Yet another thread about the suits...

The advantage they give is really to the suit manufacturers who now can take credit for the swimmer's success by claiming that he/she won a Gold Medal while wearing their suit. I remember when pro athletes (such as swimmer Mark Spitz) got their mugs pictured on the Cheerios and Wheaties boxes and they could take credit for their success as being the "Breakfast Of Champions". As big a pain-in-the-behind as this suit technology thing has become, I've got to admit that it's turned out to be one of the most clever marketing gimmicks of all time and it's making the suit companies big $$$. :applaud: The bad thing is that there are a lot of your Average Joe swimmers who are burning through their budget to buy one of these hyper-expensive suits. :shakeshead: Dolphin 2 I'm quite sure that when they announce medal winners in Beijing they will say "Michael Phelps, USA" not "Michael Phelps and Speedo." Because all the swimmers will have these suits the achievement is still credited to the athlete - as it should be.

Kirk, I think you may have misread the articles. From the one's I read, they used neoprene as an example of "non-woven" material that maybe used in suits with the new definiton of fabric. Polyurethane is mentioned in the LZR several times but not neoprene. People keep saying neoprene. The Blue Seventy Nero Comp is a lycra suit coated with Yamamoto SCS, a slippery rubber-like substance. But it isn't neoprene. That coating appears to be widely used in competition wetsuits. Google and you shall see. I don't think the LZR uses neoprene either.

The LZR sells for $550, but how much does it really cost to actually make one of these hyped-up tech suits? When you can buy a sophisticated electronic device such as (an iPod or an iPhone) for at lot less than the price of an LZR, it's quite obvious that Speedo is making a HUGE profit off these suits. I've seen the inside of a major U.S. garment factory (American Apparel Inc. in downtown Los Angeles) and an LZR couldn't cost more than $15 to make in an automated factory. At $550 retail, they are being marked up by a factor of 36.66. :doh: Who is the parent company of Speedo? They've got a bigger mark up on their product than the oil companies (that people are always accused of "exploiting capitalism"). Since this tech suit craze has taken off, I'm thinking of buying stock in the company!!! :banana: Dolphin 2

People keep saying neoprene. The Blue Seventy Nero Comp is a lycra suit coated with Yamamoto SCS, a slippery rubber-like substance. But it isn't neoprene. That coating appears to be widely used in competition wetsuits. Google and you shall see. I don't think the LZR uses neoprene either. Ok, I was wrong. The information I was looking at was referring to the PointZero suit. So, I screwed the pouch on this arguement. Here is one question for the blueseventy fans...are all their waterskins legal for pool use or just the Nero Comp?

15 to 20 years ago, if you needed a swim suit (-IE- a pair of briefs), all you did was run down to Macys and pick up one for $12 and that was it. College and high school athletic departments could buy them wholesale for $9 each. Back then, the suit was just a minor issue and no one paid any attention to the brand of suit the swimmers wore. ??? Really? In college ('84-'88) we wore nylon suits for practice and special paper suits for meets. Exclusively Speedo and provided for us. That was over 20 years ago. In high-school we wore Finals lycra team suits for meets and nylon training suits for practice ('80-'84). My USS team suit (nylon for practice and special lycra for meets) was Arena. They came out with some kind of special rubber type suit I wore to one CIF meet my Junior year of high-school. That was 25 years ago. Lycra suits came out when I was swimming summer-league at about age 11 or 12. I never once went to Macy's to get one. We went to the sporting goods store to choose from the 2-3 major brands. Wearing a special kind of suit for meets has been a common practice in the swimming world for awhile now...

I see no reason an Average Joe swimmer can't buy one if they wish. I agree, especially if you consider the amount of time we invest in the sport (both in the pool and on this forum). An Average Joe may spend several hundred dollars on a single golf club.

You have no idea how much profit or loss Speedo is making on these products. I would venture right now they are running a huge loss as they are giving many away and advertising like mad and you can't buy one retail, for the most part. I think it's a loss leader for them. Notice all the publicity around the LZR. Speedo is getting their brand associated with high performance and technical excellence.

Even if it were neoprene - no big deal. Neoprene is a synthetic rubber. It is used to make fabrics waterproof (like inflatable boats). When used in wetsuits it is "foamed" so it traps air and creates thermal insulation (the primary purpose of a wetsuit). A by-product, not always desirable, is flotation. On the profit issue. I bet Speedo's out the door manufacturing costs are not close to the retail price. High end sporting goods (tennis, golf, etc.) are commonly marked up 100% at retail. The LZR is new so Speedo probably is capitalizing on the publicity and may also be motivated to recover R&D costs. NASA ain't free. I don't think the comparison to an iPhone is appropriate. It's true cost is far higher because AT&T subsidizes it (as they do with all phones). It is also mass produced in an overseas factory, priced to sell in 7 figure quantities. Apple hopes to sell 10M iPhones this year. I happen to believe (with no proof) that the profit in a $550 suit must be significant. But if the B70 and Tracer are equivalent at $150 less, many people will buy the others. I can afford a LZR but won't buy one. I might buy a B70 next spring.

Good point. I've wondered if some Speedo flunkie has trolled this thread and just marveled at all the free pub they get. If they haven't they've missed a great market segment: Yesteryears fading stars clutching to their former glory by shelling out a mortgage payment to go .001 faster, and look 30lbs thinner! OK humour aside, I think they would have noticed. Many masters are good earners with the $ to spend on a recreation whether it's golf, bowling tennis or swimming. Why not get some money away from Joe/Josephine's iron and wood collection and make him/her spend it on a suit?

What do you think? Bunk.