Episode Details

Welcome to Gear Talk with our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

In this episode, we break down the new Synergy Swimrun Wetsuit. At $200 this suit is an intriguing entry-level suit that looks and, more importantly, performs great. We would like to thank Synergy for sending us four of their new suits for us to test out.

Our complete review is coming later in the show.

Gear Updates

Annie swam in the Ark Sports KORP Wetsuit for the first time and only had good things to say about the suit. She tested it in pretty chilly water and didn’t experience any water pooling in the suit that others have experienced.

Brooke tried to go full commando under her wetsuit for the first time...and she wasn’t a fan.

Chris and Chipper got to try out the new Summer Smoc from Smoc Smoc. These bamboo fiber smocs are great for the summer months and make it really easy to change into and out of your Swimrun gear. 

Untethered Thoughts

This week’s untethered thought comes courtesy of Amy Bush. She asked us why our Gear Talk show isn’t called the “Löw Tide Töyz” show. We discussed this at length and will consider the suggestion and try to incorporate “labs” in there somewhere.

Synergy Swimrun Wetsuit Review

We all got to use the suits and have some well-formed opinions about the Synergy Swimrun Wetsuit. You can watch our first impressions video here to get a general overview of the suit.

The suit costs $200. It comes with three pockets (two internal pockets in the front and one large zippered pocket in the back), a whistle on the zipper, and male and female-specific sizing. The Synergy website describes the suit as follows: The Synergy Swimrun is a high-quality suit with the essential features; long front zip, total of 3 accessible pockets, and graded/variable neoprene thickness to allow best flexibility while retaining buoyancy for swimming and enough insulation to keep you warm.

Given that this is an entry-level suit, we thought that it would be important to calibrate our review with other similar entry-level suits with a similar price point such as  the ORCA Core and the BlueSeventy Alliance Swimrun Wetsuit. It’s worth noting that this suit does not come with arm sleeves.

Swimming Impressions

Chipper was worried about chafing with the collar of this suit but those concerns didn’t come to pass. The suit fit great and he thought that it kept water out well and kept him warm. He did feel that the velcro portion to secure the collar was a bit small and would have liked it to be a bit larger since it came undone during a swim and he had to adjust it.

Brooke was also worried about the suit collar. She tried the suit on when it arrived and thought that the neckline felt a little “chokey” because it came up pretty high. She didn’t experience any chafing. She did experience some water entering the suit from the arms and flushing through the suit. (We all think that this was a fit issue.)

Annie did not have any water entering into the suit and thought that the fit was spot on. She did experience some chafing. There is a seam on the collar that had some extra reinforcement but it did lead to some chafing. 

Chris’s expectations for the suit were low when he took it out of the box because at first glance it appeared th