOMB WEAVE TECHNOLOGY.  
X-GUARD KIMONOS ARE HANDS DOWN THE PREMIER JIU JITSU GIS ON THE MARKET!

LIMITED SPECIAL EDITION:  WEBSLINGER
- NAVY BJJ GI WITH BLACK CONTRAST STITCHING, RED TRIMS, RED LOOPS AND BLACK STRETCHABLE ROPE DRAWSTRING.   
- SUBLIMATED WITH the WEBSLINGER INSPIRED THEME ON INSIDE NECK & SHOULDER AREA.  INSIDE SIDE JACKET AND INSIDE SIDE PANTS REINFORCEMENT GUSSETS ARE ALSO SUBLIMATED WITH the WEBSLINGER INSPIRED THEME.

Jackets:
- 425 gsm Honeycomb Fabric (Super Soft, Lightweight & Strong)
- Thick eva foam lapel with antimicrobial technology
- all stress areas triple stitched
- all cuffs with reinforced lining

Pants:
- 12oz Soft Drill Cotton (Lightweight & Strong)- all stress areas triple stitched
- all cuffs with reinforced lining.

Ok, so lets have a look at the Gi in a bit closer detail.

The Jacket.

Sizes before washing

Width (arm span) - 65 inches

Length - 31 inches

Sleeve at wrist - 7 inches (wide)

Sizes after washing for a few months

Width (arm span) - 63.5 inches

Length - 31 inches

Sleeve at wrist - 6.5 inches (wide)

As soon as you pick up the jacket the first thing you notice is how soft it is. Some Gi's feel stiff and rigid until they have had a few washes. This felt great straight away and continued to feel better the more I washed it.

The details on the jacket are great with a small inner rash guard featuring Spiderman inspired artwork. The red edging and small patches also are really nice touches without sending it over the edge into some garish nightmare.

The weight of the jacket is 1.4kg in the A2 version. While this is a little on the heavy side for a competition Gi, it feels sturdy without being cumbersome. However as the jacket is quite thick, plus the inner rash guard lining, can make it very hot very quickly. This has on occasion led me to leave it at home and use a lighter Gi if I'm training somewhere that I know will be hot. I am however looking forward to that added heat in the winter as my gym regularly falls into minus figures!

The only small gripes I have about the jacket was the amount that it shrunk and that there was no detailing on the wrist tape. While the wrist tape thing is just me being picky (I like small details in Gi's), the shrinkage is not. It went from a slight large A2 down to an A1. While this is fine for me (I am an A1), if I was an A2 the Gi would be far to small for me. Make sure that if you get one, you go a size up and let it shrink!

Pants

Sizes before washing

Waist - 21 inches

Length - 39.5

Sleeve at ankle - 8.5 inches (wide)

Sizes after washing for a few months

Waist - 21 inches

Length - 38.5 inches

Sleeve at ankle - 6.5 inches (wide).

The quality that was in the jacket is replicated in the pants. They feel thick and sturdy as soon as you put them on with triple stitching throughout and nice long knee protecting. The drawstring is nice and thick and it didn't fray with the end knots staying in tact despite many (many!) washes.

The weight of the pants is 0.8kg with isn't to bad at all when you factor in the thickness and durability.

The pants barely shrunk at all being made from Drill Cotton. This is great if you are buying a Gi in the size that you want, however after the jacket shrunk so much it made the Gi a little mis matched. Again I would have liked to see some detailing on the ankle tape (picky).

During rolling the Gi performed brilliantly. The cord on the pants stayed tied and the jacket did not feel bulky or heavy despite what the numbers say. The collar on the jacket is nice and thick but not to stiff making it not easy to grab, but not impossible. It would have been nice for the inner rash guard to be a little bigger so that I didn't have to wear a rash guard as well as the Gi. The inner rash guard just seemed to contribute to the heat of the Gi without serving any real purpose due to the lack of the rash guards size.

Even after a few months of rolling and washing none of the stitches came loose (and I mean not one). The colour also stayed in the Gi with not patchiness or any of the colour fading. This is worth highlighting as I seem to see coloured Gi's that fade all the time after a few weeks. A sign to the quality that is used in producing the Gi.

As far as the Spiderman theme of the Gi, it blatantly has been done without Marvels consent or involvement. While the detailing on the Gi does strongly hint at Spiderman colourings, enough has been done so that it does not infringe copy right. Another fact that leads me to think this is that it was never available on the X Guard store and only through E Bay. While all of this is minor, having some more branded detailing to the Gi would have added to it making it a real top seller (like the Sniper Batman Gi).

This is a brilliant Gi and I highly recommend you take g a close look at X Guard for your next purchase. The quality is great and they are at a very fair price. 

Click HERE to see a range of X Guard Gi's and NoGi equipment (also take a look at the X Guard rash guard review).

Stay Healthy,

Mike