Speedo, the world’s leading swimwear brand, has today stepped into the future to unveil Fastskin 4.0, a concept swimsuit based on the company’s vision of how swimwear will look in the year 2040.
The brand, which launched the Fastskin series 20 years ago and transformed the sport is again leading the way and pushing the boundaries of innovation within the swimming world.
Created in partnership with its research & development team Aqualab, Speedo has looked at the evolution of current swimsuits and combined them with forecasted technological advancements to create a suit that the brand predicts could lead to an improvement of upto 4% across sprint events by 2040. Such improvements could see the men’s 50m freestyle record finally break through the 20-second barrier and could also see the women’s 100m Breaststroke time finally fall below the 60-second mark.
The Speedo suit of the future focuses on three key areas of innovation: customisation, speed performance and sustainability.
Fastskin 4.0 isn’t just a tailored fit – it’s entirely customised to every muscle, micrometre, and colour preference of the athlete. Crafted with 3D scanning, AI prediction, and 3D bio-engineered printing, the suit also features customisable compression, and adaptive buoyancy cells that push what is possible in the pool to a new limit. If the suits of 2021 fit like a glove, then this suit fits like it was printed onto your body.
With AI that monitors vitals and live coaches athletes mid-race, the Fastskin 4.0 will be the perfect companion for a swimmer looking to go as quick as possible by helping to correct technique and ensure they are at the right pace.
Supporting this is an in-built exoskeleton that flexes for explosive power, snap and maximum amplitude; an adaptive bio-engineered surface which replicates shark skin for optimum flow through water; and a core reactor that equalises the body position for added hydrodynamics and streamlining – things are about to get a whole new kind of fast.
This suit is not just designed to be better – it will be grown. Fastskin 4.0 is crafted with bio-engineered, genetically modified bacteria that means 80% of the suit will biodegrade once finished with. But before that, the 80% recycled material construction is created for easy disassembly, repair, and upgrades to keep it winning. And with energy harvesting fabric, this suit powers itself, converting every race into energy.
