With Freestyle Swimwear, D1 Swimmer Aspires to Better Female Swimsuits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Audrey Tirrell<\/strong> spent most of her life in a swimsuit. That was enough time to know all the ways in which they didn\u2019t serve her.<\/p>\n

A competitive swimmer since age seven, first at Nation\u2019s Capital Swim Club and then at Fordham University, Tirrell grew exhausted by her training swimsuits. They did the job but little else, functional but rarely flattering, sparking little excitement. When Tirrell shared that opinion with peers in the pool, she found many who felt the same way.<\/p>\n

Tirrell saw the problem as an opportunity. It led her to found Freestyle Swimwear as an undergraduate, and she hopes the company can unlock new possibilities for female training suits.<\/p>\n

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Freestyle Swimwear; Photo Courtesy: Dima Bazak<\/p><\/div>\n
Instead of suits that meet the bare minimum for their purpose, Tirrell hopes Freestyle\u2019s products can help women express themselves and feel good about the time they spend in the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want this brand not just to be a brand, not just about the fashion,\u201d she said. \u201cI want it to be a platform to empower athletes and bring women together to feel beautiful and have this whole other level of what the swimsuit is about.\u201d<\/p>\n
A native of Gaithersburg, Maryland, Tirrell started her career at the University of New Hampshire before transferring to Fordham, where she served as a senior co-captain in 2022-23. With swimming paused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she was looking for something to fill her time and turned an interest in making things and a passion for fashion into learning to sew.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long before she cast a critical look at what she wore in the pool. The cookie-cutter approach to shape, fit and patterns could be stultifying, to her eye. When she discussed it with teammates, she heard similar laments. \u201cNot just me and my teammates, everyone was like, oh my god, it\u2019s the same print, the same color, the same straps, over and over,\u201d Tirrell said.<\/p>\n
The feedback piece isn\u2019t notional. When Tirrell embarked on Freestyle, she sent thousands of surveys to coaches, teammates and friends of friends. She felt confident in her assessment that traditional swimwear didn\u2019t serve women in many ways, but she wanted to hear others\u2019 experiences to find ways to differentiate her brand. (The survey remains on Freestyle\u2019s site<\/a>, part of constant process of \u201cBuilding The Best Training Suit for You,\u201d by a brand she thinks of as \u201cco-creative and innovative.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Tirrell\u2019s information fueled a lengthy development process. Swimwear production uses specialized materials that can be difficult to source and work with; it requires expert stitching to meet the aquadynamic demands. Tirrell said it took two years to get a final sample, through repeated testing and adjustments of what she estimates was 40 or 50 versions.<\/p>\n
The result is Freestyle Swimwear\u2019s five-piece Contrast Collection<\/a> \u2013 three one-piece training suits and two two-pieces. They\u2019re built on a black and pink color palette with pops of neon. What stands out most is the strapping across the back, a constant across all five patterns. (Freestyle also sells a pair of lounge tank tops.)<\/p>\n
Tirrell hopes her swimming experience offers insight others may miss, about how a suit moves in action and how it holds up, across a session or over many months.<\/p>\n
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A post shared by Freestyle Swimwear (@fsswimwear.co)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n