About a year ago, I discussed the direction the IJF was taking with gis. Manufacturers were required to meet Judo industry standards (a good thing), distributors were required to pay huge fees to become official IJF sponsors, and their “IJF approved” gis had to have labels affixed to each item of the uniform. These labels would cost the distributors $3 each, and the costs associated with sponsorship and labels would be passed on to the players (not a good thing).
Class Warfare: the commercialization of Judo competition
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