New Wave of Suits

Barry Bixler is a computational fluid dynamics expert. He spends most of his time designing jet engines for Honeywell. “Basically, I’m a rocket scientist,” he said.

And he doesn’t go near the water much. “My idea of swimming,” the Phoenix resident said, “is a floating chair with two cup holders.”

Despite his landlubber habits, Bixler is an important player in the competition to develop and produce high-technology swimsuits that will help elite swimmers shave precious milliseconds off their times in competition.

Inspired by his daughter’s swimming career, Bixler put his scientific knowledge to work as a consultant for Speedo, the sportswear company that dominates the lucrative market for performance swimwear.

Speedo and TYR, a privately held company based in Huntington Beach, have spent millions of dollars on research and testing of suits, goggles and caps to help Olympic swimmers realize their gold-medal dreams.

Each company produced high-tech suits that stirred controversy before the Sydney Olympics, and each has come up with a next-generation model that swimmers are trying out as they prepare for the Athens Games.

The suits produced before Sydney were disdained until swimmers wearing them began recording remarkably fast times.

USA Swimming, saying the suits weren’t widely enough available, threatened to ban them at the 2000 Olympic trials even though they’d been approved by FINA, the sport’s international governing body.

Speedo, which reportedly had trouble producing the suits, didn’t fight the ban. But TYR filed a grievance contending that Speedo had used its dominant position to block the suits’ use. After TYR and Adidas promised to supply suits upon request, USA Swimming backed down and allowed swimmers to wear the revolutionary suits.

“There’s a whole gray area of what constitutes a swimsuit or a bike helmet or a tennis racket,” Bixler said. “We’ve had wooden tennis rackets and fiberglass and now composite. We’ve had Speedo suits that were the little skimpy ones and full body. It’s a gray area, but it seems more sports are allowing for these advances.”

The body-hugging models worn in 2000, Speedo’s Fastskin and TYR’s Aquapel, provided extensive coverage, in contrast to the men’s tiny trunks and women’s thin tank suits.

Speedo says 83% of Sydney swimming medalists wore its suits; TYR cites the accomplishments of its sponsored athletes: two silver medals won by Slovakia’s Martina Moravcova, two golds by Ukraine’s Yana Klochkova and a silver by Erik Vendt of the United States.

Speedo, which is owned by the apparel giant Warnaco, says it has about a 70% share of the competitive swimming market and about $1.3 billion annually in sales.

TYR (pronounced “tier”) was co-founded in 1985 by Steve Furniss, a two-time Olympian. TYR also makes recreational swimwear and accessories and produced the red swimsuits worn by the cast of the TV show “Baywatch.” It has about a 22% share of the competitive swimwear market. Nike and Adidas rank a distant third and fourth.

Both companies say their research led them to a new understanding of how various forms of drag affect speed. Each touts its new design as the fastest on the market.

Speedo’s new suit is the Fastskin FSII, which the company designed to mimic the shape and feel of a shark’s skin, using different fabrics in different places based on how rapidly water flows over that part of the body.

The Fastskin FSII comes in gender-specific and stroke-specific models. The zipper on a backstroker’s suit, for instance, is on the front, and breaststrokers’ suits have more give around the hips to accommodate their kick. Full-body suits will sell for about $350, training suits for about $80.

Speedo-wearers include Grant Hackett and Michael Klim of Australia, and Americans Jenny Thompson, Amanda Beard, Lenny Krayzelburg and Michael Phelps.

Phelps, who has been promised a $1-million bonus by Speedo if at Athens he matches Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals, has become a company spokesman.

“He always makes sure to say there’s nothing magic about this [so] that if you wear it you’ll be able to skip morning practice and not listen to your coach,” said Stu Isaac, Speedo’s vice president of team sales and sports. “I know some kids will buy it, but we don’t encourage a 10-year-old to wear it.”

TYR’s new suit is the Aqua Shift, the product of studies done at the University of Buffalo’s Center of Research and Education for Special Environments.

“It reduced overall drag between 15% and 20%, as opposed to suits that try to reduce friction drag,” said David Pendergast, a professor of physiology and biophysics at the university. “These small changes translate into a 1-to-3% increase in speed or decrease in time.”

Working in a doughnut-shaped pool, Pendergast and his team identified three types of drag: friction drag, or the force of water as it passes over the body; pressure drag, which results from the body pushing water out of the way; and wave drag, the turbulence created by water flowing over an object.

Their four-year, $4-million project showed that if a suit could increase friction drag, the stronger forces -- pressure and wave drag -- would decrease.

To accomplish this, they came up with fabric-covered tubes called turbulators, or tripwires, and placed them at strategic points on the front and back. Suits will sell for $110 to $240. Caps will cost $15.

“It’s the same technology used in race cars and jet planes,” Pendergast said. “This is just the first time it’s been used with water.”

TYR suits come in four styles, all without sleeves, because Furniss said athletes told him sleeves restrict their movement.

Still seeking ways to get swimmers through the water faster, TYR developed the Aqua Band, a tight-fitting forearm sleeve. However, FINA has not approved it.

“You sometimes have a challenge as a smaller player,” Furniss said. “Our primary competitor is Speedo, and they have a lot of influence in the political arena. They have a full-sleeve suit.

“[FINA is] trying to classify it as a device. We contend it’s no different than a full-sleeve suit with a treatment on the forearm.”

Speedo has focused on passive drag, which affects a swimmer after the initial dive and after a turn.

“We’ve reduced passive drag by 4%. Some media have jumped to the conclusion the swimmer will therefore be faster by 4% and that’s not true. It depends on how smooth the stroke is,” said Bixler, who formerly worked with TYR. “Some of our competitors might be willing to predict velocity changes. I know some of the TYR people. We’re going to let the pool determine the winner.”

The Counsilman Classic meet this month was the first major test for both suits. A Speedo spokesman said at least 90% of the finalists wore its suits, with 50% choosing the FSII and 40% wearing the Fastskin. It said close to 90% of swimmers at the Olympic trials in Long Beach in July will wear the FSII.

According to TYR, Moravcova wore the Aqua Shift in winning one race and finishing second in two others.

Furniss said he expects the Aqua Shift to gain popularity as the Athens Games approach.

“Athletes are very superstitious, and there’s a long process for them to get used to new suits,” he said. “Some [swimmers] are more adventurous than others.”All involved in the process said they’d feel part of a great achievement if a swimmer wearing their company’s suit ascends the podium in Athens.

“It’s like when NASA first sent guys to the moon,” Bixler said. “There were thousands of people involved in getting them there, but it was one person who stepped on the moon. It all comes down to one race in the Olympics. It will be a fun moment.”