Hot on the heels of the newly-rebranded Arena Pro Swim Series at Austin, Arena’s team of elite athletes caravanned down to Northside Aquatic Complex – home of the 2015 USA Swimming National Championships – for a day-long photo shoot to celebrate the launch of Arena’s newest racing suit technology, the POWERSKIN Carbon Air. Arena athletes also got a sneak peek at the Kazan 2015 World Championships Edition POWERSKIN Carbon Flex, available in two new colors February 1.
Swimming World got exclusive behind-the-scenes access and spent the day with these talented, committed, accomplished – and quite often goofy – athletes.
On top of amazing social media and interview coverage from contributor Granger Talley on the day of the shoot, we’re proud bring you some amazing photographs from the event.
Highlights:
The Unveiling of the WCE Carbon Flex
Athletes ooh’ed and ahh’ed at the shocking color scheme of the new World Championship edition Carbon Flex. The fluorescent yellow and charcoal color scheme was embraced by the athletes, and looked especially striking on photo shoot models Tom Shields and Laura Sogar. Swimming World listened in as Arena staff spent time showing athletes the design changes to the suit, which were both cosmetic and technical, based on feedback from Arena athletes throughout the past year.
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
From Arena’s Press Kit:
“From a design perspective, the new suit incorporates updates to the blueprint of the original Carbon-Flex based on feedback received from athletes over the past year, along with an exciting new fluo green/steel grey color palette. With women’s suits, strategic placement of the seams anchors tension at the back center, providing a torsional platform off which the swimmers can leverage their strokes and kicks. For men’s jammers, there are no taped seams along the waistline, which eliminates disturbances and stress points along the waist, and gives the suit exceptional fit and feel.”
The suit launch marks the celebration of Arena’s technical sponsorship of FINA and the most important non-Olympic competition of the quad – the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia.
The New Suit Technology:
Arena athletes are getting used to this photoshoot business as their sponsor hustled to release its fifth new racing technology in just 3 years (Carbon Pro MK1, Carbon Pro MK2, Carbon Flex, Carbon Air, and Carbon Flex WCE15). The newest edition to the growing POWERSKIN Carbon family, the Carbon Air features Arena’s ground-breaking Carbon Fiber technology in a proprietary new fabric that is 30% lighter than that used in the Carbon Pro and Carbon Flex. Featuring a system of Carbon Bands that run horizontally in the Carbon Air’s base fabric (as opposed to the Carbon Cage that runs both vertically and horizontally in Arena’s other Carbon suits), the Carbon Air is specifically designed to deliver all the benefits of Arena’s Intelligent Compression in a suit that offers unprecedented comfort. In fact, Breeja Larson was able to get into the suit in an amazing 1 minute and 29 seconds!
The newcomer to the Carbon Series was the star of the show (though it’s hard to outshine Matt McLean) as shown in these amazing shots.
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
How’d they do that?
When the job requires you to throw relatively cold water on your teammate, well, sign Cammile Adams, Tom Luchsinger and Matt McLean up for the gig! Photo shoot assistants were asked to kindly step aside as #TeamArena athletes took matters into their own hands!
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
A Little Theme Music:
As Arena marketers toyed with taglines for the new Carbon Air, #TeamArena athletes embraced the fun, playing with props and posing for silly photos. Our favorite moment of the shoot came when 2012 Olympian Matt McLean grabbed Tom Shields’ guitar (Arena athletes are encouraged to bring personal items to shoots not only for photographing, but for entertainment during long periods of downtime). While the Art Director set a serious pose featuring Cammile Adams, Breeja Larson and Connor Jaeger in the New Carbon Air (see below), McLean walked through the shot, playing guitar and holding a plastic rose in his teeth.
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
Playing with the suit name gave Arena Marketers some more ideas, and so newly-engaged athletes Cammile Adams and Breeja Larson were happy to pose.
Love IS in the Air for these two ladies!
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
Looking to feature the lightweight feel of the new suit gave athletes the chance to show off their vertical leaps. Cammile Adams and Breeja Larson especially surprised the group, making some wonder if basketball may have been a good choice!
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
They also found that some athletes were less talented at land-based acrobatics! Come on, men!
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
Carbon Flexing:
A popular hashtag on Arena’s social media vehicles both here and abroad has been #Carbonflexing. So naturally, when your team includes a bevy of muscular men (and women!) #TeamArena athletes got into the fun! Nice abs, Tom and Connor!
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
Hans and Franz?
And the girls were NOT about to be outdone. #CarbonFlexing
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
Whoah.
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
Beauty, Brains, Talent AND Muscle! Laura Sogar and Breeja Larson are the whole package.
Photo Courtesy: Melissa Lundie/Arena
Little Known Fact: One of the perks of being a sponsored athlete is that all this gear used at the photo shoot is fair game. Arena athletes went home with Christmas-sized selections of new gear from Snorkels to racing suits, kickboards to hoodies.
Awesome stuff, Melissa!!!
Amelia Clynes
Mi hija hizo Records nacional con un Carbon’!
Laura
Connor
Breeja Larson is my hero.