You do not need expensive gear to be a serious martial artist

[Gyakuto]

They rip off content creators, stealing marketing and advertising from them.
They promise to pay people for promotion, and then they never pay.

I will not support a company that engages in such shady tactics.
I ran a shitty blog and luckily I was plenty happy with just getting free gear for doing a review for my 200-300 readers.

Oh, those are good reasons not to support them!

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I’ve been on a lot of martial arts forums and have never seen any large groups of people claiming expensive equipment is necessary to be a serious martial artist.

What forums are these?

I've seen some individuals make statements like that, but I've never seen a group do so - at least not with martial arts. Woodworking groups sometimes go that way, though - or at least they used to. Now there are some pretty prominent woodworking content creators who openly discusss the pros and cons of cheaper gear, which has reduced the number of people with the "gotta have the best" mindset. Last time I read some of the woodworking magazines, I still saw it there, though.

But, as you said, it doesn't seem to be all that common (at least in open groups) in MA.

 

[TularosaKungFu]

Kung fu doesn't bother with sparring gear, you need hit to get with it chop chop.
But master Don had numerous exercise and obstacle gear that was almost all school made? Stretchers, balance blocks, targets. I can't remember seeing a brand name.
But if he was going to present something, nothing was too fancy and I have to think if we did contests, we would have matched our environment like the others.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

For unarmed martial arts, where some sort of keikogi is the only real equipment required, it makes little difference. Yes, a heavyweight keikogi has more impressive ‘snap’ and perhaps durability but didn’t the original Okinawan teachers just wear ordinary, everyday clothes to practise?

For armed martial arts, it does make a difference. I naturally bought cheap swords to start off with, heavy with poor balance and as a beginner it really made things difficult and it was only when trying a dojo mate’s good quality sword did I realise this. Then began the inexorable and progressive purchase of better and better swords costing me a lot of money over the years. Ironically, as one gets more experienced, crappy equipment gets easier to use.

I think this applies to all pursuits where gear is the central part of the discipline. When I started playing guitar, I bought a guitar with egg-slicer string action (that’s not good, incidentally), and a cheapo, tinny amp. Ten plus guitars later, and a lot of money, I have guitars that are effortless to play (PRS and J Custom Ibanez) which, over the years, would’ve made my learning much easier. Interestingly I bought a great amp early on (EVH 5150 original amp) and haven’t had to invest in another one.

I believe I've probably spent more on gear for HEMA over the last couple of years than I have for all my other martial arts gear combined in 41+ years of training. The good news is that what I have now should last me quite a few years. (Not that it will keep me from lusting after the occasional cool new sword.)

I’ve been on a lot of martial arts forums and have never seen any large groups of people claiming expensive equipment is necessary to be a serious martial artist.

What forums are these?

I've known quite a few people who have spent a fair amount on expensive equipment just because they liked it and had the disposable income to get it. But I can't recall offhand anyone ever telling me that I needed expensive equipment to be taken seriously.