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Intro:

Modern Flow is a very new gear company that was founded by David Garmo and Saif Askar.  David and Saif are both purple belts under Master Caique and train out of Warrior Way and Mash Gym in Michigan.  Despite their recent emergence Modern Flow has been hard at work creating new products and already has a comprehensive product line that includes gear such as gis, backpacks and tees.

Modern Flow’s initial foray into the cutthroat world of gi manufacturing is the Ranger.  The jacket is constructed of pearl weave, has green trim, contrast stitching and reinforced seams throughout.  One look of the Ranger and I really liked it.  For one thing the color palette is different than all of my other gis.  The use of green, yellow and brown makes the gi stand out without being obnoxious and the embroidery give the gi a very clean look.  The quality of construction was also evident with even a quick glance.

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 Design/Features/Construction:

 The Ranger jacket is constructed of 525g/m² pearl weave, has an EVA foam filled collar, yellow contrast stitching and brown/green embroidery.  The pants are 10oz drill cotton, have yellow contrast stitching, reinforced knees, a pearl weave gusset and embroidery similar to the jacket.  The seams are well done and reinforced at stress points, including the slits on the sides of the jacket and the armpits.  The pants are similarly constructed with triple stitching at the stress points and a quilted reinforced knee.  The embroidery on the gi is of similar high quality.  The only patch on the gi is inside at the color and contains the manufacturer logo, size of the gi, and basic washing instructions.

Jacket:

The collar is the standard EVA foam filled lapel.  Not too thick, not to thin and perfectly functional.  The seams within the collar are yellow and the collar has a strip of green cotton cloth as trim.  This same green trim is used inside each cuff.  The gi is minimally adorned with just a few areas of embroidery.  The word “Modern” is embroidered in green on the right shoulder and “Flow” is similarly embroidered on the left shoulder.  Immediately below the left shoulder embroidery is a company logo, “MF” in brown inside of a green circle.  The only other decoration is the full company logo on the bottom left.  All of the stitching on the jacket uses yellow thread and adds a subtle contrast.  In my opinion the yellow contrast stitching looks very good with the minimalist green and brown embroidery.

Pants:

The pants are made of very soft and comfortable 10 ounce drill cotton.  The adornment is minimal, like the jacket, and consists of green belt loops, green trim at the sides of the pants, a single embroidered logo and the contrast stitching throughout.  There are six belt loops and a cord drawstring to hold your pants in place.  The knees are reinforced with yellow stitching and have a quilt-like pattern that I thought was pretty cool.  The knee reinforcement starts at the upper thigh and continues down to about six inches above the cuffs.  The cuffs are lined with green cloth tape just like the cuffs of the jacket.  I’m a little concerned about the durability of the 10 ounce cotton but the stitching and reinforcement is solid so hopefully that should be sufficient.

Test Run:

For this gi I had two different people wear it and give their feedback.  I was the first to wear and thought it was comfortable but built for someone with a bigger frame than me (I’m 6’4” and 190lb).  The gi was perfectly fine for drilling but when I began to roll I thought there was enough extra fabric that it gave my opponent an advantage.

The next tester was a training partner.  He’s 6’2” and ~220lb.  The gi fit him great (there’s a picture in the gallery) and he absolutely loved wearing it.  So much so that he was very reluctant to give it back after testing it out.  He commented several times on how well it fit and how he liked the pants.  The sleeves were a little long but not excessively so and after washing a drying two more times the gi fit him even better.

The size chart for the A4 suggests that this gi would fit someone that is 6’0” to 6’4” and weighing in between 220lb and 260lb.  I agree with those numbers but would add that if you’re a little taller to still consider it because the sleeves and pants are pretty long, especially if you don’t try to shrink them in hot washes and the dryer.

Special Considerations:

I’ve mentioned a few times that I really like to support new companies.  Saif and David make it easy for me to continue to do that.  The guys at Modern Flow are doing their first gi the right way.  They also offer great service and are already sponsoring competitors.  More info on the guys at Modern Flow can be found in their interview at The Last Ronin’s Blog.  Also, Saif is in medical school and that’s not cheap J  We need all the jiu-jiteiro doctors we can get because we’ll all breaking down pretty much every day.

Wrap Up:

The Ranger is Modern Flow’s first gi but you wouldn’t know it by looking at it.  The gi has a unique look, the green/yellow/brown color scheme works very well, and is very well constructed.  At $150 the priced competitively with other similar products and doesn’t break the bank.  The construction of gi suggests that it will hold up well to heavy usage and should be a gi that you that you get your money out of.