The First Phalanx Product
Hey there, Chris here. Ever wonder how Phalanx started? It was with one product. A pair of Gi pants. I was so confused why we all accepted the standard pants. Two big tubes with v-cuts on the sides and some string wrapped around it? The jackets had advanced big time but the pants were no good. (I get it now, tradition, all that, I'm not hating on it by any means but at the time I wanted to do something better).
So I designed my own pair of Gi pants and changed all the things I didn't like about them. They were massively over-engineered and so expensive to manufacture they were impossible to sell.. but it's how I got started.
Recently, I went to the waybackmachine internet archive and fortunately the old data was still there! So I grabbed it all and pasted it here.
This was Phalanx back in 2012.
And here is the pimped out Gi pants that started it all. I even left the odd copy writing that I came up with haha. Hope you enjoy it, thank you for reading.
~Chris
@theentropykid
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The most obvious change I made was finally incorporating an elastic waistband. Gone are the days of that antiquated loop design. Four-point loops? Eight-point loops? 27-point loops? Forget that nonsense. I used thick elastic waistband and 3/8-inch drawcord with a foam core that won’t explode like a gutted Tauntaun. The waistband is comfortable like athletic shorts, and not too tight. (The design is not supposed to be extremely tight, since the drawcord is what keeps the pants secured to the body.)
Our legs are bent all the time in jiu-jitsu, and when you're bent at the hips, whether by design or not, the back part of the pants is pulled down. These pants are designed to sit on your hips and stay there. To keep the pants low on the hips but without giving you plumbers crack, I shaped the waist such that it rises higher in the back. This ensures the pants pretty much stay in position regardless of the degree of hip movement. It also feels much more comfortable.
The addition of an articulated knee is, by far, the most unique improvement for the gi pants, and I’m very proud that I am introducing the first pair… ever. However, this concept has been around for a long time in other technical wear and military gear. An articulated knee means the legs are sewn with a slight bend at the knees. If you think about how often your legs are bent in jiu-jitsu (knee bars notwithstanding), it’s pretty much 100% of the time. Rolling in pants where the knee is already bent makes them more comfortable and more functional.
Stronger Gusset
The gusset is a piece of fabric that is inserted between seams to add breadth. The purpose for the gusset in the jiu-jitsu gi pants is to allow for more freedom of movement when spreading your legs. It is typically diamond shaped and constructed in either three panels or one panel. The gusset is an essential part of the gi pants, and a part that endures a high degree of stress.
My changes are a complete redesign of the shape, and an offset of the gusset slightly towards the rear. The redesign brings the gusset a little further down the leg, which distributes the stress over a larger area of fabric. The gusset also does not focus at one point on each leg like a triangle, but rather is flush with the rear of the articulated knee (stronger stitching).
When you look at the pants from the side, the gusset carries farther back. This is because more stress is applied to the rear area of the gusset since our legs only bend forward to a significant degree at the hip. Think of it like this: you are sitting and bring your knees to your chest; the fabric around your backside is stressed tightly and the fabric around the front of your hips is bunched up. Since we cannot fold our legs backwards like we can forward, there is no practical reason for the gusset to be symmetrical along our frontal plane (i.e. side view); thus, I carried it slightly towards the rear, allowing for comfort during some crazy rubber guard and spider action.
That's it. If you like what you see, maybe you'll want to buy a pair.
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