Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Larsen Jenson and Erik Vendt are wearing the 'Speedo LZR' but they are not signed with Speedo

From the L.A. Times today: "... [Erik Vendt] is wearing the suit he feels is the fastest in the world, not because there is any deal pending," said Evan Morgenstein, Vendt's agent. "I'm hoping to have something for him but there's no guarantee."

"... Stu Isaac of Speedo, however, said talks are ongoing with Vendt and Jensen. ..."

They also bring up Cullen Jones who says he is sticking with Nike and makes it clear that he appreciates them as well. [Link]

I have a feeling that some time after this Olympic year, the Speedo LZR is going to be deemed illegal just like the TYR Aquashift was. In my opinion FINA is now being confronted with the fact that they have seriously alienated a myriad of companies over their meek definition of the word fabric. (Speedo, I believe, has mixed or layered in urethane within their fabric. Hence, is it fabric anymore? Is the neoprene on the blueseventy fabric? I don't know?

There is a lot of FINA sponsorship dollars involved here and those alienated companies might begin to think that the triathlons and triathletes might be a better investment than swim meets and swim stars. In fact, sports agents may suffer over this too. If TYR isn't signing, and NIKE isn't signing, then there goes their "bidding wars."

I think FINA will soon begin to feel their pain in the form of fewer sponsored meets and lots of corporate acrimony for the investment dollars they have been summarily lost will not be taken lightly.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

in the today l'equipe, they made an article about a test they conducted with roxana maracineanu a former french world champion in 200 m back . they tested the three naw suit : the r-evolution from arena , the racer rice de tyr and the lzr racer from speedo . very interesting article. l'equipe did not put the article on line. i could scan the article and translate it for you if you are interested.

Tony Austin said...

I would post it. I would post anything from you. You have been my best source for French swimming

Anonymous said...

i will scan it this weekend and translate it for next week.

Tony Austin said...

That is so kind of you. I am very flattered that you would do that. Thank you.