Multiple perspectives behind super swimsuit

At the European Championships in swimming in Holland Alain Bernard keeps impressing everyone with his astonishing performance. But the centre of attention is actually not this formidable swimmer but rather his Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit. Bernard and other swimmers using it keep wiping out old world records - nine have been set this year and all of them by athletes wearing this swimsuit that Speedo introduced last year.

Swimmer Michael Phelps, who has been involved in the development of the product, claims that it will take the sport of swimming to a new level. Other athletes describe it with words such as "out of this world" or "like swimming downhill". This, of course has stirred some discussion; some argue that it should be forbidden while others mean that this is the same inevitable development that we see in so many other sports.

Whatever the outcome of this debate will be the ultrasonically welded and hydro-dynamically advanced swimsuit is interesting from an innovation perspective. Judging by the superlatives of the athletes it clearly represents a technical breakthrough. And behind breakthroughs we have learned to expect intersections, right? Therefore I was not surprised when I looked into it and found that Speedo really has brought together perspectives from several fields in the development of the swimsuit. Involving an athlete like Phelps is a rather obvious move, but Aqualab at Speedo has also harnessed the expertise of NASA and several other international research institutes. They have also cooperated with ANSYS and made use of their software for F1 racing. On top of this they have also intersected elite performance with avant-garde fashion through the involvement of international fashion label Comme des Garcons.

The three years of intense research and development that Speedo has spent on the swimsuit at this multi-intersection really have paid off. At least from an innovation point of view. The debate about fair play will probably continue in the build-up to the Olympic Games in Beijing where the swimsuit could have its real breakthrough - my guess is that everybody will want to swim downhill in pursuit of the medals.

/Kristian Ribberström