Venum Elite BJJ Gi Review: Overview
Summary: The Venum Elite BJJ Gi is a high-quality gi that is typically marketed towards advanced BJJ practitioners. Its current color schemes include the typical white, black, and blue, all with the famous Venum logo emblazoned on the back. It comes with a moderately-high price point, but Venum makes sure you get your money’s worth.
What we Like:
What we Don't Like:
Anyone who practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu knows that the gi’s need to strike a balance between toughness and comfort. You simply can’t wear a gi that will tear or prevent you from using a full range of motion.
The Venum Elite BJJ Gi does the near-impossible and makes a gi that won’t wear down from spending time on the mat and doesn’t restrict your ability to move.
Throughout out Venum Elite BJJ Gi review, we’ll take a look at what you’ll like, what you might not like, and whether this gi could be the right one for you.
Venum Elite BJJ Gi Review
Who is the Venum Elite BJJ Gi Meant For?
Alright, let’s get down to brass tacks. The Venum Elite BJJ Gi can be worn by any serious practitioner of BJJ.
It would not hurt a beginner to have a high-quality gi so they can experience comfort and free movement while they are learning martial arts. However, this gi has a high price point so you might not want to make a big investment just yet.
This particular gi is meant for serious competitors, people who spend hours on the mat, grinding it out in order to better improve their ability.
Everything from reinforced collar and knees, to the apparent lack of excess fabric to prevent the wearer from being grabbed suggests that this gi is best worn by people with moderate to high experience in BJJ.
Overall, dedicated beginners and experienced people alike can wear this, but there is no doubt that it is geared towards the more experienced crowd.
Venum Elite BJJ Gi Review: Design
There is a lot to cover when it comes to the design of this gi because it is a pretty intricate piece of work. The gi is the brainchild of BJJ World Champions Leandro Lo and Rodolfo Vieira, two guys who know, first hand what it takes to make an effective gi.
These two men proved that if you want something done right, then you better be prepared to do it yourself, and that they have.
One of the most prominent forms of design input these two had was to reduce the presence of extra material so that their competitors would minimal gripping material during competition.
The interior of the gi has a sublimated design that nicely compliments the gi's exterior design.
BJJ martial artists can expect to be regularly grabbed and thrown, so the design incorporates thick and dense 500 Grams Per Square Meter (GSM) materials that make the gi rather heavy when compared to others.
This thick material makes the gi fairly hard to grip, which of course, is a nice advantage to have in competition.
This is important to keep in mind if you need to do a weigh-in with your competition gi prior to a match.
While the weight might take some getting used to, remember that this gi was designed by professionals who wanted to balance movement and protection.
The gi's pants does have a rope lace fastening so that is stays in place and does not need frequent adjusting.
You can definitely count on your pants staying in place while you are training/ competing. While this is a minor feature, it is still important because nothing is more annoying than the feeling that your pants are falling or having to stop to tie them again in the middle of a rolling session.
The designers at Venum wanted to make sure that your opponents, friends, and family know what gi you are wearing by making their patches and logos very prominent.
The Elite BJJ gi has two Venum brand patches on the shoulders; the Venum text embroidered running parallel to the collar, their logo on the nape of your neck, and their name once again in the small of your back.
You might feel a little bit like a walking advertisement, but with high quality, you might actually want to.
Durability
The durability of the Venum Elite BJJ Gi is definitely something to talk about. The materials used in making this gi are the reason for its price point.
Venum used gold weave cotton in this design, so the gi is durable. It can take the stress from multiple training sessions without breaking down. Not only is the fabric tough, but it has 500 GSM, meaning that it is heavy material that can stand the stress of competition.
I know that no martial artist wants to worry about their gi coming apart in their opponents hands, and you won’t need to with this gi.
Every BJJ fighter knows that knees, collars, and in-seam on the pants are three areas that tend to tear the most. Venum went ahead and used reinforced stitching throughout the gi to prevent premature tearing along the seams.
In the same vein, the Venum Elite BJJ gi has ripstop fabric in the pants and jacket collar, making it even less likely to suffer from rips when you are grappling.
The bottom line is this gi is one of the most resistant ones you can buy. This gi is made from top to bottom to be incredibly durable so your investment is well worth it.
Comfort & Feel
A strong gi is good, a comfortable one is great. Nobody wants to grapple and roll around in a gi that feels like you are wearing a tarp. Fortunately, that is definitely not the case with the Venum Elite BJJ gi. Now, it is important that you don’t stress about the weight of the gi too much
The materials are heavier than normal for a reason: they are high quality and built to last.
The combination of gold weave cotton and 500 GSM material means that the materials are comfortable but definitely more dense than you are likely used to wearing.
Let’s talk about sweat and all the associated pleasantness that it brings.
The sublimated materials in the neck and collar help you with moisture management, but let’s be realistic.
The thickness of the materials combined with the rash guard or t-shirt that you are wearing underneath will make you hot when you are working hard on the mats.
The gi design does keep you somewhat cool, though. You are going to be hot in any gi, but after your first training session in the Venum Elite BJJ Gi, you’ll agree with me that the weight of the gi is balanced by the comfort.
After a few workouts in this gi, it will be broken in and will feel even more comfortable than when you first wore it.
A word to the wise: be prepared for the gi to shrink the first time that you wash it even though it comes pre-shrunk. You will want to make sure you plan out your sizing ahead of time.
Price Point
As I already mentioned, the price point on the Venum Elite BJJ Gi is going to be high.
It is certainly one of the more expensive gi's that are on the market right now but still not the most expensive ever.
For people that are just beginning their journey into BJJ, this gi might be a little too expensive for their needs, but the investment price for more experienced people could be just right. Even with a higher price point, it is still a great value given the quality of materials and comfort wearing it.
- Jacket fabric: gold weave
- Pants & collar: rip-stop fabric
Venum Elite BJJ Gi Size Chart
Let’s Talk About Venum
Now we've finished our Venum Elite BJJ gi review, let's discuss the brand behind the gi.
Venum is a company that specializes in martial arts gear of all kinds. They work to create and manufacture equipment for several different disciplines including BJJ, Muay Thai, and boxing.
As the name suggests, the primary designs for Venum are centered on the concept of the snake. Not only do they feature snake logos, but their equipment is designed to make the fighters agile, and fast-striking.
Typically, Venum aims to have high-quality products that tend to be on the range of higher price points.
They still have a wide variety of products with more modest price points, but you can tell that their focus is on their high-end works. If you can’t tell from the design, Venum is a fan of fitting their branding on every inch of their products so you and your opponents know what you are wearing.
A Lighter Form: Venum Elite 2.0 Lite
Not every person is going to be crazy about the thicker, heavier design of the Venum Elite BJJ Gi, and that’s fine.
Venum has a newer and lighter version of this gi on the market called the Venum Elite 2.0 Lite. As the name says, this is a newer version of the Venum Elite model, one that is designed around the concept of high quality and increase mobility.
The Venum Elite 2.0 Lite uses 350 GSM cloth in the jacket and 230 GSM materials in the pants.
One of the main differences is the quality of material that is used in the design. The Elite uses gold weave cotton, but the Elite 2.0 uses pearl weave cloth.
The pearl weave fabric is one of the lightest allowed to be used in competition, and still has a high degree of durability in it.
It is important to note that the lighter pearl weave material is not as durable as the gold weave material.
The fact is that the pearl weave material is much less dense and not as thick as the fabrics in the Venum Elite model gi.
This is helpful for people who want to be able to move without the weight of the fabric bearing down on them. The Venum Elite 2.0 has great moisture management and features ripstop weaving in the collar and pants, making it a worthy successor to the original, but maybe not as long-lasting.
Venum Elite BJJ Gi Review: The Final Verdict
The Venum Elite BJJ Gi is a durable, top of the line gi that is perfect for advanced practitioners of BJJ. The gi is designed to be an investment for serious martial artists, representing the qualities that the BJJ champions thought to be most important in combat wear.
It is a stylish piece, too, with variable colors available for the gi along with a lot of Venum branding on the jacket. While the Venum products may not be for everyone, they are certainly great to wear for people who are going to be putting in hours on the mat.
For all these reasons, we recommend the Venum Elite BJJ Gi to anyone who wants a serious piece of martial arts equipment.
Personally, we think it is best if you use this gi if you are going to be engaged in some heavy training over long periods of time.
It is definitely one of the most durable gis on today’s market even if it does come with a bit of large price tag. Overall, it would be hard to find a gi that lives up to this level of quality for its price.
