I’ve waited several weeks to post this review, this has granted me about 12-14 classes with it, two seminars and some trips to other BJJ schools. I was really excited for this review before I had even started it – would it live up to the hype? Would it be enough room for not only BJJ and MMA gear, but BJJ and MMA gear for a big guy (bigger guy = bigger gear)? The answer is a resounding yes on all fronts.
I had the chance to interview this bag’s creator, Chris Odell, and I knew that I was going to be getting a quality piece of equipment. Some people are out there to make a buck. Some are doing it because they love it. Chris falls into the latter of the two groups. You can tell he cares about the quality of the gear he puts his company name on. Because of that the gear lives up to my expectations.
The bag itself is made of a black hemp blend (Chris can get you down and dirty on the specifics of the blend) with very nice embroidery on the ends in red. There is a large center compartment with a side compartment on each end. On the front of the bag are two pouches surrounding three smaller pouches.
There are a lot of bags that would fit the description I gave above, sans hemp. What sets this bag apart is the hemp blend and the thought that went into the layout. I was able to fit my “full night” loadout in the bag many times.
A full night for me would be Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai – and possibly some Judo. The bag carried the following on those nights:
- A5 Gi jacket, ripstop pants, lightweight pants.
- X-Trainer Shinguards
- Full Size 16oz Boxing Gloves
- 4oz MMA Gloves
- Bag gloves
- Various sets of wraps
- Headgear
- Mouthguard
- 32oz Nalgene Water bottle
- Towel
- Nogi Shorts / Rashguards
- First-aid kit
That’s a lot of stuff (to me at least, some guys haul more). The key is in the organization. The big front pockets lend themselves well to MMA gloves and wraps, or a small notebook. There’s a pocket that fits my mouthguard case perfectly. A small pocket that fits athletic tape perfectly. And a nice pocket for things that came out of your pants pockets – cell phone, wallet, keys, glasses etc. The center compartment holds the gi and shinguards and headgear while the side compartments hold shorts and rashguard and 16oz gloves respectively. The other nice thing that Chris includes is a “nasty bag” to keep your sweaty rashguards and shorts etc separate fromt eh rest of your gear. The hemp bag breathes a lot better than other bags, but that’s no reason to add extra funk to your other gear. The shoulder strap hardware is anchored well – and it needs to be for all the weight it’s supporting and the shoulder strap itself is comfortable on the shoulder too. I might have liked a few more inches in the strapping of the shoulder strap but it doesn’t hamper performance in any way, just a personal preference of my own. The zippers are all very high quality and operate smoothly.
I looked over the bag before this past weekend as I was gearing up to finally post this review and was also heading to two seminars. I found no tearing, no loose stitches, no busted zippers, no smell of any sort remaining in the bag, no broken hardware. I would highly suggest this bag to anyone who finds themselves carrying a lot of gear. If you have less in the way of gear you might want to check out DSMMA’s line of BattlePacks – and there’s a new addition to the lineup coming soon there as well.
As long as Santa is nice to me this Christmas (or my wallet…whichever I choose to have more faith in at the moment!) there will be a Hemp Combat Gi sitting inside my PGB-03 as well. That’s definitely something that I’m excited for – my instructor already pre-ordered his so we’ll definitely get a good base for a review on that (as long as I’m able to snag one during pre-order) – speaking of that you should head over to www.DSMMA.com and pre-order yourself before they’re all gone!