Man, I was afraid someone would ask this question. It is a hard one for me to answer pesonally and "rpofessionally" (in a business sense because:
I love doing business with Aquaman- their U.S. distributor is local to us and I like Emmanuel, the nice guy who is the U.S. distributor. For us, our relationship with Aquaman is golden since they are 1 day UPS away from us and Emmanuel and done us some huge favors. I have a personal loyalty to him and his brand. They are also easy to sell (and get), which makes my life easier. Hey, I'm as lazy as the next guy...
I love QR because I do have an emotional attachment to them being the "originals" and for similar reasons to the above commentary on Emmanuel. I really like Karen Sing who used to be the Aquatics manager at QR. She has sinced moved on when ABG (who owns QR now) decided to move wetsuit sales operations to Tennesee where the bike operation is.
Also: The Aquaman Bionik and the QR Superfull are very, very VERY good suits. They are my favorite one piece suits. I have raced a fair amount in both. I did Alcatraz last year in a Superfull and a few other races in my Aquaman Bionik.
Here's the problem: I tried this two piece concept and I DO like it better. If Aquaman and QR come out with two piece suits will I try them? You better believe it! I will be angling for prototypes as soon as I hear they are on the drawing board. But right now, the only guys doing the 2 pioece thing and totally commited to it are De Soto T1. I would like to try an Ironman Fusion though, but I haven't even seen one. I bought T1s on a recommendation from the guy who invented the concept of the triathlon wetsuit. I figured that, along with requests from prabably six customers in 4 weeks (indicating there are probably a lot more out there interested but NOT asking), made me figure I would give a few of the suits a try. I made sure to buy one in my size. If I didn't like them, hey, I would just say.... "Ah, yeah, we have these. I'm not that into it but some people really like them, we also have Aquaman and QR, which is what I swim in...." The thing is, I DO like these. They are harder for me to get than QR or Aquaman since De Soto is farther away than Emmanuel here in Michigan (1 day UPS) or QR in Tennesee (still shipping out of CA, as I understand, but sales in TN which is in our time zone or 1 hour different) but it is worth the trouble IMHO. I am very impressed by these. I think we owe it to our customers to sell them. they represent, in my opinion, the best option for a trithlon wetsuit consumer. Read my review on bikesportmichigan.com when it goes up on Friday. I'm impressed by T1. I bought one...
Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com