HUUB - Anemoi Aero Men's Tri-Suit

HUUB - Anemoi Men's Aero Tri-Suit -  2020

The triathlon suit of the future has a a new look, shape and feel

As you'd expect from a brand which likes to push boundaries, HUUB noticed this evolution very early on, and has decided that the only way to create something great is to rewrite the rule book and change expectations. Realising that this would need a team effort, it signed up ex-Mercedes-AMG Petronas aerodynamic performance engineer Dan Bigham.

Now Dan is applying his deep knowledge of aerodynamics to understanding how materials technology can help any triathlete to move more quickly.

But Dan's work isn’t just about data - he's an athlete himself, and is passionate about usability and function. As a national cycling champion and triathlete, he has helped HUUB athletes Alistair Brownlee and David McNamee go faster, not only through positioning and equipment choices, but also with his design work on the ground-breaking HUUB Anemoi men's Aero Tri Suit.

His development work and collaboration with HUUB have resulted in a truly stunning and effective product. The Anemoi Project doesn’t stop here though: the creation of an incredibly fast suit is just the start of a long-running project. So from its deep exploration of the world of cycling aerodynamics, you can expect similar cutting-edge products, in the quest for:

HUUB sums up this project as having resulted in "The fastest tri suit on the market today," but this only being a part of them "working on a faster one for tomorrow". 

Key Features

• Unique ‘Anemoi’ design by Dan Bigham (exclusive to HUUB).
• Neoprene Trip Technology (patent pending).
• Arms Neutral™ design for swim comfort and aero efficiency.
• Aero rear pocket.
• Longer arms and legs give aerodynamic benefits.
• Lightweight, quick-drying Coldblack® fabrics.
• Incredible time-saving performance.
• Two colour options – Black/Petrol Grey or Black/White

Claimed Time Savings achieved during testing:

Ironman distance: @ 22mph = 7.5W - 350 seconds (just under 6 minutes)

Ironman distance: @ 18mph = 4W - 414 seconds (just under 7 minutes)

Olympic distance: @ 24mph = 5.7W - 83 seconds

Olympic distance: @ 20mph = 9.8W - 71 seconds

These tests compared the Anemol to HUUB's best-selling DS Long Course Tri Suit. They were carried out at a velocity range from 35kph to 55kph on seven different athletes (including Ali Brownlee, David McNamee, Harry Wiltshire and Dan Bigham). Aero benefits can and do vary across riders because of their body shape and position (in the region of ~30% variation), but 15% is an average that was seen across every size, shape and speed of rider. HUUB wanted to be sure that this suit wasn’t just fast on its World and Olympic champions, but helped every athlete achieve more speed.

Dan Bigham - Aerodynamicist and 10x British Champion, says: “We knew from the outset to create the fastest tri suit ever we had to start from the first principles and build up from there. This meant breaking down and analysing the exact demands of triathlon, and not just at the surface level.

"We collated a deep range of race data from triathletes - short, middle and long course, male and female, and age group right up to Olympic champions. From this dataset, we set about investigating every aspect of the rider’s bike leg, from simple variables such as velocity profile, drag coefficient frontal area and yaw angles experienced, right through to Reynold’s numbers, draft efficiency and much more. Using this, we began to truly understand what a triathlete is experiencing whilst out on the bike. This data was used to construct our test protocols used throughout our suit development.

“The Dave Scott Long Course Triathlon Suit has been the benchmark tri suit since its inception, so it made sense to use it as our benchmark to develop from. The pattern and fit are widely regarded as the best out there, so we aimed to maintain this through the development process.

“The aerodynamics of clothing have a huge impact on a rider’s performance. Around 80% of all aerodynamic drag is purely the rider, however, the actual force pulling you backwards is very small. At 40kph this is about 1.5kg, but this results in nearly 200w of aerodynamic drag! We know a small change in the drag force experienced can result in massive performance benefits.

"This requires careful management and manipulation of what is known as the boundary layer. In simple terms, this is thin (~1-4mm) layer of air that flows over your body whilst riding along. Typically, it flows in a state known as laminar, with minimal energy in the flow and can quite easily separate off the body around curvature and changes in shape, creating a large draggy wake behind. However, using correctly sized and shaped texture, we can induce the boundary layer to turn in to a turbulent state.

"The advantage of this is that the boundary layer is now energised and can resist changes in curvature and shape around the body, staying attached for longer and reducing the size of any low-pressure wakes. It’s not all positive to turbulent flow though... It also increases skin friction, so we need to be strategic in its placement, efficiently creating turbulence only where it is needed and minimising skin friction everywhere else.

“We identified a range of fabrics that could possibly meet our demands to induce sufficient turbulence without robbing too much energy from the flow. We looked at CFD of multiple triathlete positions to decide how best to implement these fabrics to achieve our goal. Our first step was a broad range of tri suit prototypes, investigating both panel positioning and fabric type.

"From the first round of aerodynamic testing, we found one fabric to be performing consistently the best and continued to iterate the design with this, changing seam lines, seam type, pattern shape and much more to iteratively improve the suit.

"Over the next six months, we went through countless prototypes. All of them tested at a velocity profile range of 35kph to 55kph, utilising our world-class local Derby Arena velodrome with a highly refined bespoke aerodynamic test system, combined with a broad range of athletes. We wanted to ensure this suit wasn’t just fast on our World and Olympic champions but was fast on every size, shape and speed of rider.

"As is well documented, aerodynamics are incredibly rider-specific, and what works for one person may not necessarily work for another. To this end, we strived to develop a suit that worked consistently for every rider we could get our hands on, and not just in a wind tunnel but whilst riding on a bike! We believe we have achieved this.”

The Brand:

At the forefront of sports science and design, HUUB produces triathlon clothing worn by the very best elite athletes, foremost among them the Brownlee brothers and Helen Jenkins. Its technicians are constantly researching innovative ways to maximise the potential of the athletes who wear their products.

Call us at MyTriathlon today on 0207 183 7245 and we'll help you with friendly, expert advice and answer any sizing queries you may have.