RIDE ENGINE WETSUITS ARE KNOWN FOR THEIR QUALITY MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION.
There’s plenty of things you can skimp on in life and live perfectly without—gourmet pizza toppings, brand-name flour, designer sweatshirts, or Spotify Premium memberships. A quality wetsuit, however, ain’t one of them. Go cheap on wetsuit quality and be prepared to pay the price on the back-end in terms of substandard performance, poor insulation and eco-ignorant environmental damages due to crappy construction and low-end materials. There are three essential construction elements to a wetsuit’s quality, and only when combined together in a comprehensive build can you be assured you’re getting dialed into the very best in terms of quality.
MATERIALS
Quality neoprene is critically important for performance, as well as the planet. Cheap neoprene is made from a slew of petroleum-based chemicals (translation: it’s heinous for the environment). Fortunately, there is a quality alternative that’s far less impactful on the environment and is used in the entirety of Ride Engine’s wetsuit lineup: Neospan S-Foam Neoprene, a limestone-based neoprene that free of PFC, PTFE, and other toxic hydrophobic chemicals.
Additionally, our Neospan S-Foam Neoprene gets its Carbon Black, a key ingredient of neoprene, from the pyrolyzation of used tires, thereby significantly reducing manufacturing energy consumption and cutting CO2 emission by 200g per wetsuit.
Not only is limestone-based neoprene significantly better for the environment, but it’s also much higher performing. Oil-based neoprene is heavy, stiff and dense with 30% fewer air bubbles inside the rubber than limestone-based neoprene. Those air bubbles are what works with your body heat to keep the wetsuit warm in cold water. More air bubbles mean better insulation. Simply put, limestone-based neoprene is warmer, stretchier, lighter, and more durable than oil-based neoprene—making your decision to forgo oil-based neoprene wetsuits an even easier choice.
STRATEGIC PANELING AND THICKNESS
A quality wetsuit is intelligently constructed out of several panels of neoprene of differing thicknesses. These panels are cut with multi-directional stretch and ergonomics in mind, so the wetsuit moves smoothly with your arms and body, reducing fatigue and wetsuit rash points. By strategically tapering the neoprene thickness in key areas, our wetsuits provide more warmth in your core and more mobility in your arms and legs (when a wetsuit’s name has a mix of numbers, such as 4/3, that means there’s a mix of 4mm and 3mm thickness neoprene used).
STITCHING