The Story Between Adidas And Shark Skin Bathing Suit

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After the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the technological content of swimsuit is getting higher and higher.

In order to meet the new rules of the fina, new products to replace shark skin have emerged.

Although the British national swimming team performed poorly in London Olympics, their swimsuit created another world record, the most expensive swimsuit in the world.

From the price point of view, the athletes of the British National Swimming Team wore 100 grams of gold (1679.00,6.10,0.36%) on them.

This kind of price is equivalent to the swimming suit material with the weight of gold, which is called "Impranil". It is a kind of coating that can be used on the fabric.

Adidas's plan is to use Impranil to retrieve swimsuit market which was robbed by Speedo 4 years ago in Beijing Olympic Games.

At that time, Speedo was still a small unknown company, but it took advantage of shark skin swimsuit technology to grab food, which made Adidas and Nike grow up.

This is a classic story of small size.

Comparison

And Nike, originally born in Speedo in Australia, is almost a brand specially produced for events. It can help swimmers break the world record every time the swimsuit's technology upgrading.

The third generation of Speedo shark skin born in 2007 is 15% higher than that of its similar products. The swimmer wore 21 times to break the world record in that year. By the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, the fourth generation Speedo shark skin became the world's first non wrinkle swimsuit, which was produced by high-tech fusion. 17 swimmers from 5 national swimming teams wore this swimsuit, and the world record of swimming was upgraded 21 times, including Phelps who won 8 gold medals.

It is also the Beijing Olympic Games that allows Adidas and Nike to be there.

A great loss of face.

Because many athletes have abandoned the previous two sponsors, instead of choosing Speedo products to participate in the competition.

In September 2008, Nike even announced the abandonment of the senior swimsuit market and stopped the related technology and capital investment.

Adidas is also uncomfortable.

The company is actually one of the first companies to develop shark skin bathing suits.

At the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, Ian Thorp, the swimmer of the time, was wearing Adidas's shark skin swimsuit. He won 3 gold medals and broke three world records.

Shark skin swimsuit originates from shark skin's particularity.

Sharks are swimmers in the ocean world with speeds of up to 14 kilometers per hour.

In addition to streamlined bodies, biologists have found that rough skin wrinkles on shark skin can greatly reduce the frictional resistance of water flow.

When the first generation of shark skin swimsuit was born, the resistance of athletes in water could be reduced by 3%.

Shark skin swimsuit has quickly become the "technology stimulant" in the swimming pools of various tournaments. For example, in 2008, the swimsuit helped athletes refresh the world record 105 times in the long pool and short pool swimming competitions, and brought the swimming competition into the unprecedented high-tech swimsuit competition. Speedo, a more focused technology and product development, also broke the market monopolized by the two giants.

The fina is aware of the seriousness of the problem, because it seems that the dominant factor of technology has violated the original intention of sports competition.

At the Dubai conference in March 2009, the fina announced 10 new swimsuit standards, including the thickness of raw materials for swimsuits, not more than 1 millimeters, and the content of polyurethane material was also greatly restricted. This material used to be the key to play the extraordinary role of shark skin.

Adidas saw the opportunity again.

The next few years are crucial to the company.

Usually after the end of each Olympic Games and before the next Olympic Games, it is the beginning of its important product development cycle.

This time, they need to face the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Unlike Nike, Adidas does not intend to give up the competitive swimsuit market and see it as an opportunity to embody technical strength.

The new swimsuit standards of the fina made Adidas's new product development plan urgent.

First, we must find the right materials.

Udo Muller, director of Adidas technology marketing innovation department, said the ideal materials should be lightweight, close fitting and recyclable.

Adidas came to all suppliers and partners, asking them to use all resources to recommend suitable materials, and Impranil was finally selected.

Due to the requirements of the fina for the use of polymer materials in swimsuits, Adidas must also consider using different technologies.

Another reason for the inclusion of Impranil is that it can be well integrated with fabric painting technology and is applied to the surface of the fabric instead of the past blending process.

Impranil is actually from Bayer company. It started from soccer in the field of sporting goods.

The 2012 European Cup officially designated game ball Adidas Tango 12 used Impranil.

The shell of Tango 12 uses Impranil, in this layer of raw materials and soccer.

There is only one layer of adhesive coating between the base layer to connect the two.

Each piece of "Tango 12" football shell is also heated with patented technology, which will not absorb moisture.

Even in heavy rain, the increase in ball weight is not more than 0.1%, achieving almost complete waterproofing effect.

This waterproof and "coating" feature makes Adidas decide to apply it to swimsuits as well.

According to the data provided by Adidas, Impranil can automatically store the energy of athletes in the process of athletes' tightness, and release them later, just like slingshots.

This material also has greater compression capacity, which can effectively fix the protrusions of the body and prevent unnecessary vibration of the muscles.

Compared with the old "shark skin" that can only be worn six times, Impranil can maintain its original performance after repeated machine washing and drying.

Udo Muller said that with the new technology and design, Impranil can also make swimsuits absorb less water by 32%, increase the energy output by an average of 5.3%, accelerate the short distance sprint speed by 1.1%, and reduce the oxygen consumption by 0.8%.

Adidas finally named this swimsuit "Adizero Gld2o", meaning that the weight of the bathing suit is almost zero, only 100 grams.

In the face of Adidas's new product, Speedo will not get caught.

So far, Speedo is still a niche brand, although its stores have also opened to the world, including dozens of cities in China.

The overall victory of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games has made it determined that it will not give up this great opportunity to display products, or even hope to enter the wider mass market with the help of this popularity.

Speedo, the lab for swimsuit products, is called "fluid lab". They work with many famous athletes including Phelps.

Before the London Olympics, Speedo launched a new swimsuit that took 55 thousand hours to develop.

Now it is not called shark skin, but it is called "fast skin 3" (FASTSKIN 3), which is the first to provide the members of the US, Australia and China national swimming team to try on.

In the limited open official data of Speedo, the new swimsuit can help athletes reduce passive resistance by 16.6% and reduce 5.2% of the initiative resistance.

Since the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, there has been a special situation in the swimming arena. No matter who the official sponsor is, many swimming teams in many countries are advised to ensure that swimmers have free choice of swimsuits, such as the United States, Britain and Australia. They must also block the Logo of non official sponsors.

In other projects, this situation is rare, and to a certain extent, shows the intensity of competition in swimsuit technology.

In other words, whoever wins the qualification of Olympic sponsor is likely to win the favor of swimmers.

This is also a balance game between "product technology lead" and "athlete's individual ability" after shark skin swimsuit.

Ryan Rochette, the American swimmer who won three Olympic gold medals, is an opponent of this game.

He has publicly said that if he can, he would rather choose the most primitive triangle swim shorts, "only in this way can we prove who is the best swimmer".

From the perspective of the development of science and technology, the combination of competitive sports and business, he is somewhat naive.

This technology war around swimsuit will probably continue for a long time.