My suit prediction

This makes good sense. But the suit manufacturers already have suits in production. B70 just announced it was releasing new suits in Nov. and Speedo has the new LZR Pro. Will these new suits, which make an attempt (I guess) to be "permeable" be history if Lefty's prediction is accurate? Any predictions on how quickly FINA will issue a ruling/statement after it meets in Jan.? Interesting to note that Speedo has really made out like a bandit with the timing of the rules implementations. The big crunch for suits last year was feb/march when the LZR was still the "best" suit. They lost out in the summer to better suits, but again based on the timing of the rules change it seems there will be a vacuum in feb/march that Speedo is prepared to fill. I am glad that B70 is prepared.

I think it is going to end up that anything goes in terms of material, but coverage will be regulated. There is too much ambiguity in the definitions of permeable and textile. I think it will be jammers for men and short-johns for women.... If I could go back I would have load up on $25 FINIS amphibians... After all the mess that tech suits have created, it will be hard to "Get all the worms back in the can" -and the lid sealed shut. But, FINA and USMS is going to have to start someplace. By the way, I was told by a local fisherman that a spatula works quite well for scraping up worms. :bump: D2

This makes good sense. But the suit manufacturers already have suits in production. B70 just announced it was releasing new suits in Nov. and Speedo has the new LZR Pro. Will these new suits, which make an attempt (I guess) to be "permeable" be history if Lefty's prediction is accurate? Any predictions on how quickly FINA will issue a ruling/statement after it meets in Jan.? I had not heard that about B70. I was going to buy myself a LZR Pro jammer but now I'll get the B70 instead (as long as it is of comparable quality). B70 has been great to Masters swimming and my biggest regret with respect to favoring a tech suit ban is that it would force this very swimmer-friendly company back out of our market.

Wow, yet another thread about tech suits! More prolific and annoying the a host of Disney kids who not content with being on TV all the time..now want to be pop stars too... Jesus I feel old and grumpy today...:badday: Moderators: Can we please open up a new section on the forums called "Techsuit Debate"...with a click to ignore/close button...some of us are just not fast or interested enough to care--this way I won't even have to see the regurgitation of the same thread over and over... PS. It's called Association Football. Grumpy old man! We just want to know what suit to wear and have our own preferences. online.wsj.com/.../SB125721159786824325.html

But the suit manufacturers already have suits in production. B70 just announced it was releasing new suits in Nov. and Speedo has the new LZR Pro. Will these new suits, which make an attempt (I guess) to be "permeable" be history if Lefty's prediction is accurate? If the suit manufacturers are smart, they should do their level best to convince FINA that there is a "middle" ground - namely the one suggested by Lefty - form factor regulated, but material not. They could do this by trying to meet the FINA rules head on and not try to circumvent them at all, while still throwing in as many material innovations as the rules allow. This lets FINA not lose face and not feel threatened as the regulating body. At the same time, it opens the way for a dialog about why suit innovation is desirable (and non-threatening) and allows the suit companies to continue production of new (and more expensive) suits. For a suit manufacturer, this new technology is critical to revenue growth since there is only so much you can do with lycra and polyester and you can't count on massive growth in the number of participants as your revenue increase mechanism. That said, B70 is being clever here. They "get" that open water swimming is a relatively untapped market -and a growing market - and that they have expertise from their wetsuits that cross-markets pretty well. Doubly true in that the open water market is much less regulated WRT to suits, both at the FINA level and at all the other levels where FINA has no jurisdiction. If Speedo, Tyr, etc stay solely focused on the fight over pool suits, B70 will stake a large claim to the OW market before the others wake up to what is going on there. Fascinating, really. -LBJ

Wow, yet another thread about tech suits! More prolific and annoying the a host of Disney kids who not content with being on TV all the time..now want to be pop stars too... Jesus I feel old and grumpy today...:badday: Moderators: Can we please open up a new section on the forums called "Techsuit Debate"...with a click to ignore/close button...some of us are just not fast or interested enough to care--this way I won't even have to see the regurgitation of the same thread over and over... PS. It's called Association Football.