In 2016, Alpine Canada announced a multi-year partnership naming Solace a gold partner of the Canadian Alpine, Para-Alpine and Ski Cross Teams. As part of that partnership, Alpine Canada launched a plan that would see Solace taking a leading role in strategic research and innovation projects aimed at putting Canadians atop World Championship, World Cup and Olympic/Paralympic podiums.
In ski racing hundredths of seconds mean the difference between gold and going home empty-handed, so with Solace’s support Alpine Canada kicked off a top-secret wind tunnel project designed to generate data and insights the organization’s race suit provider could use to design the fastest race suits possible. Here’s a glimpse into how it happened:
The results spoke for themselves: As soon as the athletes wore the new race suits, they immediately increased their speeds.
“Obviously if we have wrinkles or folds in the suit, there’s more drag…” began team member Erik Guay.
“But as well the actual material makes a big difference. So we spent a lot of time, research and development on the material itself, making sure it fit properly. And then the suits are custom built for each one of us so that they’re fit perfectly.”
The most dramatic evidence of the project’s success came at the 2017 World Alpine Ski Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland. It was there that Guay, already Canada’s most decorated alpine ski racer ever – won gold in the Super-G and silver in the downhill.
Solace is incredibly proud to support Alpine Canada, and can proudly share in the success of Alpine Canada’s tremendous athletes.
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