If you are a regular IBJJF competitor you know how important it is to be able to pass gi check. We’ve all had that nerve-racking minute while you find out if you’re allowed to move forward to the mat. The last time we saw a gi checker for sale generally was with Scramble.  A few years ago they did a limited run of them in wood but I haven’t seen them on sale anywhere since. Even a quick Google did not turn up any currently on sale which is why 3D printing your own seems the best (and only option) unless you know a man at the IBJJF / can important one!

So how can you get one done….

Thanks to Ground Fighters (who have done the really hard bits) you can access their site to get the necessary files to get a 3D one printed. They have even provided a link to help you find somewhere to print it and it’s a really easy process. Following the instructions, my hubby downloaded the free file and emailed it to a local company that did 3D printing.  You may think it would be hard to find one of these, but there is a website to help with this 3D Hubs. This website has a worldwide list of companies that do 3D printing.  So if we could manage to find somewhere to print this.  You guys should easily be able to handle it.

It only took about 24 hours for the confirmation to come through that it had been dispatched. When it arrived I was actually excited to see how it turned out. As you can see I picked the standard grey colour.  Other colours were available.  But I figured the colour doesn’t affect the way it works. The measurements all came out spot on.  So it hits all the IBJJF requirements for measuring the lapel, the belt, along with the distances from the wrist and ankle. So I can confirm the file worked great.

Since we (well my hubby who did all of this) bought one they have changed the design for competitions to the longer stick models. However, they do the job and have come in useful checking new gi’s we’ve bought as well as calming down a whole range of teammates during competition prep. They make an ideal addition for the competitor in your life or simply one to buy for the gym.

So a huge thank you to the guys at Ground Fighter! And if you want to get one of these done for yourself check out the Ground Fighter post here and simply follow the instructions they have posted.