NIKE SWIM

This was an undergraduate group project that was created in cooperation with NIKE Swim where we worked in a group to create "before, during, and after" looks for an aquatic sport.  My design group chose Synchronized Swimming and created a tracksuit, a practice swim suit, a swim parka, and a recovery compression suit based on the issues we found athletes in this sport have with their current everyday kit.  All of our information, designs, and prototypes were compiled and presented to NIKE Swim at Jantzen Swimwear for industry feedback.

My design group interviewed long-time synchronized swimmer, Michelle Miller, in order to get inside information about the culture of the sport.  Alongside her interview, we did outside research on synchronized swimmers bodies, habits, and regular kit for in and out of season wear.  Like synchronized swimmers, my design team decided to design to a musical theme; in this case, we chose the album Blue Neighborhood  by Troye Sivan.  Utilizing this musical theme, we designed three different textile prints to put on our garments.  Our ideation consisted of over two hundred different sketches and prototype garments of our final designs for this project. 

Before a competition meet, synchronized swimmers wear a team tracksuit.  Issues with current tracksuits reported by Miller are that suits get soggy if worn right out of the water from practice before competition, and in the summer months of competition and exposition, suits can be too warm to wear comfortably.  We chose to design fixes for these issues including a water-resistant textile change, and design features such as power-mesh panels for breath-ability.  During a practice meet, and sometimes in competition meets, synchronized swimmers use swim parkas and compressing practice swimsuits.  Issues reported with these items involved the hood of parkas becoming tacky with dried gelatin from swimmer's hairstyles; thus, we solved the issue by designing removable lining in the hood of the parkas for ease of washing.  Finally, as synchronized swimming is a tough, acrobatic sport that leaves swimmers with plenty of strains and sprains, we designed a muscle compression recovery suit to wear after practice or competition meets.  These suits are loose in the chest for deep breathing, but compressing in the lumbar spine, wrists & knee joints, shoulders, and groin area: all places that synchronized swimmers report common injury.