Lots Of Speedos On Swimmers.

[California Dolphin]

I've done a search for recent videos of college swimming and it looks like speedos are the preferred suit.

I tried to count the number of swimmers wearing speedos VS jammers and it looks like at least 90% of them are wearing speedos: :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7ofp2Uz14I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEn9ucw1dg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvZ9G8xqL7k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpWD3Eazlcc

[Minimalist75]

Don't know if it's high school v college or a change in the past 10 years, but when my son swam in high school, the young men mostly wore jammers and speedos were rare.

[California Dolphin]

Jammers look and feel just plain WEIRD and I suspect swimmers are getting tired of this annoying fad and going back to speedos.

I used to have a couple of jammers that I picked up on sale and I just wore them as underwear, but not as shorts.

They are the worst feeling thing I've ever worn and they produce chafing, accumulate sweat, and gave me a severe case of jock itch.

A prime example of "Good For Nothing" and I wound up throwing them in the garbage. :mad:

[Torchwatch]

I bought my first proper racing bike in 1984 and got Lycra cycle shorts and fingerless mitts to wear while riding. They felt right on a bike, my points of contact and the bike itself becoming one with me. Later that year I bought my first mountain bike and again rode it with Lycra cycle shorts and mitts.
In 1987 I did my first triathlon around Canterbury in Kent. I wore a tri suit for the event, a vest and cycle shorts suit with expansion zips down the legs for the run. I actually wore a shorty wet suit over it for the swim, it's cold in the sea in Whitstable, but stripped down to the tri suit for the cycle ride and run. I was comfortable in the tri suit on both these sections.

Later I bought some Lycra running shorts, they were made from only 4 panels (cycle shorts have 6 or even 8 panels) and I immediately hated them as soon as I ran in them. As a runner I'd always worn short split sided nylon running shorts and had enjoyed the feeling of freedom they gave. Although I was happy to run in Lycra running tights in colder weather I disliked the Lycra running shorts.

I bought some Lycra jammers when they came out and again disliked them compared to the Speedos I was then swimming in. They were less comfortable that classic 2" Speedos when in the water and being Lycra created considerably more drag. If I had bought seriously expensive sharkskin jammers they may have created less drag but worn very tight have been more uncomfortable. I went cycle camping in Northern France and wore the jammers around the campsite and between the campsite and the beach. They were more comfortable for walking about in the cycle shorts, but I didn't bother swimming in them.

In conclusion Lycra cycle shorts are good on a bike (much better than baggy shorts with a chamois liner), a Lycra tri suit works for a triathlon although not ideal for any of the 3 events, I personally dislike Lycra running shorts for middle to longer distance runs although they may be more suitable for sprinters and Lycra swimming jammers may look like the high performance sharkskin jammers worn at international level but they are less comfortable and perform less well than a simple pair of swim briefs.

Although I enjoy wearing Lycra and have sewn Lycra clothing from a thong to a full body suit I have also engaged in various sports and realise that each sport evolved it's own style of clothing that worked well until the 1990's when fashion took over.

[Swimmboy]

Most college teams compete in the brief Speedo style suits - I was at a tri-meet a week ago (three large teams from the U.S. East Coast) and every guy wore the brief suit - not one pair of jammers. BUT, the jammers are believed to be faster (smooth fabric, and hold thigh muscles in place), so jammers are preferred at the end-of-season conference and national championships - at those meets, probably 95% of guys will wear jammers. So if you want to see swim meets with guys in the briefer suits, you have just a couple more weeks - by mid-February, the conference meets will be taking place.

[California Dolphin]

I've been researching athletic suits for the past 10 years and it seems there's definitely a trend toward the pre 90's look and feel.

These videos are fairly recent and the shorter look is making a come back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkcZMgsVEgY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB3wigo8BB0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfO1cWaETN0

https://www.dhgate.com/product/men-tracksuits-men-track-field-games-sets/411813182.html

[California Dolphin]

Are jammers really faster?

Take a close look at this video and it doesn't look like there's a dime's worth of difference between speedo and jammer wearers .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKk2h9ZoidA

[Torchwatch]

Lycra jammers create more drag than human skin so wearing Lycra speedos will allow you to swim faster.
Jammers made from the sharkskin fabrics have less drag then human skin and will allow you to swim faster the more skin you cover. Sharkskin fabrics are very expensive, don't last long and difficult to get on and off.
Most student swimmers can't afford sharkskin for minor meets so have to choose between Lycra jammers or speedos.
Wearing Lycra jammers will at first glance confuse opponents into thinking you have sharkskin, but really nobody is fooled, so if you can't afford sharkskin you might as well wear speedos.

The Austin Allegro car was supposed to be a sporty saloon but the designers had an interior heater unit thrust upon them that was so large it forced them to raise the bonnet to accommodate it, changing the cars looks from sleek to frumpy. Since most cars in this class were already hatchbacks at the time the Allegro was launched the frumpy looking saloon with a small boot (trunk) was not popular.
In an attempt to salvage their honour Austin fitted the Vanden Plas version of the car with a Rolls Royce style radiator grill, it seems not many people wanted their already unpopular frumpy looking small car with a tiny boot to look like a Rolls Royce.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Allegro

So if you can't afford the really expensive option go for something small and sleek with good rear access

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Fiesta_(first_generation)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Golf_Mk1

[speedobilly]

The use of jammers for racing since the demise of those full body suits speedo and other companies developed has left me a bit puzzled. I occassionally see national and local swim events, and during warm ups and cool downs pretty much all the guys are in speedos. The variety of styles and colours is amazing to see these days. But come the events they all put on jammers, clearly not any special fabric, so there's more drag with the consequence of slightly reduced speed. Is this the "herd" mentality, or is there something else going on here?

[nacnimaj]

Tech suits that guys race in are not the same as lycra jammers. They have less drag and provide a ton of compression, both of which make you faster. Most guys only really use them for major meets.

[PSDave]

You hit the nail on the head. Jammers are just long legged lycra suits. The knee length competition suits are specially designed and constructed out of special materials that can actually improve a swimmers performance. The problem - all that technology is cost. Those suits can cost 4 times what the brief cut suits cost. Most schools or swim teams don't have it in the budget. They seem to only show up at events like the Olympics where the makers can get world wide recognition of their suits so they donate them. (subliminal commercials)

[California Dolphin]

"Suit Technology" is just one form of mechanically assisted swimming, so in addition to suits, why not allow flippers, webbed gloves, and snorkels?

Or is suit technology just an excuse to have men cover their upper legs - especially in swimming meets that are held in public view?

Furthermore, women swimmers don't wear jammers and their legs are fully exposed as they have been for over 60 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJcWQ3jBGIU

I'm not buying the "Faster" excuse and jammers are just a streamlined version of knee length board shorts that men always wear in public and they are the equivalent of "Leg Veils" or a "Male Burqua".

[midlifeswimmer]

At the high end races where the men are warring tech suits down to the knees, the women are as well.

[nacnimaj]

99% of the guys you see competing in knee-length tech suits on TV train and compete the rest of the year in brief-style suits. The televised meets tend to be important, though, so they pull out the expensive tech suit for those ones.

I guarantee that modesty is not a concern for them; they spend a massive chunk of their lives in briefs already. Go ahead a look up the various youtube channels or instagram pages of Olympic-calibre swimmers.

[California Dolphin]

Nope - Not Buying it.

Take a look at all the YouTube videos of competitive swimming and notice how they have very few viewers and no comments.

Most people are not interested in watching swimming and it does not provide much exposure for advertising by the suit makers.

[California Dolphin]

At the high end races where the men are warring tech suits down to the knees, the women are as well.
Huhhh???

Take a look at all the YouTube videos for women's swimming and not one of them show women wearing jammers. Furthermore, jammers are a unisex suit that women wan put on instead of the bottom of a conventional suit. So there's no need to buy "womens" jammers when mens will do the same thing.

[Mollyk]

The X and Y back suits for women made swimming much easier.

I have occasionally swam in a guys jammer with a rashguard. No big deal.