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Sawk and Throh shown in their "clothing"

As seen above, the two Pokémon Sawk and Throh have on what appears to be karate gi uniforms. Gameplay-wise, when a Throh or Sawk is bred through the Daycare, the baby Throh/Sawk will always be born with a karate gi on.

What I am curious then is, is the gi an actual layer of clothing they wear? Or is it a part of their actual body, like Jynx?

2 Answers 2

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The Black Pokédex entry on Throh mentions they use vines to make their belts which would indicate that at least the belt is clothing.

When it tightens its belt, it becomes stronger. Wild Throh use vines to weave their own belts.

On a similar note the White and Alpha Sapphire Pokédex entries for Sawk mention about tying their belts but doesn't state that they make them. We can probably assume they are clothing from this though.

Tying their belts gets them pumped and makes their punches more destructive. Disturbing their training angers them.

However, it is worth noting that the official Pokémon site revealed that Machoke and Machamp don't wear clothes and it is just part of their skin. It even states that Pokémon don't wear clothes at all which does conflict with the above somewhat.

Sayaka: It may look like Machoke and Machamp are wearing underwear, but they’re actually not wearing anything. What looks like underwear is just a pattern. After all, Pokémon don’t wear clothes to begin with, right? ‘It’s not wearing anything!

Sora News 24, Official Pokémon site reveals bizarre yet amusing secrets about Fighting-type Pokémon Machamp

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    “After all, Pokémon don’t wear clothes to begin with, right?” So what the heck are we doing with the dress up portions of Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee? Aug 16, 2019 at 13:14
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    @Thunderforge: Lots of people put their pets in stupid outfits, but pets normally don't wear clothes.
    – Kevin
    Aug 16, 2019 at 15:32
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    Whilst most Pokémon are naked, some are confirmed to be wearing clothes. Sewaddle makes clothes for itself out of leaves; Leavanny also makes clothes for Sewaddle, and for any other small Pokémon it finds. And whilst Machoke's "underwear" is part of its body, the belt seems to be separate.
    – Showsni
    Aug 20, 2019 at 18:53
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Apparently they were going to put Sawk in Detective Pikachu but when they showed the design to the Pokemon Company, they informed them that the gi was indeed Sawk's skin so they scrapped his design and didn't put him in the movie because they didn't want to give him a skin-gi.

Nordby says there were about 25 Pokémon that were cut during the process after being deemed too complicated to translate. The martial arts fighter Sawk, for example, was discarded when animators failed to agree on the texture of its judo-inspired outfit. “For Pokémon, what might feel like clothes is actually skin,” he says. “We would have hour-long conversations trying to wrap our heads around that.” https://time.com/5582906/detective-pikachu-pokemon-visual-effects/

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