At the heart of our deve­lo­p­ment was a simp­le yet fasci­na­ting que­sti­on: Why do fish move so effi­ci­ent­ly through water – and how can this prin­ci­ple be harnes­sed? Together with rese­ar­chers, we ana­ly­zed the skin and sca­le struc­tu­re of various fish spe­ci­es and deve­lo­ped a pro­cess to trans­form real fish skin into a fle­xi­ble, tear-resi­stant high-per­for­mance com­po­si­te mate­ri­al. As raw mate­ri­al, we rely on sal­mon trout from the Bremgarten fish farm – thus, this inno­va­ti­on remains firm­ly ancho­red in Aargau.

As in Water, So in Air

The sur­face of the racing suit con­sists of thin, careful­ly tan­ned and lami­na­ted fish skin panels. The natu­ral sca­le struc­tu­re is deli­bera­te­ly pre­ser­ved and ori­en­ted to influence air­flow, redu­ce tur­bu­lence, and gui­de the air along the body. What works in water, we are now app­ly­ing to the slo­pes – for less resi­stance and a par­ti­cu­lar­ly grip­py feel at high speeds.

From the out­set, we have work­ed clo­se­ly with Swiss-Ski and ath­le­tes from various Swiss natio­nal teams. Numerous tests were con­duc­ted to eva­lua­te dif­fe­rent fish skin con­fi­gu­ra­ti­ons, which were con­ti­nuous­ly opti­mi­zed for free­dom of move­ment, weight, moistu­re manage­ment, and robust­ness. Our goal is clear: a pro­duc­tion-rea­dy solu­ti­on that can be used from the Europa Cup to the World Cup.

The pro­ject was also clo­se­ly moni­to­red at the fede­ra­ti­on level. FIS CEO Urs Lehmann, our neigh­bor from Oberwil-Lieli, was invol­ved in the deve­lo­p­ment and super­vi­sed the tests from a regu­la­to­ry and safe­ty per­spec­ti­ve. This ensu­res that our fish skin racing suits are not only faster but also com­pli­ant with regulations.

For us, this step is far more than an expe­ri­ment. We are demon­st­ra­ting how our exper­ti­se in fish pro­ces­sing and the uti­lizati­on of by-pro­ducts can be trans­fer­red to new, unex­pec­ted are­as – ful­ly in line with inno­va­ti­on and sustainability.