Preliminary Review of Velocity Sports Gear custom suit

[acalliste]

After spending a few years doing track days in off-the-rack suits, and also experiencing the joy of wearing a custom street jacket, I knew it was time for a custom suit. I wanted something that was street friendly, well made, comfortable, and flattering. That last requirement may not seem like an important feature, but let's face it, if I don't feel good wearing something I am probably not going to get much use out of it.

There seem to be lots of companies popping up out of the woodwork lately offering inexpensive or sometimes not so inexpensive suits. I knew I could go to a more established company for a custom suit, but cost was a factor - I am not made of money, but also not willing to compromise on quality. And the company's ability to design a suit for a woman's body is an issue. I have a few friends with custom suits, and one of the comments I hear is how they love the suit but just wish it fit a little better for their curves or was more flattering. Not everyone knows how to design a garment for a woman's body.

Enter Velocity Sports Gear. When I saw them advertising womens suits, I was intrigued. The designs they had looked great, but how was the quality? After doing a little research and reading what they had to say about the construction of their suits, I decided to give them a shot. Genuine Cowhide Top Grain/Full Grain leather, Coats Nylon Bonded thread with all high impact area seams stitched four times for a strong and secure seam, all high impact seams reinforced inside, CE approved armour with optional Knox upgrade including Bickle Racing sliders, optional external titanium armor, a removable liner, no extra charge for perforation. And especially a separate design for women. It seemed like a solid product.

At the time I placed my order, Velocity Sports Gear had a PDF measurement chart to fill out and send back. However they are updating their website with a new "suit constructor". It will have over 30 options that you can select for a custom race suit, drag suit, jackets or pants. Video guides will be posted for all 27 measurements that will ensure the proper measurements are taken. This is apparently launching in late April. I haven't seen a website that offered that before. I wish it had been in place when I ordered my suit!

Taking my own measurements was not something I was comfortable with, so I had someone help me. If I had to do it over again, I think I would take them fully dressed, instead of in underarmor, just to get the extra bit of breathing room. And since I intended this to be primarily a street suit, I did not measure for my external back protector.

I also requested a special design to be placed on the back of my suit, a sort of personal trademark that I also have on my street jacket. This was no problem, I just emailed the image to them and they had it embroidered on the suit.

Once I placed my order, which was in late November, it took about 8 weeks to complete and be shipped to me. I think this was a little longer than normal, as the embroidery added to the production time. Although Velocity Sports Gear is located in Canada, getting it shipped to me in the U.S. was no hassle at all. It was just like any other order, including the shipment tracking. The Canada Post tracking number transferred right over to the USPS system and I was able to continue to monitor it after it entered the U.S.

I went with what is basically option #2 on the website, though the pricing on the womens suits seem to be a little less. My suit is a one-piece custom track suit with the Knox Armor upgrade (including armor for shoulders, elbows, hips, back and knees), perforation, and a small aerodynamic hump. What I love about the construction of this suit is the placement of the Schoeller stretch Kevlar, which not only makes the suit very comfortable, but is why the women's design fits so well. It allows freedom of movement without compromising protection. The personal design was embroidered well, but it won't hold up to a slide should that ever happen. However, a separate leather design probably wouldn't hold up much better and would still need to be replaced.

So far I have only ridden on the street with this suit. As I already mentioned it is really comfortable, on the bike. Since it's new, it's not broken in yet so it's not that comfortable to stand or walk around in. However it conforms a little more each time I wear it and I have no doubt that it will soon feel like a second skin off the bike as well as on.

Improvements that could be made are the hem at the bottom of the legs, and the interior pockets which hold the armor in place. When standing or walking, the leg hems put a lot of pressure on my legs. They are too thick, mainly due to the velcro that holds the removebale liner in place. Also, after the first two or three times I wore the suit, the elbow armor pocket in one of sleeves tore, allowing the armor to slide down.

I reported these things to Jimmy at Velocity Sports Gear, and he assured me that they have since become aware of these issues and all new suits will have modifications to prevent them. The pockets are now made of tear proof material. As for the leg hem, there is an option to go with unfinished bottoms, which I probably should have done. They have now also moved the placement of the velcro away from the hem so it's not as thick at that point. That modification alone would probably be enough to address the issue.

The next test will be a track day. I have one planned for later this month and will report back after that, probably with more photos and maybe some video.

Click here for the Velocity Sports Gear website.

A few photos...

[derf]

Looks good, but do they outsource to pakistan?

[Amber Lamps]

Originally Posted by derf

Looks good, but do they outsource to pakistan?

What would give you that idea?...



Yes, your mortal enemies! It's basically the same outfit that I posted about last year with a better internet set-up. They store front out of Canada but the suits are completely made in Pakistan. FWIW I still like my suit and it is holding up really well. I did have the same problem with the armor that she did, but I fixed it myself by having velcro sewn onto the leather to affix the armor to. The other problem I had was with the pockets allowing the armor to move out of position. If I'm not mistaken, Spartan leathers uses this same factory to make his gear. IDK if it's true but the rep sworn that this factory had been the source of A* and Dainese low end gear until they moved operations to China, Bosnia(or somewhere like that), etc.

[derf]

Originally Posted by Amber Lamps

What would give you that idea?...



Yes, your mortal enemies! It's basically the same outfit that I posted about last year with a better internet set-up. They store front out of Canada but the suits are completely made in Pakistan. FWIW I still like my suit and it is holding up really well. I did have the same problem with the armor that she did, but I fixed it myself by having velcro sewn onto the leather to affix the armor to. The other problem I had was with the pockets allowing the armor to move out of position. If I'm not mistaken, Spartan leathers uses this same factory to make his gear. IDK if it's true but the rep sworn that this factory had been the source of A* and Dainese low end gear until they moved operations to China, Bosnia(or somewhere like that), etc.

Screw pakistan, my suit is made in taiwan.

I was actually under the impression that most custom suit makers actually do the labor here in the states.

[Amber Lamps]

Originally Posted by derf

Screw pakistan, my suit is made in taiwan.

I was actually under the impression that most custom suit makers actually do the labor here in the states.

Um no, if you want I could shoot you a list but the bottom line is that almost no one does that in house since Vanson or Z's.

[derf]

Originally Posted by Amber Lamps

Um no, if you want I could shoot you a list but the bottom line is that almost no one does that in house since Vanson or Z's.

Where is the batman riding suit made?

[acalliste]

Originally Posted by derf

Looks good, but do they outsource to pakistan?

Originally Posted by Amber Lamps

What would give you that idea?...

Yes, as Amber Lamps said, they do. Why I gave a close up of the label, full disclosure.

Our last few teknic suits we've had were made in Vietnam. I haven't checked all of my gear, but I bet a large percentage of it isn't made here.

There is a leathers maker here in Orlando called Syed (where my street jacket came from) that I would have gone with if I hadn't run across Velocity Sports Gear. The Velocity suit was just too good a deal to pass up, so I decided to try it.

Another thing that helped convinced me to try them was learning how much Jimmy from Velocity is personally involved in the suit designs and quality of the materials. I have seen a few vendors at the Daytona Bike Events with Asian made suits that were obviously cheap, not well thought out or designed. It became clear to me that Velocity is different in what they expect from their factory, their standards are much higher. Also the fact that he is directly accessible by email made me more confident. He is interested in good customer service as well as a good product, and that counts for a lot to me.

[derf]

Originally Posted by acalliste

Our last few teknic suits we've had were made in Vietnam. I haven't checked all of my gear, but I bet a large percentage of it isn't made here.

I just went and looked at my teknic suit, made in vietnam

[acalliste]

After track day update:

First of all, I am very happy with how comfortable this suit was to ride in all day. I wore it for eight hours nonstop because it was such a struggle to get my boots on over them, I didn't dare take the suit all the way off for the whole day so I wouldn't have to put the boots back on again. But it didn't pinch anywhere or get in my way at all while I was riding. This is probably the first track day I've done where I didn't think about my suit at all while I was actually riding - which means it gave me no reason to, didn't annoy me at all.

Having the suit on that long did cause quite a bit of irritation around my ankles where the hem of the pant legs are, and up my calf where the zippers are. This is mainly from my boots pressing so hard on my skin under the leather. This didn't bother me during the time I was wearing it, but I am definitely going to have the hem taken out and the liner velcro repositioned. If you don't have skinny legs, you might want to consider the no-hem option.

The suit is breaking in well now, and is much easier to move around in. The legs/hip areas are broken in enough that I can put the hip armor back in now. I had removed it the first time I tried it on just so I could get it on. This is no longer an issue.

The perforation was noticeable, and the suit wasn't incredibly hot. The temp that day was in the high 70's to mid 80's, and I was comfortable all day. I think the light color helped out with that, as well as the perforation.

I still haven't rain-tested it, and I have no intention of ever crash-testing it. But when/if those things happen I will report back again with my experience.





I think I may have the sleeves shortened slightly as well. I don't think I did a very good job with the measurements in some places.

[Homeslice]

Excellent review, very detailed.

Here are the things I always look for in a suit:

- is there neoprene on the cuffs AND collar?
- how much stretch material does it have? (cheap suits don't provide a full stretch crotch)
- is there hip armor? (cheap suits don't provide it)
- are the knees snug enough to keep the pucks from moving & grabbing?
- how snug are the shins and forearms? (cheap suits are baggy here)
- how many different leather panels are stitched together? (less = better)
- does the leather feel like cardboard, or is it supple?

As for Pakistan, can't say I've been impressed with stuff I've seen from there (AGVSport, Texport), but that was a few years ago so things might have changed.