Belt Review: Ligustica Belt by Killer Bee (A2)
“A black belt only covers two inches of your butt. You have to cover the rest.” Royce Gracie
I became a bit obsessed with finding a belt made out of gi material a few months ago. You’d think they’d be everywhere, right? Unfortunately that’s not the case. During my overly involved research I found the Ligustica belt by Killer Bee. This belt is made from the same gi material as their Mark II kimono and available for $19.00. I was familiar with Killer Bee from their recent focus on custom gis and also because several of my training partners wear their gis. Everyone I know had good things to say about Jesse and Killer Bee so I decided to take a closer look at their belts.
How to Dye Your Own Belt
Jiu Jitsu purists love to say “A belt only covers two inches of your butt. It’s up to you to cover the rest.” While that sentiment is certainly in the spirit of Jiu Jitsu, learning the art for the sake of learning and not viewing a belt as a goal, belts can mean much more or different things than we often give them credit for. Our belts are a representation of our journey. They are a reminder of who we were, who we are becoming, and what we have endured to get there. Each stripe represents hundreds of hours of mat time and growth. Each rank represents a new responsibility and greater expectations; not to smash everyone in your path but to help others grow and follow in a similar path of growth as BJJ players and people.
For these reasons we felt that our belts should have a similar story. Just like no two players games are exactly the same, neither are two belts when they are hand dyed. Maybe you’d like to dye custom belts for your go to training partner who is about to receive his or her next grade or maybe you’re a professor that would like to dye belts for your students. Maybe you don’t want to dye your own belts at all and just want to check out how our belts get from our supplier to you with a little extra love but below is a short guide to our belt dying process (that is constantly under revision) so you can add a little FLOW to your game.