Our vision
Better than yesterday.
Belt by Belt is a Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu clothing brand run by someone who still trains. The belt in the name is the one thing both mats share. It marks where you are, it moves only when the work is done, and nobody can hand you the next one.
The short version
Slava Rybalka started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 2017. By 2023 he had earned his brown belt from Cristiano Dantas at Gracie Barra Aventura, and that is when he went looking for Judo. The reason was specific: he wanted a better top game. Every grappler knows the feeling of being good in one place on the mat and average in another, and the honest fix is to go where people are better than you at exactly that thing. So he walked into a Judo club, put on a white belt again, and spent the next stretch being thrown by people who had been doing it their whole lives.
On 3 October 2025 he was given his Judo brown belt by Cedric Perroud at AP Training Center. Two arts, two brown belts, eight years apart.
Why this shop exists
Slava started Belt by Belt in 2026 to support the people who keep training. Starting a martial art is not the hard part. Staying in it is: year after year, around work and family and the months where nothing seems to improve. Most people who quit do not quit because they got beaten. They quit because they stopped showing up.
A t-shirt does not fix that. But the gear you wear off the mat is a quiet reminder of who you are when you are not training, and spotting the same design on someone else in the parking lot is a small nudge to go back in. This shop is built out of small nudges.
What we make, and what we refuse to make
Everything is printed to order. Nothing sits in a warehouse, and no design has to hit a minimum order quantity to be allowed to exist. That means the range can be about the parts of training people actually talk about: turning up when you would rather not, the partner who lets you drill on them, the slow climb through the belts.
What you will not find here: skulls, weapons, cartoon animals in a gi, or borrowed Japanese characters that mean nothing to the person wearing them. Judo and BJJ already have their own language, and it is better than anything we could invent.
Belt by Belt, so far
- 2017 First Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class.
- 2023 BJJ brown belt, awarded by Cristiano Dantas at Gracie Barra Aventura. Started Judo to build a better top game.
- 3 October 2025 Judo brown belt, awarded by Cedric Perroud at AP Training Center.
- 2026 Belt by Belt opens. First drop: tees, hoodies and kiss-cut stickers for both mats.
Come and train
If something here makes you think of a training partner, it is doing its job. Browse Judo apparel and gear or BJJ apparel and gear, or start with the newest pieces. Questions about sizing or a club order go through the contact page and reach Slava directly.
Nobody gets promoted for the training they meant to do.