In the Swim?

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Speedo’s sleek LZR Racer swimsuit only debuted in February, but already it has helped set 48 world records.

In fact, many of the swimmers who will compete at the Beijing Olympics in a couple of weeks stopped at Speedo North America’s headquarters in the City of Commerce to get fitted for their special suit. That’s probably no surprise; the head of the U.S. Olympic swim team’s governing body encouraged his swimmers to get the high-tech suits. Some Olympic athletes have ditched their swimsuit sponsors or broken their country’s endorsement deals so they could swim in the LZR Racer.

The LZR Racer has not enjoyed a splashless entry. Some purists have taken issue with the suit. And a competitor, TYR Sport Inc. of Huntington Beach, filed a lawsuit against Speedo’s owner alleging an attempt to monopolize the performance swimwear marketplace, among other allegations.

Still, the Commerce-made suit has made a remarkable splash. The suit reduces drag by 8 percent compared with suits used during the 2004 Olympics and 10 percent compared with 2000. The material is faster than human skin in the water.

When world record holder Jessica Hardy put on a Speedo LZR Racer suit and pushed off the wall, she said she went twice as far in the water as she had in her practice suit.

“The suit is absolutely amazing,” said the 21-year-old from Long Beach who holds records in the 50-meter breaststroke and 400-meter medley. She is now a Speedo-sponsored swimmer.

The swimsuit is the product of four years of research by the global Speedo Aqualab design team conducted at Speedo’s nondescript building along an industrial boulevard in Commerce. (The company will move into new digs downtown at Los Angeles Center Studios in the fall.)

A team of 10 started by examining every aspect of a swimsuit with the aim of reducing drag in the water.

“Immediately following the 2004 Games, we put together a group of athletes and coaches,” said Katie Wilton, Speedo director of merchandising.

Rather than putting swimmers through the rigors of drag testing, Speedo went to a Hollywood special effects company to build mannequins as exact replicas of sponsored swimmers, such as Michael Phelps. Meanwhile, NASA scientists lent their expertise to help with drag testing on different fabrics and scientists employed computational fluid dynamics principles used by Formula One drivers to further reduce drag.

Once the right fabric was chosen, Wilton knew that they had to find a way to get rid of seams that held prior suits together. The company found a factory in Portugal capable of ultrasonically bonding the panels together. That meant construction of the suit would be outsourced halfway across the globe instead of in Speedo-owned factories in Mexico where the suits used in the 2004 Games were assembled.

“In testing, the ultrasonic bonds were stronger than the material itself. The suit would rip before breaking at the seams,” said Wilton.

The LZR Racer has only three panels, compared with 30 panels used to construct the Speedo Fastskin suit used in 2000.

While the team was figuring out the technology, performance team member Milo Ritchey used a 3-D system to scan 400 swimmers so the suit would fit a wide range of body types. The suit was produced in more sizes than traditional lines so that athletes can have a tight fit. Designer Raquel Jones worked on the look of the suit because the appearance is important to athletes’ confidence.

The tight fit makes it a challenge to put on. It takes athletes approximately 20 minutes to get into the suit and they don’t take it off until after the race. Tearing the suit can be an issue because of its fit and the thin material. The material does have some give and will not restrict movement or breathing.

For Hardy, the Long Beach native, that means building extra time into her pre-race routine and hoping that she does not have any problems once she puts it on.

“One time, the zip-up back split open right before my race,” recalled Hardy.


Unfair advantage?

The technological improvements made in the LZR Racer have stirred controversy in the sport.

The Italian national team coach told the Associated Press that wearing the LZR was “technological doping.”

Hardy sees both sides of the issue.

“It is advantageous for us as athletes because we are confident knowing that we are in the fastest suit ever made, but the technology is taking away from swimmers’ achievements,” Hardy said.

The lawsuit filed by the Huntington Beach company, TYR, claims that Speedo has too close a relationship to USA Swimming, the Congressionally conferred governing body of amateur swimming. And that relationship was underscored because of the success of the LZR Racer.

Larry Hilton, an attorney representing TYR, said USA Swimming has hired Mark Schubert, a Speedo-paid endorser, to coach the U.S. Olympic swimming team. TYR contends that Schubert has used his influence to promote Speedo’s products.

“We want to compete on a welcome playing field,” Hilton said. “We have serious issues on how they promote that product in the marketplace.”

The lawsuit’s initial phase is scheduled to be heard in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Sept. 15.

Swimwear competitors worldwide have had to deal with the popularity of the suit among athletes. Nike Corp. allowed several of its American athletes to swim in the Speedo suit at the U.S. Time Trials in Omaha, Neb., rather than require the athletes to use its performance suit.

Last month in Japan, top swimmer Kosuke Kitajima sparked a controversy by requesting to use the suit. The Japan Swimming Federation relaxed restrictions saying that swimmers must compete in Japanese-designed suits and Kitajima promptly set a world record in the 200-meter breaststroke. The country will allow all of its athletes to compete in Beijing using the American design. Share price for the Speedo distributor in Japan spiked 25 percent since the record setting performance.


Commercial appeal

Southern California is home to the swimwear apparel industry. Speedo’s suits, however, fit into a niche category of performance suits. The category is more of a functional category compared with traditional swim apparel such as bikinis that are designed to be fashionable.

“Los Angeles is the capital of swimwear,” said Ilse Metchek, president of the California Fashion Association. “Unfortunately it hasn’t been marketed as such for 14 years. We used to have the most important swimwear show in the world. For the most part, businesses remain here and swimwear design is done here.”

For Speedo, the business challenge is translating elite success into a commercialized product that appeals to the average swimmer. The brand recognition helps push retail sales of other products.

Traditionally, high performance racing suits are only sold through specialty retailers and over the Internet. In an unprecedented move, the country’s largest sporting goods retailer, Dick’s Sporting Goods, committed to a trial program selling the suit on the rack. The suits will sell for $550 each.

“It will bring competitive swimmers into the store to look at the suit,” said Matt Powell, an analyst with SportScanInfo. “If stores create a buzz, the swimmers might buy something else when they are in the store.”

SportScanInfo has been tracking market share for the $300 million competitive sportswear industry and has seen Speedo’s share increase to 62 percent of the market, up from 54 percent since January.

Meanwhile, Wilton and the team of designers are excited to see athletes perform at Beijing. They are, however, already drawing up plans for the next Olympics.

“There is always new technology and new science. We can learn from the process and help swimmers achieve further goals,” Wilton said.

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