What dobok to buy?

As a family we've just discoverd taekwondo and are enjoying it immensly. So much so that I've promised the demonic daughters doboks of their own. The problem is what do I buy? The official TAGB ones are very nice but four of those will set me back £160, even second hand on E-bay I'm looking at £80 whilst the unbranded ones go for a fiver. As long as they're clean and smart does it matter what we wear to gradings?

To my mind - no, it shouldn't matter. If you have a suit made of the appropriate material, clean and in good repair, without inappropriate markings on it, then it should be fine to train in.

Saddly, the TAGB website doesn't have any information on this (not that I could find anyway), or any easily findable rules as to what is or is not allowed.

I'm hoping to be slimmed down enough to fit into a Dobok soon - but I'm determined that I'm not getting one with the website embroided over my bum - so I'd be curious about alternatives too.

Hope you get some sort of useful answer from someone!

If we were to turn up in a anything other than the standard TAGB White Dobok we would not be aloud to grade. From what I gather our area is VERY strict on that!

My advice would be to see what your instructor says. I would be intrested to hear the outcome if you don;t mind

So far, in the two clubs I train with I've seen Dobuks in these styles:

White, TAGB on back with front TAGB logo
White, TAGB Tae Kwon Do International with front TAGB logo
White, as above with TAGB.BIZ across the bum, front logo
White with half black piping
White with full black piping
Blue and black
Grey and black
Fully black (instructor)
White with red stripes (England flag style)
Red

And this is in a clubs where the average attendance seems to be 10-12 per session. All of these seem to be "official" TAGB doboks and accepted without question.

Kren wrote:So far, in the two clubs I train with I've seen Dobuks in these styles:
All of these seem to be "official" TAGB doboks and accepted without question.

Are they accepted for an actual grading though?

We're aloud to where various TAGB clothing during class but gradings are a different matter!

The color belt grading examiner for my area (South West) Master Dew only allows white TAGB doboks at gradings. It is the same for black belt gradings , the TAGB only allow white TAGB doboks for 1st Dan gradings , or white black belt doboks (white doboks with black edging) upwards. Depending on your club their may be other types of dobok you can wear , (e.g. my club has it's own club dobok , which is red and black with the web address on the back and the name on the front). The TAGB also release national team doboks for every world championships held every few years.

My instructor , who trains under Master Dew , allows students to wear any TAGB dobok (white or national) or the club suit during training. But white suits must be worn at gradings. When I train with Master Dew at the Bristol Academy , he allows me to wear any TAGB dobok.

They are all very costly I know , can't do anything about that.

Hope this has helped

You should only wear official TAGB doboks, white (regular) versions, although for example those on a squad are allowed to wear the squad uniform when training, although different instuctors are more/less relaxed about this. My instructor allows any TAGB uniform regardless of wether we are on a team or not whilst training, and there are some foreign uniforms on occasion.