How To Choose A Technical Swimsuit: A Step-By-Step Guide

Gear Advice | March 13, 2016

Step One: Before you begin, prepare yourself mentally for sticker shock. Tech suits are a temporary investment with a limited life. Choosing the suit that is right for you or your swimmer starts here: decide on your budget but understand most tech suits start at $100 and move up swiftly. Take a deep breath, you are paying for the research that went into the individual suit more than the materials and manufacturing. Step Two: Try them on or get fitted. Some retailers will have a selection of suits specifically for fitting, and if they don’t, they should have someone available to measure and help fit you. In addition to this, you can talk to friends, other parents, and older swimmers on your kid’s team, to see if they have one that you could potentially borrow to try on. Remember, never buy blind. Step Three: Research. Talk to other swimmers about what they like and why. Read online reviews. The more information you gather the less likely you will be disappointed in your purchase. This includes visiting each manufacturer’s website or catalog to read about suit specifics. Narrow down what qualities are most important to you. Women, you have a harder task, since there are multiple back, neck, and leg styles to choose from. Most of the choices boil down to personal preference, but some may be event or stroke related. Men have it a bit easier with only having to contend with different tech suit leg styles. Make sure your suit is FINA approved - if it isn’t, you risk disqualification. FINA approved suits are all marked with a white emblem resembling a scan square. Step Four: Test it out pre-event. Wearing your suit once before your big meet will not ruin it, but it will give you the opportunity to get comfortable with the way it feels in the water. Go through all your strokes, turns, and dives so there are no surprises. Step Five: If all else fails start with a lower end suit and work your way up. The information out there can be overwhelming, but you can always upgrade as you determine your needs. There are some outstanding basic/beginner tech suits available, and they are considerably more budget friendly.