Wanted to plug a cool T-shirt I came across from Ranked Gear, run by Jason Scully. Here was his premise for these shirts:
I asked hundreds of BJJ players of all ranks what 5 SINGULAR WORDS best describes what it is like to be and experience EACH Brazilian Jiu Jitsu rank. These are all emotions, feelings, and experiences from BJJ practitioners around the world.
Then I collected each word that pertained to each rank and I created Rank Word Clouds that create the rank that each word represent. When you look at the BJJ Rank Cloud t-shirt from afar it looks like you are wearing a t-shirt with a plain symbol of a BJJ Rank (Either white, blue, purple, brown, or black) but as you get closer to it. You’ll see that the actual BJJ rank is made up of the words, feelings, and emotions that grapplers all over the world experience when they are at that rank level.
It’s a great way to represent BJJ, represent your rank, without the shirt screaming “Hey look at my tough looking shirt because I do BJJ!”. Most people in the word don’t know what the rank symbol means. But you do . And you understand the meaning behind the words that the rank represents as well.
It’s a unique spin on a simple symbol. I may be a black belt in BJJ but I’m looking forward to wearing all of the ranks as I had to work my way up them and have for sure experienced most, if not all if the words that are on these shirts.
– Jason Scully
Since I’m a blue belt I ordered one of these:
I also picked up one of the white belt shirts for a friend of mine.
I should emphasize that I have no relationship with Jason Scully or the Ranked Gear site, and I don’t get anything if you order from them, but I really liked the concept, so I figured I’d try to help promote them.
Once I get these I’ll be sure to post some pics. In the mean time, if you’re interested in picking one up, head on over to: rankedgear.com