Three colours, and no mixing
The rules allow white, royal blue and black. Jacket and trousers must match: a white jacket over black trousers is turned away even though each piece is legal on its own. In-between shades do not pass either, navy or grey included.
What the IBJJF checks
Inspection covers the thickness and width of the collar, the sleeve length with the arm held straight out, the trouser length against the ankle, and the jacket, which has to reach the thigh. Each point carries a published tolerance, and each one is checked before you fight.
Those tolerances move with washing: a gi that was legal when you bought it can end up too short after a few hot cycles. Shrinkage matters as much as the size you start from. Our size guide gives the real measurements of every model, and the rules guide goes through the official tolerances point by point.
Fabric and patches
The gi has to be cotton or a cotton-like fabric. A weave too thick or too stiff to grip gets ruled out, because it distorts the grip game. Patches go only in the zones the rulebook allows, in cotton, and sewn on. A glued patch, or one placed elsewhere, gets unpicked at inspection when it does not get you turned away.
The belt counts too
It is inspected like everything else: its width, the double wrap around the waist, and the length hanging on each side once tied. Our BJJ belts are made to those measurements.
Rule-compliant, rather than approved
You often read that a gi is "IBJJF approved". The federation grants no approval and publishes no list of approved models. It publishes requirements, and it offers a measuring tool, the Gi Checker, so competitors can check their own gi before they travel.
So a gi cannot be approved in advance. It can meet the rules, which is true of the models gathered here, and that is established on inspection day, on the gi you are wearing, in the state it is in.
If you do not compete
None of these constraints matter in the academy. Pick the colour you like, a looser cut, a heavier weave. The full range is in BJJ gis.