Yes this is another thread about the suits.
I think Speedo completely shot themselves in the foot with the LZR Racer suit. If you look back at the history I think they've shown a tremendous amount of arrogance and I, for one, am glad to see karma come back to bite them.
Here's a short history as I see it:
1. Speedo develops the LZR suit and begins an unprecedented marketing blitz at the start of 2008. We're talking TV ads, appearances by Phelps and Coughlin on the Today Show wearing the suits. It was pretty clear Speedo wanted the LZR to be the story of the Olympics, and for the most part they got their wish...
2. Top athletes start wearing the LZR and records fall in droves. Speedo has seemingly accomplished their mission of designing the suit that every serious swimmer needs to have to compete. Paid shill and USA Swimming National Team coach Mark Schubert talks about how the suit is the greatest thing since sliced bread. The suit, however, is not available to the general public.
3. The Olympics go just as Speedo intended. Phelps wins eight golds wearing the suit. The average Joe on the street even knows about the suit. It still isn't available to the general public, though, and demand continues to grow.
4. At the same time, somewhat surreptitiously, several other manufacturers come out with new suits. These fly completely under the radar for a while, but the serious fan can see that the LZR isn't the only fast suit out there. Also, these other suits are actually available to everyone AND are cheaper than what the LZR will cost!
5. The Speedo suit finally becomes available to the general public. I'm sure demand was high initially, but I just never saw it gain huge acceptance outside of National level athletes, college teams endorsed by Speedo, etc.
6. The Blue Seventy Nero emerges as a worthly contender to the LZR and sells like hot cakes. People initially buy it because Speedo attempted to manipulate the market and drive up demand for the LZR. This strategy fails when people realize the B70 is probably just as fast, available, and cheaper.
7. Speedo runs crying to FINA. They convince FINA to impose news rules on suits that will lead to the B70 suit being banned, while allowing the pure, snowy white LZR to remain legal.
8. The Jaked suit from Italy first comes to the attention of the U.S. market when Auburn swims lights out on the final day of men's NCAAs to nip Texas. It's star rises further when a largely unknown swimmer from Spain destroys the 50 meter fly world record and nearly takes down what is considered one of the greatest records on the books--Crocker's 100 fly--which, incidently is one of the few remaining records set without the aid of the latest generation of suits.
9. Speedo's paid shill Mark Schubert flip-flops and is now against the suits.
"It's totally out of control... Now we're into speedboat driving.'' (newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/.../ioc-must-stop-swimming-from-sinking-in-its-leaders-stupidity.html) Or maybe he's only against non-Speedo suits. It's not really clear! :)
I think that about sums it up. The bottom line is Speedo thought they could corner the market with the LZR. They failed because they didn't see other manufacturers coming in to fill the void with cheaper and maybe better suits. I also think they made a big gaffe by pricing the LZR just a little too high. Most people were not willing to shell out $550 for a swimsuit especially one that's only good for a few swims .
Am I missing anything?
I think that Blue Seventy actually started the whole mess at the 2006 Ironman -- they came out with swim "legal" suit and blew away the competition. I think Speedo may have started their new design research at that time.
Legal for triathlon might require a bit of additional explanation here. In triathlons, you can wear a wetsuit in water that is 77 degrees or colder. In 78 degrees or warmer, technical suits are the way to go. At Ironman Hawaii, the water temperature is typically over 80 degrees, so wetsuits are out. I haven't been paying attention the last couple years but I'm sure B70's and LZR's are in vogue...
Superb conspiracy theory, which I actually agree with. The one thing I see you may have missed is that the LZR, from what I have heard, is extremely short-lived, getting quickly stretched out after a meet or two. In contrast, the B70 lasts much, much longer. So not only is the latter initially cheaper, but it lacks the planned or unplanned obsolescence of the LZR. This, more even than the initial price differential, is a huge advantage.
Speedo has a history of this kind of thing, at least in my mind. When I was younger, all their suits were nylon and would last forever. Somewhere along the way, they switched to Lycra Spandex, which was the most miserable excuse for a swimming fabric you can imagine outside of maybe Kleenex or wood.
Within three weeks of wearing a perfectly fitted Lycra suit, especially if you made the mistake of going into the hot tub after practice, your urological apparatus became more or less shrink-wrapped in form fitting and largely dye-depleted see-through material. Even if you were of the temperament not to mind such exhibitionism, it forced your disgusted teammates to hem and haw their way into suggesting it was time to get a new suit.
Until competitors came out with polyester alternatives, I am convinced that Speedo would have happily wracked up profits forever on this quick turnover cycle of expense-obscenity-threatened morals charges-new expense suit sales formula.
All this being said, I will give kudos to Speedo for their 70's era swim suit catalog models whose comeliness provided my adolescent morph with no shortage of motivation.
This whole story has the makings of a good magazine piece. Too bad we don't have a writer on this board. :)
America's vaunted "free press" notwithstanding, story ideas that expose the unseemly side of actual or potential advertisers tend to fall by the wayside.
Not quite sure why.
I think that Blue Seventy actually started the whole mess at the 2006 Ironman -- they came out with swim "legal" suit and blew away the competition. I think Speedo may have started their new design research at that time.
From 2006 Ironman:
at the morning swim today sporting the new Blue Seventy pointzero3 Swimskin. The eye-catching skinsuit is built for the swim from Lycra and a 0.3mm fabric that yields the same surface properties as neoprene—but the compression means there's no buoyancy. It's crafted using Blue Seventy's Helix pattern, essentially a figure 8 turned on its side, with Lycra used in the Helix portions of the suit. Blue Seventy's Tim Moxey brought the spanking-new suits over from the Mainland for athletes including Stadler, Heather Gollnick, Bryan Rhodes, Mitchell Anderson, Karen Smyers and Linda Gallo. "There are 18 of them in the world, and 16 of them are here," he said this morning. Of the fabric, Moxey said: "It's over 50 times more slick than skin and four times more slippery than the other swim skins on the market."
That sounds about right. I was a little concerned last year with all the LZR hype. It was like the media were just relaying Speedo's press releases to us. There's even a section on the Wikipedia page about 2008 Olympic swimming titled "LZR Racer suits", as if the other suits (Tracer Rise, for example) didn't even exist. But now everything is good because Alain Bernard raced in a LZR, called it an "old suit", and partially blamed his loss on it.
Touche to the triathletes!
They ALWAYS go for the latest - greatest - and FASTEST!
When this suit hit Kona, no one blinked - and everyone was PSYCHED!
The Hawaii Ironman is always on the cutting edge of swim, bike, and run technology.
GREAT energy and vision.
And... the most beautiful fragrant flowers of any race!
I think in another thread someone said that B70 is a new suit. Isn't it just the old Ironman renamed?
Perhaps they meant that they (B70/old Ironman) are now, as of 2007, getting into pool suits?
:agree:
Thanks, I wrote about suit stacking in Aug 2008 Tip 219 Stacking Tech Suits also I think there are earlier cases of suit stacking but they flew totally under the radar.
I tested suit stacking on Saturday Aug 9th, 2008 practice
At the time I did fast 50 frees at the end of most practices.
My 50's at Mabel Davis were usually between 24.6 - 24.8, in that practice while wearing 2 blue seventy suits I went 24.28.
At olympic training camp after trials I think schubert told the team to wear LZRs. Can't remember his exact words.
I've always been a proponent for swimmers to test different tech suits to figure out which one allows them to swim the fastest. I think some swimmers chose too quickly & didn't test enough.
Good points. I forgot one of the first reasons FINA reacted was because of "suit stacking."
With regard to Schubert, I don't really know. To be fair, he didn't so much endorse the LZR last year as state that it was a game changing suit.
