Out of all the expensive items in triathlon, I would say a quality trisuit is probably the most deserving of a big price tag

Do you have a link?

Is this the suit @ $270?

https://www.amazon.com/...a-Race/dp/B07B41SBP3


$270 isn’t bad - yeah $350 seems high

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

https://www.orca.com/...kona-aero-race-suit/

Admittedly a nice looking suit, but the price tag is crazy.

It looks fast and comfy. Would be really nice to have.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

I got a Wattie Ink suit last year and was super expensive but no regrets. Look, fit, comfort and quality compared to other suits were well worth the price tag IMHO.

Why do you say that? My el cheapo weird chinese brand trisuit holds up just as well as my DeSoto $200+ trisuit. I haven't noticed that triathlon places hard demands on the trisuit - I've gotten to the point where I rotate that $200 DeSoto into my weekly training (it's now 9 years old!), it's not super delicate. Neither is the el cheapo which also gets worked in.

Check eBay. Last Fall I was selling PI Elite sleeved tri suits there (new w/tags), and they were going for ~$75.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

certainly a truely aero tri suit can be good speed/$

what i think we're missing is data to justify it. orca for instance make some vague claims about "minimal resistance" but what does that mean in and of itself, letalone by comparison to other "aero" suits (without even getting into the likely high individual variances)

most other equipment is now getting to the point where there is a reasonable understanding of what is and isn't fast, for most use cases. maybe suits will get there but they have more individual challenges

i'd struggle to justify that price without tunnel testing it against others myself which is not practical

If it doesn't say Kiwami on it I'm probably not buying it and a few of those are $300+

I don't think I would buy the Orca suit... Pretty sure it has no pockets. I need at least one on the back.

For that amount, I would go custom. Ownway Apparel will do a fully custom suit for $345 or $385, respectively, for varying levels of material. Both price levels are high quality. I’ve tried many brands (Wattie, De Soto, Castelli, Kiwami, etc) and the higher-priced Trisuit is the most comfortable, well-designed suit I’ve ever had (available in “regular” shortsleeve or the kind of shortsleeve trisuit where it is like a jersey attached to shorts)

Not really. I think most people underestimate how hard it is to design a suit. It's not just sewing some fabric together.
curved seams get treated differently than straight seams
do you build the arms to hand from the sides or in front
where do you put textured fabric for optimal aerodynamics and how much
how stretchy is it? too stretchy and it defeats the purpose, not stretchy enough and the suit doesn't move with you

$350 is pricey but not unreasonable

ETA: A manufacturer may prototype 4-10 suits before deciding on which one becomes the production model. Those R&D costs all get factored into the price of the production model

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
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I have that suit and I paid $280 last year for it.

Theirs are at $450 now. They've kept raising the price!! My road bike was $600 used and tri bike was $1100 used.
Can't drop $450 on a tri suit no matter how good they are. :-(

https://www.wattieink.com/...mens-tri-speed-suits

A good suit can be had for around $100-$150. 2XU and Tyr have decent suits in that price range. I bought two Castelli Suits on sale a three years ago for $130 a piece. They're still in good condition and I've used them for multiple races, training rides and swims, etc.

I'd like a Kiwami or a Wattie Ink suit, but it's simply not worth it for me. I do 2-3 IM 70.3s each year. If I'm going to spend money it will always be on my bike.

My experience is that tri suits show their wear very quickly. All the suntan lotion, skin lubricant, salt water, bodily fluids, etc., compile to distort the appearance and degrade the functionality. After a couple uses, that pleasure you get from a brand new suit is replaced by a sense of frustration at how crappy the thing looks. I feel a lot better about that when talking about a $180 vs $350 suit.

If you have entry level gear then ya $300+ seems like a lot but there is a ton of R+D that goes into these suits and the difference between a cheap suit and top end suit can be a bigger difference than training wheels vs race wheels so considering people spend thousands on race wheels, a well fitted suit can save more watts for a fraction of the price.

More isn’t always better as there are always things to take into considering with manufacturing ie. Wattie ink is $450 compared with Endura, Kiwami and Louis Garneau all being cheaper and also known as being much faster. Wattie you pay for comfort and patterns where others you pay for technology. Whether they are effective or not a lot of these high end suits have highly researched ribbing on the arms and all fabrics that better reflect heat.

Pros have even tested that a new suit is 6W faster than a suit that’s been used for a few races which really emphasizes the effect.

Sounds like the same arguement made for disc brakes...well the industry says they're better so...I've yet to hear anyone say they lost a race because of a trisuit. Now if we're talking a professional TT then you probably want top of the line to be on an equal footing and someone else is buying. For the 90% of age groupers, the $100-$150 suit will be just as effective as one priced $350-$500.

What’s your argument here? That 90% of age groupers don’t need an expensive suit? Couldn’t agree more! I would argue 90% of age groupers don’t need a disc or race wheels either. But the point isn’t whether everyone should get one but in fact whether the price is justified and just like a disc wheel, it’s justified but most won’t appreciate the benefits.

If your argument is no one has lost a race based on a tri suit you’re right, because anyone who is competing for a podium in all likely has dropped money on a decent suit.

Yep. If you could add up all the 6w savings you can get from premium priced items, you’d be pumping out an extra 50w, no problem.

i have a couple of roka suits, and a couple of wattie suits. both the wattie ones i got on a pretty good sale, so i didnt feel too bad dropping the money on them.

my personal opinion on the two, the roka suits are more comfortable for my size... they offer a small tall. i wish they would offer a few more colors or variants other than the straight black and the black / white / grey. wattie, just a small. aero savings? who knows.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

Most of my tri suits I've picked up over the years when I found sales...a couple by Quintana Roo, a couple by Pearl Izumi, and a couple by Rudy Project. Never had any complaints, and I think all were around $50, give or take. For my first Ironman, I treated myself to an "upgrade" to a Pearl Izumi Octane suit.

It's fantastic, super comfortable, very well made, and it's significantly better than any of the others...but no WAY does it justify the price premium.

It's like upgrading to the deluxe interior in a car. It doesn't make anything work better, adds quite a bit to the bottom line, but if you've got the money, by all means, treat yourself.

We blow all kinds of money on questionable upgrades, and a tri suit isn't near the top of the "bang for the buck" list, but it's not the worst investment, either. It all depends on your budget and whether or not you can justify it.

I know at least one pro that placed 5th instead of 6th at IM Hawaii bc of the differences in the suit he wore vs the person behind him. If you take the wind tunnel estimate / half to get real life results he still had 25% of total time gap on the line. Oddly that gap was about the difference between 5th & 6th on the bike.

It's about the fit of the suit & how it's made. A textured suit like the Kiwami Spider will almost always be faster than say the Kiwami Prima. Now it could be 1w or it could be 12w

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta