Speedo International Limited is an Australian-British distributor of swimwear and swim-related accessories based in Nottingham, England.
Founded in Sydney, Australia in 1914 by Alexander MacRae, a Scottish emigrant, the company is now a subsidiary of the British Pentland Group. Today, the Speedo brand can be found on products ranging from swimsuits and goggles to wristwatches. The Speedo brand was previously manufactured for and marketed in North America as Speedo USA by PVH, under an exclusive perpetual licence, which had acquired prior licensee Warnaco Group in 2013. In January 2020, the Pentland Group purchased back the rights from PVH for $170 million in cash, subject to regulatory approval.
In accordance with its Australian roots, Speedo uses a boomerang as its symbol. Due to its success in the swimwear industry, the word Speedo has become a known trademark for racing bathing suits.
History
Speedo Knitting Mills
Company founder Alexander MacRae emigrated from Loch Kishorn in the western Highlands of Scotland to Sydney, Australia in 1910. Originally working as a milkman, he founded MacRae and Company Hosiery four years later, manufacturing underwear under the brand name Fortitude (taken from his family crest). The Australian Army's need for socks during World War I provided MacRae with enough business to expand and in 1927 his first line of swimwear, called a "racer-back costume" was introduced. The following year, a naming contest held among the MacRae staff yielded the slogan "Speed on in your Speedos." The brand name was born. The contest winner, Captain Parsonson, was awarded £5 for his slogan and the company was renamed Speedo Knitting Mills.
The controversial yet revolutionary racerback style's open shoulder and exposed back allowed greater range of motion in water and was quickly adopted by competitive swimmers, despite being banned by some beaches. In 1932, Speedo made its Olympic debut when 16-year old Australian Clare Dennis won the Women's 200 metre Breaststroke at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. After nearly being disqualified for "showing too much shoulder" in her regulation silk Speedo brand swimsuit, Dennis went on to set a world record time of 3:06.3. The 1936 Berlin Summer Games also saw some controversy as the men's Australian swim team featured shirtless swim trunks for the first time. Also in 1936, Alexander MacRae became involved in the Surf Life Saving Association. To this day, Speedo continues to support the Australian volunteer organisation.
Post-War expansion After devoting most of its resources to the War effort during World War II, Speedo enjoyed a great post-war demand for swimsuits, specifically the recently invented bikini style. The company quickly reestablished itself as a leader in swimwear manufacturing and once again drew controversy when its two-piece was banned by Australian beach inspectors. In 1951, Speedo Knitting Mills (Holdings) Ltd. incorporated and went public, selling its stock on the Sydney Stock Exchange. In 1955, nylon was used for the first time in the company's swimsuits and the next year, the increasingly popular swimsuit brand returned to the Olympics when its home country hosted the Melbourne Summer Games. The Speedo sponsored Australian men's swim team took home eight gold medals and brought a new worldwide level of notoriety to the company which debuted the swim briefs that would become synonymous with the brand name. By 1957, Speedo had the exclusive licence to manufacture and distribute Jockey brand men's underwear in Australia. The company finished off the 1950s by exporting to the United States and exploring potential opportunities in South America, Europe, New Zealand and Japan.
The end of the 1950s also saw the beginning of a long-lasting business partnership which continues to this day. In 1958, Speedo began the manufacture of American Warnaco's White Stag ski-wear line. In exchange, in 1961, White Stag became the exclusive US distributor of Speedo swimwear. Through White Stag, Speedo's product line expanded to include men's and women's sportswear. By the middle of the 1960s, Speedo had acquired 30% of Nottingham, England textile manufacturer Robert Shaw & Company and had established a European subsidiary. Licences were also granted to Japanese and South American corporations. The 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics saw 27 of the 29 gold medalists—22 of which set world records—wearing Speedo brand swimsuits.
Speedo began the next decade by completing its acquisition of Robert Shaw & Company in 1971. The 1970s also saw the company pioneer the use of elastane (spandex) and the brand's use in Olympic record breaking continued at the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal games, the latter of which Speedo was an official swimwear licensee.
On Australia Day, 26 January 1981 the Australian Institute of Sport opened in Canberra, with Speedo as its first official sponsor. Also early in the decade, Speedo provided equipment and training to China to aid the communist country's return to the Olympics for first time since 1958. Throughout the decade, the brand expanded its reach in Europe by licensing production in Italy, Spain, Sweden and other nations, bringing its total distribution to 112 countries.
Modern technology In 1990, British sportswear firm Pentland Group, which had just sold its shares of sneaker company Reebok, acquired a significant stake in Warnaco offshoot Authentic Fitness, which was the exclusive North American licensee of Speedo. Pentland followed this move with the purchase of 80% of Speedo (Europe) Ltd. Early the next year, Pentland completed its aggressive entrance into the global swimwear market by wholly acquiring Speedo Australia and Speedo International. Under Pentland's ownership, Speedo expanded its line of swimwear to include more fashion-oriented beachwear as well as triathlon accessories.
The 1990s saw the creation of the low-drag S2000 suit, the chlorine resistant Endurance line as well as the Aquablade series which was worn by more than three-fourths of medal winners at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games.
Speedo began the 21st century with the introduction of its Fastskin swimsuit and, again, broke world records when the Summer Games returned to the swimwear leader's home town. The company website boasts that 13 out of the 15 swimming records broken in the 2000 Sydney Olympics were by athletes wearing Speedo. Three years later, Speedo celebrated its 75th anniversary with special limited edition lines endorsed by Jerry Hall, Naomi Campbell and others. In 2004, Michael Phelps wore the Fastskin II, the latest evolution of the Fastskin series, in Athens to become the first swimmer to earn eight medals. Phelps followed up this performance four years later, earning eight golds at Beijing, while wearing Speedo's LZR Racer suit In 2010, the company launched Speedo Sculpture ShapeLine, a new line of body-shaping swimsuits for women.
Products
Although the brand name Speedo is often genericised to refer to any style of men's swim briefs, these account for less than 2% of the company's sales. The Speedo name can be found on a wide range of swimsuit styles for men, women, and children focusing on performance and style. Speedo also offers a range of sportswear, footwear, and accessories ranging from swim goggles to electronics. Additionally, Speedo International offers a line of men's underwear and Speedo Australia features a line of underwear called Speedo Underbody for men and women, sold only in select David Jones retail stores.
Accessories Speedo offers a broad range of swim accessories including more than seventy models of goggles, several models of watches, sunglasses, and towels. In addition, Speedo offers several lines of aquatic fitness aids and swim aids for children and adults as well as scuba masks, snorkels and swimfins. Speedo International offers a line of beach games equipment not offered on the SpeedoUSA website.
Footwear The Speedo brand can be found on a wide variety of footwear including sandals, flip-flops, and water shoes. Speedo USA offers waterproof sneakers for aqua fitness training.
Speedo Digital The Speedo Digital line of accessories includes the waterproof Aquabeat and LZR Racer Aquabeat digital music players and related accessories, which are manufactured by South Korean consumer electronics company Iriver. Speedo's electronics offerings also include the Auquashot waterproof digital camera.
Speedos Café
Swimwear Speedo USA's men's collections are categorised as: Competition, Racing, Boardshorts and Swim Trunks, Fashion, and Lifeguard. Speedo International's men's offerings also include wetsuits. Both Speedo USA and Speedo International also offer a wide range of children's styles including performance, racing, fashion and beginner lines.
Controversial technology Swim records were broken in Speedo brand silk suits in the 1930s, and the company was the first to introduce the use of nylon in the 1950s and later nylon/elastane in the 1970s. Speedo's most recent technological advances are found in the Fastskin, Fastskin FS II series and the LZR Racer suit. Throughout the company's history, though, it seemed each design innovation was met with great controversy. Clare Dennis was nearly disqualified from her record-breaking Olympic meet because her suit showed too much skin; early Speedo bikinis were banned from some Australian beaches; more recently, the NASA technology in the LZR Racer suit Michael Phelps wore at the Beijing Olympics was the subject of great media scrutiny.
Fastskin In 2000, British designer and former competitive swimmer Fiona Fairhurst was named as a finalist for European Inventor of the Year. Fairhurst helped Speedo's Aqualab design team invent the first-of-its-kind Fastskin swimsuit. Inspired by the varying skin texture of a shark, Fairhurst told the BBC that she was "looking to develop a fabric that mimics nature". Both the Fastskin and Fastkskin FS II are textured with bumps and ridges in key places, similar to those on a shark's skin. These ridges are claimed to channel the water over the swimmer's body in a more efficient manner than traditional material suits. However, research in 2012 has suggested that the artificial sharkskin patterning does not benefit human swimmers, whose body movement is different from sharks.
In addition, the suits are custom designed for the type of stroke the swimmer will use as well as being engineered differently for women and for men. These high-tech suits make use of elastic compression materials to limit muscle oscillation and to compress the swimmer's body, while in other areas a more flexible fabric is used to allow greater range of motion. Leaving no detail overlooked, the design team also uses low-profile seams. According to author Frank Vizard, the Fastskin suits reduce drag by up to four per cent. Speedo adapted this new fabric technology for the 2006 Winter Olympics. The full-bodied Fastskin FSII Ice suits were debuted by the silver medal winning American women's bobsled team.