The Bodyline Nexus at the London Olympics

Each time, any track and field athlete from either the US, China, Germany, Russia, Kenya, Canada, Qatar, Croatia, Bahrain or Estonia, 11 countries in fact, ran the race of their dreams and more often than not, stood on the winners’ dais to don their medals, Team Bodyline here in Sri Lanka triumphed too.  

CEO of Bodyline, Dilan Gooneratne expanded enthusiastically on the Bodyline Nexus with the Pro TurboSpeed suit, one of Nike’s most innovative and ambitious projects ever and which for the first time in history, saw Nike move outside of the USA.  

“It is the lightest, fastest and greenest speedsuit ever created by Nike and their fastest ever, proven to be 0.023 seconds faster than the previous 100m track uniform.”  As a result, athletes wearing the Pro TurboSpeed suits won 11 gold, 12 silver and five bronze medals at these landmark Olympics.  

Nike is a primary customer for the MAS Group, with MAS Active and Bodyline being key partners in this relationship. Bodyline has in fact been working with the NIKE AIT team on numerous commercial projects more than with any other vendor from as far back as seven years ago, initially with the revolutionary sports bra leading to Bodyline’s first exposure via the Beijing Olympics in 2008 manufacturing the beach volleyball suits and later for the Rugby World Cup 2011 uniforms.

Given Bodyline’s dominance in the lingerie industry, Mahesh Amalean, the visionary spearhead of the MAS Group, harboured ambitions to transform the existing business model into a leaner one, encompassing an innovative culture that went beyond manufacturing excellence.  

For Amalean, it was about meeting global competition head on, driving the unique culture across the group and spurring investment in people to attain the desired results. “This means that MAS began developing a local supply chain, ensuring that customers were able to source all their requirements under a single umbrella,” he stated.  

Possessing the imperatives to deliver such precision products, Bodyline began working on the project in March 2010 and by 2012 had delivered nearly 13,000 garments in 99 style combinations to suit individual athletes’ requirements, while retaining the core patterning technology platform and silhouette. 80,252 block panels were sent for sublimation, flocking, heat transfer and laser cut to meet the number of suits required.  

The MAS Group synergies, which kicked in, had Silueta (CCP) providing the aero-silicone flocking technology, using more than forty screens to finalise the final flock design, which according to Gooneratne, had each panel subjected to wind tunnel tests to identify the air drag effect.  “Antler supported sublimation, heat transfer and laser cut technology, developing and testing in excess of 350 screens for product colourings and fabric sublimations. Bodyline used 19 colour ways for sublimations, pertaining for the 11 individual countries.” The Pro TurboSpeed suit comprises three recycled lightweight smooth performance fabrics, prompting zero distraction with a design inspired by golf ball dimples, applied to the suit by donut shaped silicone flocks circles to create a zoned aerodynamic advantage on moving body parts. The strategic venting holes vent athletes from the back, while colouring by sublimation minimises weight and less seaming and more bonding adds maximum comfort.  The fact that Nike’s Creative Director for Innovation Scott Williams declared that, “We outdid ourselves,” is surely proof that Bodyline’s prowess at the London Olympics will surely see it emphatically present at the next few Olympics too.