One of the advantages of blogging is that you get to try new brands … things that perhaps you wouldn’t necessarily have tried before.  This happened with Oiselle running clothes and Mizuno running shoes where I was able to try out their products where normally I wouldn’t spend the money on my own to try a different brand.

This time, I was contacted by Kiefer a swimming apparel company founded by Adolf Kiefer who turns out was a pretty innovative and interesting guy.  He was a gold medalist at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 and in 1942 joined the Navy where he found that in WWII more Navy men were lost to drowning than to bullets or bombs.  Go figure. He overhauled the Navy’s training and is credited for saving thousands of lives.  Kiefer also invented the kick board (yes, the one we all used to learn how to swim), and turbulence reducing racing lane dividers – both ideas which revolutionized swimming.  He also created the first nylon swimsuit among other inventions and innovations.  Pretty interesting stuff which you can read about on www.Kiefer.com.Here is what I got to try out: the  Kiefer Team Backpack and the Kiefer Team Accent PBT Flyback  swimsuit. 

Backpack first – it was love at first sight.  I have been eyeing a swim backpack for a while since I used to schlep my swim toys around in a large netted mesh bag.  I looked like a fisherman, and the water that was still on my fins after my swim workout would  end up on my car – eventually the scent of wet carpet could be smelled as soon as you open the car door.

The Team backpack is great.  It has lots of room, tons of pockets so that everything has its place and a “wet pocket” where you can place very wet things without it seeping through.  Conversely you could put there something you want to keep dry like a change of clothes. The rest of the backpack gets wet if you put your wet gear in it, but water does not seep out as in a mesh bag.  There is one large zipper on the top so that when you open the bag, you get a full view of what you have inside.  It can absolutely double as a triathlon bag and it even stands up by itself which can be quite nifty when setting up a transition.

I also tried a swim suit.  I tend to wear TYR branded suits and the sizing was the same for the Kiefer branded suit … nothing like having something actually FIT you well.  The suit itself felt a little “coarser” than what I was used to on my hand, but when I put it on the material didn’t feel much different than other bathing suits out there.  I guess, the only thing to say about the suit is that I didn’t notice it at all! The  bottom didn’t ride up, the top didn’t dig into my shoulders, I couldn’t feel the straps while I was swimming.  The suit was perfect.  Kiefer describes it as being “highly chlorine resistant” but I haven’t worn it enough yet to comment on that.  I hope so, because my swimming suits get destroyed.  The best part? Price! At $32 MSRP, these become super affordable options something my pockets really enjoy.

Another nice thing I found out about Kiefer is that their website contains tons of swim workouts sorted by goal.  For example, I saw the “Pacing Practice” and “Building Show-Off Shoulders” workouts there.

So thank you Kiefer for contacting TriathlonMami and introducing me to your brand.  I signed up for a 5k swim in April so I will be doing a lot of swimming soon and the backpack and bathing suit will certainly come in handy.