Although karate uniforms look nice, they do not truly look complete without karate belts. You can recognize the meanings of the different karate belts by remembering the following:
• The first stage of karate belts features the white belt with one black bar.
• The second stage includes a belt that is also white, but has two black bars on them.
• The third stage moves the martial artist away from the white belt and onto a yellow belt. The belt is nearly all yellow, but includes one black bar. This belt gives a different look to karate uniforms than a white belt does.
• After this yellow belt has been obtained and you have done all required to move on, you will then receive a green belt that you can wear with your karate uniforms.
• The brown belt is obtained in the next stage (once the requirements have been properly completed).
• The next phases include a brown belt with one black bar and then a brown belt with two black bars.
Once things get to this point, the belts start to be a little more interesting. When a person gets to the highest ranking of Dan, he or she is able to obtain a black belt. This black belt is kept and it represents the highest belt color a person may obtain to wear with karate uniforms, but that does not mean that the martial artist's progression stops.
There are six degrees of black belts that a person can obtain. Even though the color of the belt on karate uniforms will not change, this does not mean that there will not be a change in the demeanor of the person who continues to progress.