All the best gift ideas without the cringe
Jiu jitsu is a martial art and sport with a thriving gift scene. There are endless gifts to choose from to help your loved one or friend on and off the mats. Here are some ideas grouped by prices, and directly below you’ll see some recommendations if you’re running low on time.
Quick recommendations
- Best gifts under $25: Always Rolling Mug or Defense Soap Bestseller Box
- Best gifts $25-$50: BJJ Fanatics instructional gift card or Tatami Takedowns Ain’t Dead T shirt
- Best gifts between $50-$100: Future Under Dawg 2.0 or Phalanx FC SQUAD RIZR Ultralight Shorts
- Best gifts over $100: FUJI Sports All Around Gi
- Best gifts over $1000: Tickets to a unique BJJ camp
Table of contents
Gifts under $50
Hats
Hats are an easy gift idea and are available from most major BJJ brands.
Maeda Logo Trucker Snapback
Scramble Hard Wearing Beanies
Hyperfly Bucket Hat
Nine Lives Cat Hat
Grappling underwear
Grappling underwear is a surprisingly underestimated piece of gear for many BJJ students.
Tatami Grappling Underwear
93 Brand V5 Grappling Underwear
93 Brand V5 Grappling Underwear Womens
Stickers
Stickers are probably the cheapest gift you can get for someone who loves jiu jitsu.
Leg Lock Demon Glossy Vinyl
Japanese Demons
White belts are friends not food
BJJ Girls Rolling
Patches and pins
Gi patches can be a great idea as a gift, although it may be good to check with your loved one or friend first as some gyms may not allow custom patches.
Snuggle Struggle Cuddle Time Jiujitsu Patch
Goonies Never Tap
Wrist Lock Demon
Leg Locks Demon Enamel Pin
Mugs
A jiu jitsu themed mug is a great idea for someone who also has a coffee or tea addiction.
Always Rolling mug
Shrimp Out mug
Even My Bones Will Roll mug
Lets roll mug
T-shirts
T-shirts are an easy gift for someone who loves jiu jitsu. You can select from a subtle jiu jitsu brand name design all the way up to loud novelty designs with inside jiu jitsu jokes scrawled all over.
Tatami Takedowns Ain’t Dead
93 Brand Leg Locks Tee
Meerkatsu Puss’s Revenge Tee
Nine Lives Explosive Tee
Half Sumo Black Mamba T-Shirt
Scramble Base Tee
Prints, Displates and signs
A nice poster or plate can be a wow-worthy gift for a jiu jitsu athlete.
BJJ Displate
The Legend Displate
Always Rolling Jiu Jitsu Wall Art Print
BJJ Watercolor print
Keychains
Keychains are another great cheap gift idea for those who love jiu jitsu.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Paracord keychain
Jiu Jitsu Belt Keychains
Custom portrait
For a novelty gift, consider buying a caricature of your loved one or friend in a jiu jitsu setting.
BJJ Custom Caricature
BJJ Custom Caricature
Jewellery and charms
A small piece of jewellery can be a good gift idea if your friend or family member regularly wears bracelets or necklaces.
Wood Necklace-Jiu Jitsu Pendant
BJJ Custom Caricature
Coasters and coolers
A coaster or cooler is another unique jiu jitsu gift idea to consider.
Cork Coasters
Jesus Has Your Back Cooler
Books
There are some excellent BJJ and martial arts books out there for all ages. If your friend or family member enjoys a good book consider the following as gift ideas, or read our full list of the best BJJ books for more ideas:
The Blackbelt Blueprint
A great book covering some of the most important concepts in BJJ to help your loved one improve their game.
Master Jiu-Jitsu Master Life
This book digs into the journeys and success principles of some of the greats in BJJ including Marcelo Garcia and Roger Gracie.
Jiu-Jitsu University
This is a technical manual of important BJJ positions techniques from legendary competitor Saulo Ribeiro.
Breathe: A Life in Flow
This book by Rickson Gracie covers his interesting life from childhood up to becoming a BJJ legend.
BJJ soaps
There are a number of brands making soap for BJJ practitioners. Many of these soaps include specific ingredients such as tea tree oil to help protect the skin against nasties caught on the mats.
Soap bars
Armbar Soap Company Hawaiian Batch
Defense Soap Original Bar
Gold BJJ Submission Soap
Armbar Soap Company Supreme Clean
Defense Soap Bestseller Box
Shower gels
Armbar Soap Company Original Potion
Defense Soap Original Shower Gel
Gifts between $50 – $100
Hoodies
A hoodie can be an excellent gift for your friend or family member to wear when travelling to training in colder months.
Half Sumo Jiu-Jitsu College Crewneck
Tatami Byakko Hoodie
Medal holders and hangers
If the person you’re buying a gift for is an active or aspiring competitor, a place to hold their medals could be a great gift idea.
PromiDesign Medal Holder
AlliedMedalHangers Medal Hanger
Rash guards
Rash guards wear out over the course of a year of frequent training, so they’re always a great gift idea. Not every gym allows their students to wear non-gym rash guards or non belt-level rashguards though, so it might be worth checking (without ruining the surprise).
Here are some options to get you started, but you can also check out our full list of the best rashguards for more suggestions:
Phalanx FC metric rashguard
Raven Fightwear Nordic
Tatami Chess Gorilla Rash Guard
Future Under Dawg 2.0
No gi shorts
Quality no gi shorts are a great gift idea to add some variety to your friend or family members’ rotation, and like rash guards, they often wear out.
Below are some options to consider, but you can also read our full guide to the best no gi shorts for more ideas:
Gold BJJ Fight Shorts
Phalanx FC SQUAD RIZR Ultralight Shorts
Spats
Spats or compression leggings are popular for many no gi BJJ students due to the added protection they give against cuts and scratches when training. They often wear out at the knees over the course of the year, so they’re always a useful gift for a student who wears them.
Here are a few options to consider:
Mens
93 Brand ‘Standard Issue’ Spats 2-PACK
FUJI Sports Baseline Grappling Spats V2
Womens
93 Brand ‘Standard Issue’ Spats 2-PACK
Tatami Kanagawa High Waist Spats
Gear bags
A training bag is an excellent gift, especially if your friend or family member trains immediately before or after work and lugs around a lot of items.
We’ve put together a full round up of great gear bags, but here are some of our picks to get you started:
Elite Sports Warrior Series Duffel Training Gear Gym Bag & Backpack
Gold BJJ Gatame Training Backpack
Instructionals or gift card for instructionals
There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of BJJ instructionals covering every aspect of training from esoteric guard styles like xanadu guard all the way to nutrition for BJJ athletes.
If you’re not sure what topic might interest your friend or family, you could consider buying a gift card for an instructional on some websites:
BJJ Fanatics gift card
BJJ Fanatics is one of the largest BJJ instructionals marketplaces. Instructionals vary in price from under $50 per instructional all the way up to $200 for the more sought-after teachers, and it has regular sales of as much as 40% off.
Digitsu gift card
Digitsu is a smaller instructionals marketplace with on-demand videos and DVDs available.
Jiu Jitsu X gift card
Jiu Jitsu X is another instructionals platform with many well known competitors and teachers.
Relaxation and recovery gifts
It’s no secret that BJJ is a tough martial art and can occasionally result in injuries like any sport. There are some great gift ideas to help with recovery and relaxation for the BJJ athlete that trains frequently including:
- A voucher to a local sports massage therapist
- A voucher to a good physical therapist/physiotherapist
- A voucher for a float tank/sensory deprivation tank session
- A massage gun or hand massager
Foam rollers
Amazon Basics High-Density Round Foam Roller
321 STRONG Foam Roller
A training journal or tracker
Some BJJ practitioners benefit from writing down the techniques they’re learning each week, or just marking down their progress each month.
Jiu-Jitsu Training Journal
Jiu-Jitsu Training Diary
Jiu-Jitsu Journal
Jiu Jitsu: Training Journal and Log Book
Grip trainers
Grip strength is a key component of jiu jitsu, so if your friend or family member is interested in training off the mat to get better at jiu jitsu, consider one of the many different types of grip trainers on the market:
SUPERBJJ Jiu Jitsu Grip Trainer
Scramble Grip Trainers
Gifts over $100
Gis
There’s nothing like a brand new gi. It can be a little tricky buying a gi for a family or friend because of two reasons:
- Gi sizing can be complex depending on their body shape (some brands have “long”, “husky” and other size variations)
- Some gyms have rules about what colours you can wear
But once you find out the above, you can look into the following gis or read our full guide into the best gis out there:
FUJI Sports All Around Gi
Hayabusa Goorudo 3 Gold Weave Jiu Jitsu Gi
Hayabusa Lightweight Jiu Jitsu Gi
Private lessons
An effective way to improve in jiu jitsu quickly is via private lessons, where your loved one or friend will have the full attention of their instructor to focus on whatever part of their game they like. Private lessons vary in price depending on the trainer but can cost approximately $60-100 for an hour depending on the rank of the instructor.
Pay for an event ticket
Depending on where your friend or family member lives, there may be some great grappling events near them. Examples include the ADCC or IBJJF world championships held each year.
Paying for tournament fees
BJJ tournaments can cost anywhere between $80-$250 USD depending on how far in advance you sign up. They cost even more when you factor in the costs athletes already pay for training fees and gear. Paying for your family or friends’ tournament entry fees can be a great way to also keep them accountable for their goals if they’ve mentioned that competing is something they’d be interested in. There are numerous competitions around the world each year, some of the biggest including:
Gym membership fees
BJJ is usually more expensive than regular gym fees and costs around $175 USD per month for unlimited classes, so a great gift for a friend or family member who loves BJJ is to pay for their training fees. Some gyms will offer discounts if you pay for longer blocks of training.
A BJJ camp
If you’re looking to spoil a BJJ athlete in your life with a more significant and expensive gift, consider paying for a camp. There are BJJ camps in many countries around the world each year, standouts included:
- The BJJ Globetrotters Iceland camp where you train at the world’s largest MMA gym and can even try viking wrestling
- The Roger Gracie Summer camp in Malaga, Spain where you can train under the tutelage of one of the greatest BJJ competitors in history
- Grapplers Retreat, where you learn BJJ from legendary competitors and teachers in an intimate setting on the picturesque Northern California coast
Did we miss any great gift ideas? Let us know below!
