Custom Wetsuits

[torrancesurfer]

I have a friend that is starting a custom surf wetsuit business.

Basically you go online, put in your measurements and they will ship you a fully custom wetsuit (possibly customized color combos too) in under 2 weeks. If it doesn't fit, they will remake it, and if its just something you really didnt expect, you can return it. The quality will be comparable to an Xcel X-Zip with, GBS seams, liquid taping, Sheico neoprene, YKK zippers. Price will be $350 shipped to your door.

What do you guys think?

[surf patrol]

I think custom wetsuits are great. Off the rack is all well and good, but if you want a really great fit then a custom is the way to go.
I would have thought that the wetsuit market is a tough one to crack though, good luck to him.

[Irationmon68]

If you want something like that to work I feel like you would have to be able to customize the colors, but sounds good. When first starting let him know not to make his profit margin to big so that he can spread the brand faster.

[torrancesurfer]

The wetsuit market is extremely tough to crack, you have all the big dogs like Xcel, Ripcurl, Quicksilver that are billion dollar companies. The thing is wetsuits are a very small percentage of their business, its mainly become marketing wars between the big guys. The nimble small guys are coming in (Matuse, Isurus, etc) and thats where all the innovation is Yamamoto neoprne, geoprene, etc.

The way my buddy hopes to innovate is through custom fit and colors (something like this http://nikeid.nike.com/nikeid/index.jsp), which I thought was a good idea because I had to not only settle for colors but go through numerous wetsuits to find the right fit. If he can make a solid product, it would work I think. The big guys I assume would have little interest in making 1 suit at a time when they can import 50,000 at a time and distribute.

[Capt Nemo]

Most of the big companies have gone out of the custom business. Harvey's, Henderson, ect, do it for big bucks! Back in the day, custom was pretty much all they did at the same prices of stock suits today.

Go for color!!! Most old manufacturers used to have around 20 colors. And I'm sick of black, black and more black!

Make womens suits look like womens suits, and not like mens! The old french cut womens suits were awesome!

[Exuskin]

We have a customer who's doing that in Spain. http://www.hottieswetsuits.com/ We developped some wetsuit for them, from our 3D design to the finalized digital patterns. Don't hesitate to visit their website or to contact us if you're looking for wetsuit pattern making and 3D design at http://exuskin.com/