Sunday, April 29, 2012

A favor to ask...GiFreak 1.0

OK...so over the past several months, I've been working on this idea I've had of a magical database that holds all the gis in the world so that, if say, you want a pink, camo, hemp gi with an A2 top and A3 bottom, a rope drawstring and elastic crotch, well, you wouldn't have to surf 400 message boards to find it. I also wanted to create a database of all the great gi reviews out there, so if I'm considering buying the Vulkan UltraLite, I'd save myself some googling and would find the best reviews out there with a few clicks.

...and so GiFreak was born.

It's through most of the development, but we're trying to clean up any bumps and funkiness that might be going on in the look, the funcionality, whatever before the genuine marketing push starts. So...whenever you have some free time, it would be a HUGE favor if you would go to www.gifreak.com and just...play around. Search for stuff, submit comments, read the FAQs, submit fake manufacturer registrations with funky names (put the word "test" somewhere in there, just so I know it's not real). Basically, have at it and if you have any issues, ideas, problems or suggestions, just shoot me an email here or through the contact form on the site.

I want this tool to make everybody's gi-buying life easier, but also, I think BJJ is a great sport, and that any centralization will benefit everybody in the long run. Thanks in advance!

6 comments:

smash said...

This is a great idea! Is there any chance you will have a section especially for women's fit? (I am tall like you with an extreme hourglass shape and have had a lot of trouble finding appropriately shaped pants for my butt/hips, for example.) I was thinking it might be useful to break down with the apple/pear categorization.

Other than that I have no suggestions or criticisms (at least right now) -- I think this is a really fantastic idea and I look forward to using it.

Megan said...

Thanks!

I like the idea...you'll notice that the women's sizing isn't exactly fleshed out yet. That's mostly because I'm waiting on some input from women's gi-makers so the options presented will work well for them. Same goes for the kids. Thanks for taking a look!

Bee said...

Megan,

This is just an awesome resource, thank you for putting in the time and (what had to be) monumental effort.

It may be that I'm just not finding it, but would it be possible to add additional information about the individual manufacturers? I'm all about supporting and promoting the "little guys", or those companies that show a true passion for not only their products but for what those products are used for. I'm not talking about quarterly breakdowns or anything, just something along the lines of a short history, philosophy, and so on.

Or would something like that be more trouble than it's worth?

Megan said...

Thanks Bee!

Each manufacturer is responsible for their profiles (at least that's how it's set up now), so getting them to take the time (they're all really busy) to sit down and set up their info is proving to be a challenge.

I'm still feeling things out though, so we'll see how it grows and develops.

Deborah Clem said...

Okay I am about to dive in, but I already agree with Smash. I am half Mexican on my Mom's side and generous backside inseams are my friend!...lol

Megan said...

Dagney...I will add a "broad hips" category for you guys.


Actually...at first I thought that sounded better than "wide hips", but now I don't know...let em know what you guys think.