Today's the Age of Performance Sportswear

Nike pays Rafael Nadal more than $ 3 million every year to wear its designer clothes. Nadal, by ritual, adjusts his shorts at the seat before he serves. You might think Nike with all the money that it pours into sportswear is incapable of designing Nadal a ‘comfortable’ pair of shorts. Or, Tendulkar for that matter, as he has a habit of adjusting his bread basket before every ball, you’d believe Nike can’t design a comfortable paor of track pants! As with Nadal, it is more a ritual with Tendulkar.

Here, I take a look at the advancements made in the field of performance sportswear. I will refrain from getting into the design specifics of Sharapova and Wozniacki, but will concentrate on swim suits instead.

Swimming is a sport where world records are broken again and again. Many a time, a world record doesn’t stand more than a race. Last year 108 world records were broken.

It is also a sport that is faced with many drug scandals. International Swimming Federation (FINA), the governing body, also has the headache of minimizing the influence of technology in body suits and their apparent influence in inflating the swimmer’s performance.

Performance Sportswear is specialized branch of study. LZR revolutionized swim suits like never before.

Earlier in the year, 31-year-old Swede Therese Alshammar broke her own world record in the 50-meter butterfly category in the Australian Championships in Sydney. She was disqualified for wearing two LZR swimming suits. While it was legal until the week before the race, the rules were changed since, and a negligent world record holder was disqualified.

These suits apparently form an air pocket between the skin and suit which provides a better body position in the water, thereby greatly enhancing the swimmer’s performance.

The suits are constantly monitored for their material (more the non-permeable material, better the performance. It is currently restricted to 50% to the swim suit’s total surface area) and rules change thick and fast. Of course, all swim suits are tested by FINA for clearance.

The rules change so much and so often that some people are caught napping. It was a case of swimming in troubled waters for Alshammer!

Swimsuits might be designed for performance enhancement. So are cycling and football jerseys, for better aerodynamics like a Formula1 car. It is the age of technology, and next time someone can’t back to defend a cross quickly enough, be sure to refer them to LZR.