Dan says the 2XU wetsuits have a floating zipper. Their website says a whole bunch of stuff about a floating back panel.
I haven’t a clue what that means. Can someone explain?
Dan says the 2XU wetsuits have a floating zipper. Their website says a whole bunch of stuff about a floating back panel.
I haven’t a clue what that means. Can someone explain?
well, i was going to invite you to come be guest judge at some witch trials. guess that’s out now.
lol! That’s funny. Not enlightening, but funny.
Well, this is the info from their website:
BACK PANELS (MAIN LATERAL AND LOWER BACK)
Fundamental panels many other wetsuit brands underestimate. 2XU have engineered a back panel structure which is strong enough to contain the rigid zip, withstanding the punishment of constant use, but more importantly flexible enough to interact with the underarm panel, and allow the zip to float with body movement. This is achieved by the one piece floating zip panel, no seams so less restriction. The floating zip back panel enhances flexibility of our back panel which allows the zip (by construct non stretch) to move in partnership with the body, especially during the recovery and catch phase of the stroke – when your arm moves through the largest motion from beside your hip to entering the water in front of you, requiring the wetsuit to stretch along your back and shoulder. The 2XU floating back panel also has the advantage of contributing to better expansion of the chest cavity, therefore reducing restriction to the breathing motion. The less flexible 5mm front flotation panel is complemented by the hyper flexible 1.5mm underarm panel and 3mm back panels to promote core expansion and breathing.
i don’t quite get it, though. maybe the idea is that this part doesn’t stick to your skin?
rubber stretches. zippers don’t. the idea is to isolate the zipper as much as you can from the rest of the wetsuit by nesting it in a neoprene pattern piece that has no seams except where this pattern piece connects with the rest of the suit. we basically did the same thing at QR, except that we had a left and right pattern piece inside of which nested the zipper. the 2XU suit simply gets rid of that longitudinal seam that QR’s wetsuits historically have had that travels from the zipper base to the butt. the more you get rid of these seams, you get rid of impedance. you need to get rid of as much of this as you can in the back of the wetsuit, since the zipper has no elasticity.
that fact that zippers do not stretch is a major issue in wetsuit design. if you can engineer around this, you’ve done something important. hence the T1 design, which detaches the zipper from the base of the back. this means that during the swim stroke, the recovering arm isn’t fighting the non-elastic zipper.
other companies employ their own tactics for solving this problem. the floating back, or floating zipper, is 2XU’s way of dealing with it.