The trend in track and field attire has been “less” as in less fabric over all. But now Nike is going another direction with skin tight suits that could give runners an edge. The Nike Pro TurboSpeed is a newly designed track uniform that offers aerodynamic techniques that have been used on golf balls – with the idea that it could shave millisecond off a sprinter’s time. And with races that close it can make the difference at the finish line.
The suit features dimples on the shoulders, arms and calves – parts of the body that create resistance when running – and these dimples or “surface architectures” as Nike calls them create a turbulent rather than laminar layer of air molecules. With golf balls this holds the surface more efficiently than it would with a smooth surface.
Whether this translates to runners will be seen this year in London’s 2012 Olympics as runners from the U.S., Russia, China, and Germany will be using the Nike Pro TurboSpeed.