MMA shopping in Rio de Janeiro...

If you are in Rio for training one of the things you might want to know about is where to buy mma/jiu jitsu gear. So I thought I would dedicate a post to that and the places I know of so far where you can buy some gear.

How many Kimonos/Gi's to bring...

Some people may wonder how many kimonos/gi's to bring down. My answer would be that it all depends on how often you are going to train. If you plan on training alot (2x a day, 5-6 days a week) it would take a little planning ahead to rotate your gis so you're not always training in sweaty smelly ones or missing class because they're in the wash.

Alot of places have at least 3 or 4 jiu jitsu classes a day 5 days a week, with an open mat session on the Saturday. Usually I try do classes a day (a morning and afternoon/night class) a day and catch the open mat on Saturdays, so that's around 10 or so classes a week. Sometimes I might do 3 a day (a boxing or extra jiu jitsu) if I feel up to it or to catch up on the days I've only been able to do one class.

When I came here I didn't have any gis but bought 2 basic gis (R$160 each) at the gym. I'd probably use each for gi or two days, alternating and letting one dry before using the other. When the weather is sunny you can wash a kimono out and it'll dry in one day or less but if it's the rainy season you're really going to have to plan it out because they might take up to 2 or 3 days to dry.

Gloves, supplements etc...

If you're wanting to buy gloves or any other kind of gear I'd say just bring it from home. Pretty much any overseas brands imported into Brasil is going to be expensive.

Although there is a sale on at SNC on Avenida Olegario Maciel in Barra da Tijuca selling about 1kg of protein powder for R$99. SNC also have a number of outlets in Barra at Citta America, Barra Shopping and some other places.

Sports Nutrition Centre (SNC) website

Avenida Olegario Maciel, 440 Loja D

Barra da Tijuca - Rio de Janeiro

Tel: (21)2494-3522

Pride Fightwear...

Pride Fightwear make some good lightweight kimonos, they also have MMA shorts, rashguards, shirt, singlets and a few other fashionable items. Alot of the guys from Gordo's wear Pride Fightwear gi's to training PLUS they dry quickly compared to some other gi's which might take a few days to dry.

When you go enter the building take the stairs at the end up to the next floor (2nd) and you should see the store right in front of you on the other side of the hall.

You can see the Pride Fightwear sign in the top right.. and left of the pictures. Also the gold buddha statue is pretty hard to miss.

The building might be hard to spot from the main road because if you're going into Barra da Tijuca from Zona Sul it's on the left side before the bridge and Downtown Shopping. You also might see some Medical centre on the right side of the road.

Pride Fightwear Address:

Pride website

Avenida Armando Lombardi, 949

Barra da Tijuca

Rip Dorey...

There's a Rip Dorey store in Copacabana that may be a bit hard to find if you're not sure where to look. Basically it's inside a shopping building, that doesn't look like a shopping building on the outside. This building is great because there's about 3 MMA/Jiu Jitsu type stores in there selling shirts, kimonos and other MMA/jiu jitsu related gear. Rip Dorey is on the 11th floor, but on the way up you can stop on the 4th and 8th floors to look at a brand called Survivor (4th floor) and the old school Hunter brand (8th floor).

This is a picture of the store from the outside. Santa Clara 33, you have to enter on the narrow passage way on the right and either take the stairs or elevator.

The "Survivor" brand store on the left.

Rip Dorey Address:

Rip Dorey website

Rua Santa Clara 33, Store (Lojas) 1107 - 1108

Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro

Ph: (21) 3208-2136

There's still some other places around Rio I'd like to check out and I'll be updating this post when I do get around to it. So keep tabs on it.