Ep. 74: Speedo

Textile Innovation

This week’s guest on The WTiN Podcast is Dr Jan Blenkinsopp, head of research and development at Aqualab (the innovation arm of Speedo).

Based in Nottingham, UK, Speedo created its first swimsuit in 1928, and has since helped to pioneer Lycra swimsuits. It has also developed the controversial Fastskin Racing System and contributed to countless gold medals at the Olympics and other competitions.

In this episode, Blenkinsopp introduces ‘the most intelligent swimsuit of all time’: Speedo Fastskin 4.0. This ‘concept swimsuit’ has been developed with forecasted technological advancements in mind to create a suit that could lead to an improvement of up to 4% across sprint events by 2040. Here, Blenkinsopp talks about the technologies involved such as artificial intelligence, energy harvesting fabrics, and bio-engineered materials, all the while discussing the financial and manufacturing feasibility – and whether it would actually be race legal.

To find out more about Speedo and Aqualab, visit www.speedo.com