Well, the most expensive gis are made by companies called Tokaido and Shureido. And they are wonderful gis. Lemmie say it again. Wonderful.

I still have my old Tokaido gi from 1968. I don't wear it often (It may have shrunk; I may have grown a little. Hard to say.) But it's still wearable after a million washings and drying in commercial machines.

Both of those brands are super-duper, and if money is no consideration at all, get 'em without a second thought.

Unfortunately, you'll need a couple of second thoughts, because you have to figure out whether you want a heavyweight gi or a mediumweight, or a lightweight gi.

You also have to figure out whether you want a cotton gi, or one of the newer ultralight cotton-polyester blends in the very high end gis made by those brands.

You also have to figure out whether you want a "traditional fit" or a gi supposedly optimized for sparring.

Note: if either of these two producers say that their cotton-polyester blend is good for training in hot weather, I'll believe them without proof; I think the jury is out in general on cotton-polyester for karate gis, because that's often used for very low end student gis, and those are fairly miserable gis, in my humble opinion. Miserable for hot weather, cold weather, or other.

Once you break past the very high priced gis above, you hit a bunch of producers that don't produce in Japan, so their prices are much lower (note: a friend told me he'd bought a Tokaido gi made in China, and it fell apart quickly; if you're going to spend the money associated with a Tokaido gi, you might want to make sure that it was made in Japan of the nifty blue-tinted number 10 cotton material that made them famous. Just a thought.)

I've personally been delighted (not pleased, delighted) with the customer service and products from Meijin. They are sold on the Dragon-Tsunami website, which I appear to be unable to paste here because of my technical incompetence. Oh, well.

There's also a nice and flattering review of Meijin karate gis at the dragon-tsunami.org site. It has been suggested that the reviewer on that site had an economic motive to say all the nice things he said. That might be true, it might not be true, and I have no knowledge of his motives.

But so far all of the factual information in his flattering review of Meijin gis sold on the dragon-tsunami.org site appears to me to be dead accurate.

Meijin gis aren't made from the same super duper number 10 light blue dyed cotton that made Tokaido gis famous, but they cost less than half as much. In fact, the prices are magnificent, based on the fact that these are really cool gis. Although to get the best prices, you have to buy five at a crack. So go in with a buddy.

I also like the Meijin Tropical Gi very well. It is featherweight, highly absorbent, and the pants don't ever bind at the knee, which can happen with some heavyweight gis during kicks. As soon as I can sneak the purchase past my wife, I want to get five Meijin Tropicals also. Hey, you can never have too many gis or Rolexes. And gis cost less.

By the way, I'm not especially profligate in my gi-spending habits. There's a huge price break when you buy five at a time. When you buy five of the average adult sized Meijin Tropicals, you pay $34.00 per. Note: no, I'm not associated with Dragon-Tsunami or Meijin, but I like a bargain as well as the next guy. Five of the Meijin Pro (a heavyweight gi that is my current choice for everyday training) get you a per gi price of $85.00 per. And that's a steal. Because the gis are just as good as my old Tokaido, purchased in 1968, and they cost less than half as much as the new Tokaido, corrected for inflation and current price.

Again, to be fair, if you just don't care about money, get the Tokaido, because the glow in the dark nifty blue material is just spiffy! And overall, it's a great product. As long as you get one made in Japan out of that material, not one made in China out of...well, I get to see two buddies every training session with their magic disintegrating gis from China, and it's not a pretty sight!

Frankly, when you buy on the internet, you never know exactly what you're going to get. So you probably want to buy only one gi in round one, see how you like the fit, the weight of the material, and the proportions of the gi (Meijin will give you split sizes; that is, if you have a big upper body they'll sell you a size 7 top with a size 6 pants, or whatever combo you need).

Let's suppose you want a different arm or leg length or different proportions. It turns out that different manufacturers make products that differ. Go figure.

Another gi that deserves very high marks for its price to value ratio is the Mugen, manufactured by Ki International. There are three grades, and I tried two of them, the orange label and the black label. Both are excellent gis and come out of the dryer without needing to be ironed.

They also have a nice roomy fit, and for any kind of karate training they have my seal of approval (which is worth what you pay for it). Note that they have a somewhat soft hand (makes them more comfortable and better at wicking sweat) but they don't seem to snap as well as some. That makes exactly zero difference unless you're demonstrating or showing off.

Another gi made by the same company is simply called "Ki", and comes in colors, and ranges from light to heavyweight. These appear to be pretty good, but the heavyweight gi I got in this version was a little stiff for my taste. Maybe if I wore it and beat it up in the washer it would have gotten a little more comfortable, but I gave it to a buddy of mine, and he seems to like it a lot because he wears it to a lot of training sessions. And it's held up well.

I have read reviews of Ronin Brand gis that suggest they are excellent quality for the money, and they have a wide range of gis. I have not tried them out yet, but I'll post a review of them when I do.

There are several useful reviews of karate gis on the next, and I suggest that you read them all before you buy.

One gi review is by Tori Shimoji and is entitled "My Unofficial Karate Gi Review".

One gi review is at Discountmas.com, and is entitled simply "Review of High Quality Karate Uniforms".

One gi review is entitled "A Review of Meijin Karate Uniforms" and is located at the Dragon-Tsunami site.

UPDATE: after I began this topic, I ran into a site that sells karate gis made from hemp. They sound wonderful, but no better than a good quality cotton gi. But what made the site (it's at earth-gi.com; and you're right, I couldn't make this stuff up!) interesting to me is that you can get a custom gi for $189.00. I haven't ordered one yet, although I plan to, because I've had custom suits and they were pretty cool. But I've never had a custom gi. The price on this one looks as low as one is likely to find, and I can't imagine that they'll be in business long (if you don't make profit, it doesn't matter how good your intentions are-you go out of business).

But if I ever pass a Shodan exam (and I might; it could happen; no, really!) I'll treat myself to a custom gi if they're still in business and a belt with my name and style on it from the dragon-tsunami.org site, because I trust them not to goof it up (did I mention great customer service?).

Another update: for ultra cheap cotton karate gis is martialmart.com. According to their site, a 55% cotton 45% polyester gi (7.3 oz weight) is priced at $16.74 for a size 4.

I've never tried one of them (the brand is called "MTI Swift"), but at those prices I may get one to work in the garden or clean the chimney. And I've suggested it to a poor friend of mine, and if I get to see one, I'll describe it here.

final update for today: my current evil plan (cep) is to come back and do this right. That is, to put together a grid that shows brand, price, style, my experience with the brand if any, and website with the best price I've found.

For care of your karate gi, go to 24FightingChickens.com, by Rob Redmond. He has a lengthy discussion of how to wash, dry, and feed your new gi.

Rob Redmond has created one heck of a website, by the way. When I figure how to list sites that I suggest you read, that'll be right up there. He previously had a great (not good, great) discussion of kata in karate on his website, and apparently he now sells that very long and detailed and valuable information as a book or an e-book. Good for him! You don't come by that kind of knowledge without a lot of grinding, hard, hard work!

Update again: here are some additional gi reviews--

http://tkriblog.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/a-review-of-the-12-oz-hemp-canvas-gi-from-earth-gi/

http://www.karatethejapaneseway.com/karate_underground/viewtopic.php?t=4806

http://www.kuroobiya.com/shop/index.php?main_page=reviews

Like Columbo, I forget things.

You also asked if you needed different sorts of gis to practice different martial arts.

Well, yes.

I study Shotokan Karate at the Arizona Karate Association in Phoenix, Arizona with Sensei Shojiro Koyama, 8th Dan.

The gis I discussed are specifically designed for karate, and these days, even karate gis come in different "flavors", depending on whether you want to train, compete in kata, or compete in kumite. At least according to the folks who make and sell karate gis.

For judo and BJJ gis, here are a couple of review sites (bear in mind that the fit of judo gis and BJJ gis is different, and that for BJJ gis it is apparently quite important that you have a "stiff collar" so that it's more difficult for your opponent to choke you out. Or so I've read, and it makes sense to me.

Sites for reviews of judo and BJJ gis:

http://www.jokerjitsu.com/gi/

http://gireviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=260&Itemid=105

I decided to do a little price comparison of high end and mid range heavyweight karate gis. Most are "traditional cut" but I was only able to find a "tournament cut" version of a couple of brands.

But here we go (prices are all for size 4 gis):

Price of heavyweight traditional cut Tokaido gi
(price taken from tokaidojapan.com).................................$144.00

Price of heavyweight traditional cut Toyo gi
(price taken from Ki International website)......................$143.00

Price of heavyweight Mugen Black Label gi-note that this is a tournament cut gi
(price taken from Ki International website).......................$72.00

Price of heavyweight cotton Shureido K-10 gi-a tournament cut gi
(price taken from Kuroobiya.com-couldn't find prices on official site)
....................................................................................$142.41

Price of heavyweight cotton traditional cut Meijin gi
(price taken from dragon-tsunami.org site).......................$ 89.00 note; must buy 5 for this price

Price of traditional cut Hemp gi
(from earth-gi.com)..................................................$189.00

Now, it looks to me as though there are a lot of good reasons to buy a hemp gi, and I do plan to buy one. I like a traditional cut gi, because that's what people wore in the golden age of karate books, so that's what I'm programmed to think a karate-ka should look like.

But the costs are not comparable. There's a full hundred dollars difference in the price of the Meijin and the Hemp gi. And that makes sense, because the products aren't comparable. The hemp gi is a custom gi. That's a big deal, especially if you have non-standard body proportions.

To compare apples to apples, you have to look at other custom gi producers.

Still, on a standard cut heavyweight gi price comparison of high end traditional cut karate gis, the Meijin heavyweight traditional cut karate gi is the clear winner in the price category, when compared to other high end karate gis and to the custom made hemp gi. The Mugen Black Label isn't exactly comparable, because it's a "tournment cut gi", but it's a very good gi, in my opinion, for working out, kumite, OR kata. And it feels good (soft from the first wearing) and wicks sweat well. And the price, for a good quality heavyweight gi is very, very good indeed.

Note that the "premium priced spreads" are all very close in price: I was surprised that the Tokaido, the Toyo and the Shureido all came in within a few dollars of each other.

I don't pretend that this analysis is scientific or complete. This is just a starting point, and I urge everybody who is going to put real money into gis to read every review they can get their hands on.

Note that Karate-ka are clearly affected by non-functional issues. A couple of the premium brands use a No. 10 cotton material from Japan, and it's dyed a very light blue color. That color is prized by old-timers like me because it's what we looked for in the old-time premium brand, Tokaido.

Now there's a light brown color that will function as a different sort of status symbol with the hemp gi, which is allegedly stronger and greener from an environmental perspective, and is custom fit.

And then there are REALLY REALLY GOOD gis that go for half as much (or thereabouts) which are simply very white heavyweight cotton.

The good news about our economic system is that we all get to make our own choices!

Satori is also a fantastic, heavy-weight, custom made Gi with great customer support. a bit pricey, though.

Meijin will also translate and embroider your name or style in Japanese on your new Meijin uniform for Free delivery time 7-10 days. The embroidery is beautiful and we guarantee that it correct. Other companies mentioned in the review charge $40+ for this.

Find the files you are looking for at your-download.org the most comprehensive source for free-to-try files downloads on the Web

Are Meijin gi's available in the UK? There used to be a Meijin company in the UK who seem to have gone bust. They used to sell Tokaido's as well but were very expensive, although there is another company that do Tokaido in the UK at very reasonable prices which include UK delivery (www.aregato.com).