When I heard of the Grapplers gift, I was very excited about the prospect of the company. The premise is to help non-grapplers give the gift of grappling to their favourite people. When I got in touch with Craig, the grapplers gift was a new company starting out, but he, like many others were willing to give me a shot at reviewing their product. So here it is…
When I was sent the grapplers gift box (Grapplers Gift #1*) by Craig it came with the following items inside
- The Grapplers Gift Patch
- The Grapplers Gift Water Bottle (Not Dishwasher Safe)
- Whisky Wolf Half Soap Bar
- Patches O’Toole Postcard
- Zinc Oxide Tape
- Saviour Tea Sample Pack
- Variety of stickers
- Meerkatsu Art Cards
- Grapplers gift mug
*The grappling boxes have changed a bit since I first got them, however the quality of the gifts are just as impressive.
When I first opened the box, I was sad to see that my mug had broken, It was packed very well, with lots of protection, but sometimes you can’t trust royal mail to handle with care… Craig has assured me this is the first time it’s happened, so my repaired mug now sits proudly on my desk holding my multitude of pens.
I must say, the grapplers gift do not skimp on the gifts and they give you everything a grappler needs. The Saviour Tea (now replaced by Pure recharge Smoothie) was a welcome pre-work out alternative, which naturally helped boost my energy levels. The Whiskey Wolf soap was a great end to a hard session of training and items such as the zinc oxide tape and wide topped water bottle were all welcome.
Slim shorts
Now this is where things get interesting. I’m going to put this out there. I don’t like no gi shorts, I like my clothes fitted and that also translated over to my jiu-jitsu gear, so when I found out that their shorts were “slim fit” I asked if I could review them. These shorts are the definition of the jiu-jitsu Goldilocks effect. They’re not too big and baggy, they’re not small like vale tudo shorts, they’re “just right”. Just just about the knee, the elasticated material moves with my body and is just loose enough not to be riding up into my butt crack.
The shorts come with a little pouch for your gumshield and come with an elasticated waistband, which i found does cut into a bit at first but after a few wears they fit nice a snugly. The velco opening is great quality and has not worn out yet.
The design is a welcome shift from the agressive style of Tapout and other nogi style shorts, and feature a left leg that is all black and a right leg that takes inspiration from Japanese Red and white sunset styles, with their Grapplers Gift logo at the bottom.
Overall I think the style of these shorts will only cater of certain types of grapplers but for those looking for slimmer style bjj shorts, then look no further.
Visit The Grapplers Gift today