Technical Suits

Why Are Tech Suits Effective?

The secret behind the swimming tech suit is the design. Instead of hanging loosely around your body, tech suits are tight-fitting and compress to your muscles. This helps reduce drag while you’re swimming.

Men’s and women’s tech suits are designed slightly differently. Men’s tech suits only consist of shorts. Women’s tech suits look like one-piece bathing suits that end at the knee. Women’s tech suits compress to the whole body while men’s tech suits only compress to the leg area.

Can you wear tech suits for everyday swimming? These swimsuits are only recommended for occasional training and competition wear. The material is not meant for multiple swim sessions.

The Benefits of Wearing a Tech Suit

There are many reasons why tech suits improve swimming performance. Here’s why they’re worth the investment.

Hydrodynamic

Tech suits are made of hydrophobic material. In other words, this material doesn’t absorb water. This helps reduce drag while you’re swimming, resulting in faster swim performance.

Your swim speed suit also won’t weigh you down. You’ll swim higher, improving your performance.

Body Compression

The tech suit features body compression benefits. While the suit fits tightly, the compression compacts your muscles and improves blood flow.

Your body will dispense more lactic acid and metabolic waste during your race. All of this will help improve your performance.

The compression will also keep your body narrower. This increases your speed.

Mental Benefits

Tech suits are professional and designed for competitive swimmers. You’ll feel better in a tech suit. While you should always practice before a race, wearing a tech suit will increase your confidence and will help boost your performance even more.

There are also tech suits made in a variety of different styles. While you can settle for a basic black tech suit, you'll be able to express yourself better by wearing a tech suit adorned with stars, a floral pattern, and other fun designs. There are also tech suits available in a variety of different colors, perfect for swimmers of all styles.

You'll feel more confident wearing a fashionable tech suit, helping amp up your performance.

How to Know Your Tech Suit Size

Tech suits are meant to be extremely tight. That’s why many first-time wearers struggle to find the best size. The best course of action is to choose a brand and a manufacturer. Take a look at their sizing guidelines.

When you find your size, take a few minutes to try the suit on and get used to the compression.

How to Maintain Your Tech Suit

Tech suits aren’t made for longevity and they can difficult to maintain. For best results, only wear them during races. If you want to train with your tech suit, only train with it the day before your race.

Only wear your tech suit when you’re competing. Rinse the suit in cold water immediately after taking it off. Always leave your tech suit air dry — never place your tech suit in the dryer.

Most Popular Tech Suit Brands

To ensure you get a quality tech suit, buy one from a brand you trust. Here are some good examples.

Speedo

Speedo is one of the most famous swimwear brands in the world. They make everything from bathing suits to swimming accessories such as goggles. It’s no surprise that they make high-quality tech suits.

Speedos tech suits feature maximum compression for enhanced speed and power. They use triple fabric construction to maximize the compression and increasing the longevity of the suit. Unlike other tech suits, Speedo’s tech suits are flexible for enhanced comfort.

Speedo also constructed their tech suit by taking influence from the ocean’s most notorious predator: sharks! The tech suit uses micro vortices, which are inspired by shark skin to reduce drag.

TYR Sport

TYR Sport specializes in swimming gear for competitive swimmers and triathlon athletes. TYR creates its tech suits on a microscopic level, using ultra-smooth fiber to create a durable and frictionless fabric.

This results in less water absorption, better speed, and better performance.

Their unique fabric better supports the legs and abdominals, helping increase distance per stroke. Your body position is better streamlined, improving your race performance even more.

Arena

Arena is the leading brand choice for Olympic and world champion swimmers. Arena swimsuits are not only hydrophobic but also lightweight, providing more comfort as you swim as well as less drag.

Arena also uses enhanced compression material while still offering plenty of range and flexibility. 

FINIS

FINIS works with Olympic swimmers to perfect their tech suits. They not only strive for enhanced performance but also aim to ensure you get the perfect fit. FINIS tech suits are also durable but lightweight enough to easily glide in the water.

In both male and female suits, there’s a single layer of panels on the inner thighs. This not only improves your range of motion and speed but also enhances comfort.

LZR

LZR is another brand that specializes in competitive swimwear. Swimmers love this brand because they focus on your comfort and achieving the perfect fit. These tech suits are also made to reduce muscle oscillation.

Other Considerations

When choosing a tech suit, make sure you keep your swimming techniques and race type in mind. For example, if your race involves freestyle and breaststroke, find a swimsuit that’s made with seams around the leg muscles.

You’ll also want to find a tech suit that’s FINA-approved. FINA has strict standards for the tech suit style as well as the material, the thickness, and surface treatment.

The Tech Suit Styles of Different Olympic Swimmers

There are many competitive and Olympic swimmers who wear specific tech suits. Get information for your next tech suit by seeing which suits your favorite swimmers wear!

Ranomi Kromowidjojo

Ranomi is a Dutch Olympic swimmer and has three gold medals. She currently wears the Arena Powerskin Carbon Series and was one of the medalists who tested the Carbon-Ultra model.

Sarah Sjostrom

Sarah is a Swedish competitive swimmer and currently holds a world record for the 50-meter freestyle, the 100-meter freestyle, the 200-meter freestyle, the 50-meter butterfly, and the 100-meter butterfly. She is one of the most versatile swimmers, specializing in many swim techniques such as the butterfly and the backstroke.

Sarah also wears Arena tech suits and even has her own line with the company.

Pernille Blume

Pernille Blume is a Danish swimmer who won the 2016 Summer Olympic Championship in women's 50 m freestyle. Pernille is currently on Speedo's roster.

Matt Grevers

Matt Grevers is a six-time Olympic medalist and competes in backstroke and freestyle events. Grevers is famous for wearing TYR racing suits; Grevers is 6'8" and TYR is one of the few brands that makes tech suits for swimmers his size.

Buy Tech Suits for Your Next Race

Tech suits will help make you faster and will improve your performance in your next race. But you need to buy the highest quality suit. We offer plenty of options for men and women. Shop with us today!