The two most common martial arts practiced in North America are karate and tae kwon do. Most practitioners in both karate and tae kwon do seem to wear the same type of white gi uniforms with various colored belts.

Modern traditional karate was developed in the islands of Okinawa in Japan. The colored belt system was developed to show the various ranks of karate practitioners with white depicting novices and cenosphere (with various degrees) representing instructor levels and higher.