I took 3 wetsuits to Taupo for IM: A DeSoto T1 (admittedly my favorite), a Quintana Roo Superfull and an Orca P-Flex that I got there in Taupo. I tried each on in the lake before race day to determine the one I liked the best.
One thing I can tell you is that, while Ironman Wetsuits may be the official wetsuit of the Ironman Triathlon Series- and they are a fine wetsuit- Orca waged a brilliant campaign of guerilla marketing in Taupo.
They won the hearts and minds of consumers in NZ.
Orca did it this way:
The location of the Orca store was on a main street and highly visible in Taupo. Our bus went by it on the way into town. The Ironman booth at the expo and in the athlete village was not visible from the street. Big mistake by Ironman. Huge move for Orca.
Orca did a classy job of competing with other wetsuit brands. They spoke highly of their competition but also managed to sell the attributes of their suits. They were very assertive about offering demonstration swims also.
The Ironman booth at the expo and athlete village stood empty during off hours, but the Nike/Ironman Merchandise tent across from the Ironman booth was open sometimes when the Ironman booth was closed. This was a goof by Ironman. They should have been open and staffed every hour the Nike merchandise tent was open. It was bad for people to walk by the empty booth. When the Orca store was closed, the door was shut and the other surrounding businesses were clearly closed also. It wasn;t like everyone else was open and they were closed. That was the impression some people left with about Ironman. One person asked me, “Why isn’t anybody in the Ironman Wetsuit booth?” The person was walking out of the Nike merchandise tent at the time.
Orca did an intersting job of sidestepping the Ironman licensing requirements for selling event specific merchandise. They were selling a commemorative fleece top that simply said “Taupo NZ, 2004” on the front and had the event distances on the back. It was subtle and understated. It quickly became the hot, “cool” insider thing to have. Everbody in town wanted one. Orca was selling them by the box. I think one reason was that they were somewhat understated and devoid of all the “M-Dot” logos everybody is so accustomed to seeing. There was an aire of “coolness” or some sense of being “in the know” if you had the Orca stuff, whereas the IM stuff was similar to what we are used to seeing (although I still bought an official IM New Zealand M-Dot Nike ACG fleece jacket and bunch of T-Shirts for all the guys here at Bikesport at the official M-Dot merchandise store.)
In short, Ironman wetsuits may have won the battle to be the official wetsuit and the battle to have exclusivity within the athlete village, but I think they lost the war in terms of customer’s perception of what the best wetsuit and clothing is- at least that was the impression I was getting from the many people I spoke with on the topic in Taupo.
As I didn’t go to IMNZ I cannot give an objective opinion BUT from what I read the marketing guys at ORCA did their homework.
Lets face it it is a tuff market and most wetsuits are so close together in performance that you can almost say the best 4-5 wetsuits will give the same swimmer the same time! The market is like a cake. There is only so many slices you can take and eat. ORCA is obviously aiming to take a nice big slice. Good on them! I admire a company with “intelligent” people running it.
BTW I am using an IronMan VO2 wetsuit in case someone thinks I’m biased. But where there is credit due for getting it right it is due! O I wear JUST Orca clothing - awesome range!
When I did IMNZ in 2002 Orca took over what I believe was a ski shop and turned it into a wetsuit and apparel store. They had staff there to help with fittings and encouraged people to try the suits in the water.
But their master stroke was the “Killer Deal” on Predator suits. The deal was buy a fullsuit (at a discounted price) and get a sleeveless free. I think it was NT$395 for two suits. I got fitted to the suits and tried them, and both were improvements over the wetsuit I’d brought with me to NZ. It was such a great deal that it’s probably the only time my wife has ever encouraged me to spend money on something I didn’t technically need.
When I got back home I sold my old QR suit for 2/3 of what I paid for the two Orca suits, so it couldn’t have turned out better.
Of course, Orca came out with the Preditor 2 suits immediately after IMNZ, so the killer deal was a savvy clearance sale we didn’t know about at the time, but I’m still very happy with the suits I got there.
The event? Well, first we had a great time and that’s what it should be about. The trials each day were very successful and we had a lot of perceptions changed on what is the best suit in the water which is what matters to most athletes. Talking to the 200 who swam in the trial suits we learned more about what they are looking for but it was just good to share stories and concerns about the race. I’m not sure I agree with that you’re right saying the “customer’s perception of what the best wetsuit” is. Certainly worth noting, perhaps, the Stealth was worn by Cameron, Clas, Bjorn and Gordo (that’s 1/2/3/4) plus 2/3/4 overall in the women’s event, plus a host of AG athletes who did their best - I also managed a finished which was against the odds!
To provide a bit balance I just wanted to clarify the following 4 points:
We’re on the water each morning with test suits and inside the expo and yet you don’t come by to get a suit to test despite saying you would. It’s a shame as it would have been useful to get your comments. Our suits aren’t perfect for everyone (I know we lost one sale to someone who preferred the P-Flex) but aside from that person, people who swam in the Stealth (and Instinct) saw the performance benefit and went with it.
The booth on the Domain was open on the Tuesday and Sat/Sun but closed the rest of the week as the bulk of the business was either in the expo or waterside each morning. Nike was dead in the expo and live outside but we flipped it and most of our traffic ended up inside
We, Ironman Wetsuits, cannot make official gear for the event - that’s Nike’s role (and their licence). To compare Orca to us for that is compare the local Ford dealership to your store - it’s a different product. Orca do make nice stuff, but (see point 4) we could knock out some nice fleeces with Wildflower on them and sell a load, but it’s not the right thing to do, again see below.
As regards Orca’s approach - ethically we abide by event sponsors. If someone pays to sponsor an event then I don’t believe it is right to push things to the wire and reap the benefits without having supported the race - we could gatecrash Wildflower and do to DeSoto as Orca do to us, but we don’t, and this is something I spoke to Emilio about. I just don’t think it is the best thing for the sport long run as if the event is not worth sponsoring then we, and other sponsors pull out, leaving a gap for organisers to fill. We will never hijack races though will say in a sport with few dollars I’m just disappointed you approve of guerrilla tactics.
Congrats to all those who did the race - it was one of the best I’ve done. See you all at the next one.
Yes Sir, I was absolutely remiss in pointing out the following:
Ironman Wetsuits did an excellent job at the following:
They were at the swim start each morning demoing wetsuits. Additionally, they were helping anyone with any brand of wetsuit learn how to wear their wetsuit correctly.
One morning when it started to rain during the morning swim the Ironman guys produced umbrellas (I am not kidding!) for everyone at the swim. They sold the umbrellas for probably less than what they paid for them (about $3 U.S. I think) and they are very nice. I have one! I really appreciated that. I used the umbrella all week. They are cool too, they have the Ironman wetsuit logo on them.
Ironman wetsuit staff worked as wetsuit strippers in the transition area on race day. They all did a fine job.
Ironman wetsuit gave an excellent demonstration of how the strippers would work in the transition area at the pre-race meeting. I think for a lot of athletes at the meeting this was important information.
Ironman matched other wetsuit company’s promotions and also had a substantial sale on their apparel both in the expo itself and on the tent in the athlete village.
I didn’t mean to suggest that Ironman did a bad job or was in any way deficient. I meant to illustrate the innovative marketing tactics of a competing wetsuit company.
As I mentioned, and another poster on this forum pointed out, they are all fine suits.
The very first full suit I competed in was an Ironman wetsuit at the 1997 Ironman Canada where I went 1:04 and change for the swim. That was a fine wetsuit. I raced in it many times.