Starting a dojo

[Eldritch Knight]

I'm starting a kendo club in my college and was wondering what would be standard fare in terms of buying bogu that club members can rent. My funding is pretty tight, so I'm not looking for bogu that cost more than $250 a piece (cheaper is definetely better). Does anyone have any advice or experience on where to buy / to buy in bulk or not / what sizes and types to buy, etc?

[tango]

I don't know of any specific company, but something you might consider is contacting a few places here in the States and telling them what you want and just asking them what they can do for you..
They might be willing to drop the price considerably if you tell em you want 10 complete sets of 8mm.

Anyway, just a thought..

And WAY TO GO! Best of luck in getting everything started :)

[tango]

(stupid no-editing-after-5-minutes-rule.. sheesh!)

I say 8mm for beginners because the stuff is really cheap and it's something for them to wear until they decide that 8mm doesn't protect very well and they need to get their own gear.

My instructor would allow newbies to wear the class stuff for about 6 months and by then, everybody else in class was pushing them to buy their own gear.

The problem with 8mm is that it will get soft a lot faster than the higher grade stuff (obviously). I'm sure you're probably already aware of this, but if you're going for cheap cost and somethin' to get them started with --- and not knowing a company that'll get you 5mm or 6mm for $250 or so --- that's what I'd recommend.

Again, good luck... call some bogu folks up and see what they might willing to do..

[Berserker]

hi,

just went through the same process at my university - I was an iaido student, and wanted to learn some Kendo, but the club had closed some years ago...

... anyway, we got in contact with a local instructor, who kindly offered to give his time, and we got it going, we now have about 35 regular (ish!) members, so it all looks good.

Though this was about a year ago, we are only now just getting bogu for ourselves. At first (for extreme economy!) we used second hand kit - everyone seemed to be quite friendly about loading equipment and all that. However just recently we put in an order for bogu of "i-hansin" an internet store. They are based in Korea, and its only just over £110 for a 5mm set. The quality seems fine from what I have seen of them, and it might last longer than an 8mm.

good luck

[tango]

WOW! that's just a little over $200 for a 5mm...

that'd be an EXCELLENT deal, IMO....