Different martial arts use different costumes, the Kung Fu uniforms, of course, follow that pattern. In the Kungfu world, we need various style uniforms to show what kind of Kungfu we are practicing – Tai chi, Shaolin, or Wingchun.
One huge monetary benefit and reason for the proliferation of martial arts is that you don’t necessarily need lots of facilities or heavy materials to train. That being said, you only required is that space big enough for your move.
Why do I need a special Kung Fu clothing?
Once you have been practicing for a while, and you want to get better training results, then individual purchases make a lot of sense.
What should I wear to practice Kung Fu?
A simple answer is loose & comfortable clothes and a pair of soft flat shoes.
In the kungfu, the uniform is made in such a way as to not restrict body movement. A casual two-piece set kung fu uniform is a good match, including the belt, is best at this.
That means we wear a wuxia style hanfu shirt and pants. As simple as this sounds, there is still an incredible amount of room available for choosing.
Depending on whether you want a kung fu uniform for training or a competition, you may want to choose the best style that looks great on you.
And be honest here, some uniforms just look much cooler than others, so style plays an important role. Now let’s check out the popular styles of kungfu uniforms.
Best 5 Styles of Martial Arts & Kung Fu Uiforms
1. Shaolin Kungfu Uniform
Let’s start with a style that’s arguably the most well known. The Shaolin style originated around 1500 years ago. Shaolin Temple is a place in the mountains, far from the hustle and bustle, quiet and peaceful. Their traditional hanfu dress is always minimalist with plain solid color, gray and yellow.
As the saying goes, “The world’s martial arts come out of Shaolin.”
Because it was created because monks in China’s ancient monasteries needed a way to defend themselves from bandits and robbers, this need for defense led to one of the most aggressive styles of Kungfu.
Not only are Shaolin monks known to this day for their extreme dedication to technique training, unreal flexibility, and physical conditioning, but they also are masters of a variety of peculiar kung fu weapons. That means most people would hurt themselves with an accident very easily.
Except for professional Shaolin kungfu costumes, you also need bracers, gloves, belt, legs to present from the bruise. And a pair of soft training hanfu shoes are necessary, like Feiyue sports shoes, or football spike.
2. Wudang Tai Chi Kung Fu Uniform
Mt. Wudang is famous for its Taiji kungfu, a unique style of Chinese martial art developed by Taoists.
Do you need to buy special Tai chi clothing?
In fact, a normal loose cotton shirt, with wide-leg trousers like athletic pants can work well. But when you join a Taiji Club or eventually present your form to a crowd, a traditional Tai Chi clothing can be quite striking.
You would think that picking pants for tai chi would be easy. But uncomfortable pants limit stance work, like jeans might not be the best option for tai chi.
It has to be the right combination of length and spaciousness to remain comfortable. There are pants that are specific for tai chi, roomy design is essential, having more room at the crotch allows for the deep postures.
Choosing a pair of flat shoes with elastic soles will suffice. Otherwise typical athletic shoes can impinge on the ankles and stick to the floor when pivoting.
3. Wing Chun & Jeet Kune Do
You might have heard of Wing Chun (Yongchun) from the new Ip Man movies, or from whatever you know about Bruce Lee.
Wing Chun’s origins are among the foggiest of all martial arts, according to legend, Yongchun Kung Fu was founded by a woman.
So it’s also very suitable for women’s practice. Hong Kong Airlines said that they will teach their cabin crews Wing Chun, a form of Kung Fu after they experienced on average three attacks per week, reported.
As is popularized by Bruce Lee and his instructor, “Ip Man”, Wing Chun has a variety of amazing hand techniques for punching and striking. The “Wing Chun Punch” is the most famous, and is a series of very fast hits.
One of the Wing Chun’s main bullet points is the focus on defending from an attack while simultaneously counterattacking.
There is no specific uniform in Yongchun, The clothes you see in the film are the common clothes of the Chinese people in the 19th-20th century. Of course, if there’s a traditional outfit for Wing Chun that couldn’t be better.
Need a classic kung fu uniform for Jeet Kune Do?
You must be thinking about Bruce Lee’s battle suit – a tight, close-fitting, yellow color jumpsuit. Sure, it’s a good choice, maybe it will bring you courage and luck.
4. Wushu Kung Fu Uniform
Wushu Routine is Chinese traditional sport, and stands for the movement esthetics concluded from kinds of exercises.
Wushu, or Chinese modern martial arts, is an exhibition and a full-contact sport derived from traditional Chinese martial arts, which is translated as “martial arts sports.”
It was actually founded in 1949 as a competitive martial art. From then on, wushu is the Chinese term for all styles of martial arts, traditional and contemporary, external and internal. So it feels kind of weird putting wushu on a list of styles of traditional kung fu.
“Practicing Wushu strengthens the body.” It is taught as a distinct style and is the name for China’s national fighting sport. Wushu includes not only physical exercise but also Chinese philosophy, meditation, and aesthetics. It involves so many forms and styles of fighting and has so many different schools.
Continuing its fighting function, Wushu becomes a more athletic and aesthetic performance and competitive sport.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) currently recognizes Chinese wushu as sports, but neither is an official or a demonstration sport at the Games.
As a modern sport, it means that you only need to choose the sportswear you usually wear to practice Wushu.
But if you are going to enter for the wushu competition, a formal wushu costume is necessary. These clothes are usually the improved version of Tang Suit (Tang Zhuang), solid color, or using some colorful traditional pattern embroidery, like cloud, floral, dragon, crane, etc.
5. Sanda Sport
“Free fighting,” is one of sport kungfu, also known as Sanda or Sanshou. Beyond doubt, the conduct of Sanda after more than 20 years, has made considerable progress and development. And its “kick far, beat near, wrestle body contact,” gets reception of fans, embodies the soul of China traditional Kungfu.
Sanda is a sports program that needs two-body contact, hand contest and highly competitive. Sanda is a probably the closest kung fu gets to MMA style fighting, since it involves strikes with fists, elbows, knees, and legs, as well as takedowns, sweeps, wrestling, chokes, and joint locks.
You can think of it like Muay Thai or kickboxing with more grappling. Much like the UFC and MMA fighting in the west, Sanda is the most popular form of kung fu sport fighting in China. Sanda is also taught for self-defense and used in the Chinese military.
With the development of Sanda, physical attention by more and more people. As a form of kungfu competition, it’s a dangerous sport, involves fighting – and a fair amount of protective padding.
The correlate costume of Sanda sport looks simple and not individual. Sportswear of Sanda is no difference from the sportswear of Boxing, Thaiboxing, and Free-fighting.
Sanda movement is a big antagonism sports event. It requires the competitor to have good physical fitness and superb technology, especially a steady mentality.
Please prevent sports injuries in Sanda Teaching and Training. So if your body is not strong enough, please do not try sanda because no Sanda uniform can give you too much protection.
Start Your Kung Fu Journal by Choosing a Right Clothing
Purchasing a Kung Fu uniform depends on so many variables such as: what kungfu style you practice, what style uniform you like, how much you want to spend, your body, what event it is for, etc.
Know that 99% of the world practices with casual, comfortable kungfu apparel, and only use formal kung fu uniforms for special occasions.
In China’s public park, there are lots of grey-haired grandpa and grandma perform incredible Tai chi & other style martial arts, in plain white, gray or black shirts & pants with slow background music.
One’s clothes were so light and floating, and you could see their peace through them. How’s that for confidence? In that respect, focusing on which clothes may be a distraction.
On the other hand, they can be beautifully crafted clothing and a nice uniform gives you the sense of participating in a historical tradition.
Here is an example of a nice simple Shaolin kung fu uniform that could make your whole body full of strength.
So do you need to buy Kung Fu clothing?
I think the best answer is, wearing an item of comfortable clothing that could offer you a free flowing exercise. That’s the bottom line.