Arena Tech Suits: 8 Best Arena Racing Suits for Swimmers

Are you thinking about getting yourself a brand new Arena tech suit? Not sure what Arena tech suit is best or optimal for the events you are swimming? Well, don’t worry! Because in today’s article we’ll be having a look at every worthy Arena tech suit and will be giving you a complete break down of each, including which events and strokes the suit is best for as well as all of its features and technologies.

Arena is one of the best competitive swimming brands out there, they manufacture high-quality swimming gear, racing and training goggles, and most importantly of all feature-packed tech suits. Arena is the go-to swimming brand for a countless number of competitive swimmers as well as many Olympic and World Champion swimmers.

The Arena Carbon tech suit range is hugely popular among competitive swimmers and is home to some of the best tech suits currently available. Other than the carbon range, Arena also has a couple of other great tech suits that come in at lower prices while still delivering swimmers with some good features, this is great for those of you who are looking for a budget or mid-range option while still rocking a solid Arena tech suit.

Needless to say, countless world, national, and large meet records have been broken by swimmers rocking these Arena tech suits. These suits are some of the best available and are only designed to enhance your swimming performance, helping you to crush some best times, break some records, and win a few gold medals while doing so.

8 Best Arena tech suits to dominate your swimming season

Here are the best Arena tech suits for swimmers-

• Arena Carbon Glide tech suit
• Arena Carbon Core FX tech suit
• Arena Carbon Air 2 tech suit
• Arena Carbon Flex VX tech suit
• Arena Carbon Ultra tech suit
• Arena Carbon Duo Women’s tech suit
• Mid-range suit- Arena R-Evo One
• Budget suit- Arena Powerskin ST 2.0

←Scroll to view full table on mobile→

Arena tech suit	Recommended events	Material composition	Our rating	View price
Arena Carbon Glide	100 and 200 freestyle, backstroke and butterfly, distance freestyle, 200IM, 400 IM, 200 breaststroke	65% polyamide, 34% elastane, and 1% carbon fiber	10/10	>View on SwimOutlet
Arena Carbon Core FX	All 50, 100, and 200 events	52% polyamide, 47% elastane, and 1% carbon fiber	10/10	>View on SwimOutlet
Arena Carbon Air 2	All freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, and IM events	65% polyamide, 34% elastane and 1% carbon fiber	10/10	>View on SwimOutlet
Arena Carbon Flex VX	All 50, 100, and 200 events	52% nylon, 47% elastane and 1% carbon fiber	9/10	>View on SwimOutlet
Arena Carbon Ultra	All 50 and 100 events	50% nylon, 47% lycra, and 3% carbon fiber	8/10	>View on Amazon
Arena Carbon Duo Women’s suit	All events; customizable suit	Varies between top and bottom; see full specifications below	8/10	>View on SwimOutlet
Arena R-Evo One	All events	78% polyamide and 22% elastane	7/10	>View on SwimOutlet
Arena Powerskin ST 2.0	All events	71% nylon and 29% lycra	7/10	>View on SwimOutlet

For help with finding the right size for your tech suit, consider reading my tech suit sizing guide, where I cover all of the most popular swimming brands and their tech suits.

1. Arena Carbon Glide Tech Suit

The Carbon Glide is one of Arena’s latest flagship tech suits, along with the Arena Carbon Core FX, which we’ll cover just below. The Carbon Glide is a feature-loaded tech suit packed with some awesome technology and designed in such a way to enhance your swimming performance as much as possible.

The construction of the suit makes it ideal for longer events, starting at the 200 events and including everything else above that too. It’s also a great tech suit for both 200 and 400IM swimmers.

That said, this tech suit will still definitely make a good fit for any 100 swimmer that likes to have good compression with more range of motion. I, however, wouldn’t recommend this suit for you if your focus is on the 50s as it does lack the snapback effect.

Features and benefits of the tech suit-

• The suit is constructed using an ultra-light hydroglide shell. This efficiently reduces your drag and turbulence while swimming, allowing you to stay light and agile in the water, helping you to swim more best times and break more records.
• Strategically placed carbon grid technology and internal taping help to compress and activate your large muscle groups while providing support and enhancing your body position. This ensures you’re able to reach maximal speed as soon as possible.
• The highly water-resistant fabric reduces your drag in the water and allows you to swim faster, which will lead to more gold-medal swimming performances.
• The carbon extreme cage is a tight vertical and horizontal grid surrounding big muscle groups, allowing for powerful compression with a light feel. This keeps you light and agile while providing optimal muscle support and increasing blood circulation for more oxygen and lower lactate.
• Innovative internal lining in the suit increases comfort and allows the suit to be worn for long periods of time without restricting blood circulation or freedom of movement.
• The Arena Carbon Glide is designed for an optimized range of motion while swimming. This helps you to generate maximal power and swim as fast as possible.
• The durable and lightweight material composition of 65% polyamide, 34% elastane, and 1% carbon fiber helps the suit to retain its features for longer, saving you money in the long-run.

Cons-

• One of the most expensive Arena tech suits available.
• The suit slightly lacks the snapback effect found in other Arena tech suits, making it unideal for sprinters.

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2. Arena Carbon Core FX Tech Suit

As mentioned above, the Arena Carbon Core FX is also one of Arena’s latest tech suits. The Arena Carbon Core FX is packed with awesome features and some new and innovative technology engineered for maximized performance in the water.

The suit features far more compression than the Arena Carbon Glide and is currently one of the most compressive Arena tech suits available. This is great since higher compression will allow for optimal muscle activation and increased blood circulation which helps you to maintain speed when you are tired by providing muscles with more oxygen and nutrients and removing toxins like lactic acid.

The suit isn’t restrictive at all and will allow you to reach the maximum range of motion on every pull and kick no matter what stroke you are swimming.

I recommend this tech suit for any swimmer focusing on the shorter and middle-distance events like 50s, 100s, and 200s. I wouldn’t recommend using it for events outside of that, except for the 400IM.

Features and benefits of the tech suit-

• The internal taping system allows for powerful muscle support and core stabilization. This results in increased power output while allowing you to maintain speed when you start to get tired.
• Dual taping on the back of the legs allow for a lifting-effect, this helps you to maintain a good body position, even when fatigued, this significantly reduces drag in the water and optimizes your swimming speed, allowing you to win more races.
• A horizontal and vertical support grid created by carbon cage fabric allows for strong and durable muscle compression with a locked-in-feel. This ensures faster blood circulation, higher oxygen uptake, and a rigid streamline position in the water.
• The lightweight design with a fabric make-up of 52% polyamide, 47% elastane, and 1% carbon fiber keeps ensures you stay light and agile, resulting in optimized swim speed and lower drag.
• The design of the suit allows for unrestricted movement in all directions and makes the suit ideal for sprinters due to the high levels of compression.
• The pricing is great considering this is a flagship tech suit. This ultimately saves you some money.
• Women’s suits come in an open- and closed-back variation, so that swimmers can choose the suit that they find most comfortable while swimming.

Cons-

• Water repellency slightly lacks compared to some of the other Arena tech suits.

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3. Arena Carbon Air 2 Tech Suit

The Arena Carbon Air 2 was only released a few months before the Arena Carbon Glide and Carbon Core FX, also making it one of the newest Arena tech suits available. As the name suggests, this is a super lightweight tech suit packed with some excellent features.

The suit is great for pretty much every single event, but I would recommend going with the Carbon Core FX if you are a breaststroke swimmer since that tech suit assists more than the Carbon Air when performing the breaststroke kick.

The Arena Carbon Air 2 is really comfortable and the compression levels are just right allowing the suit to be a great tech suit for both sprinters and distance swimmers. Personally, I’ve swum some huge 50 PBs in this tech suit as well as some great 200 PBs in a wide range of events, just showing how versatile this tech suit really is.

Features and benefits of the tech suit-

• The Air 2 presents a single fabric design, this allows for reduced drag while you swim by removing the side seams on the suit. It also decreases water absorption, increases comfort and makes the suit easier to put on.
• Advanced carbon bands in the suit allow for comfortable and intelligent muscle compression. These bands attach to important stretch points to provide compression on overextended zones, improve core stability and enhance power when required, ultimately enhancing your performance in the pool.
• The Arena Carbon Air 2 allows for a greater range of motion while you are swimming. The internal lining is made up out of 3 different panels to allow for increased freedom of movement in all strokes.
• The Air 2 has an ultra-lightweight design with a material composition of 65% polyamide, 34% elastane and 1% carbon fiber. It’s the lightest Arena tech suit currently available.
• The highly-versatile design makes the suit ideal for most swimming events so that you don’t have to stress about purchasing multiple suits for all of your events.
• Super water-resistant fabric keeps you light and smooth while swimming, allowing for reduced drag and enhanced swimming speed.

Cons-

• The thin fabric of the suit allows it to be slightly see-through at times. Luckily, the modest panels in the suit cover all critical areas.
• Slightly lacks buoyancy in the water.

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4. Arena Carbon Flex VX Tech Suit

Although slightly older than some of the suits above, the Carbon Flex VX remains one of the top tech suits in the Arena carbon line. It’s packed with some great technology and features designed for optimized and enhanced swimming performances.

The Carbon Flex VX contains a V-flex build, allowing for some cool compression features making the suit ideal for any swimmer racing in the 50-200 range of events. The suit will also be great for any 400IM swimmer due to the freedom of movement allowed by the design of the suit.

The suit is a popular option among breaststroke swimmers due to the taping on the hamstrings which will allow for a powerful breaststroke kick. That said, this taping is also great for other strokes as it assists you in having powerful underwaters, starts, and push-offs which can make a huge difference in your times.

Features and benefits of the tech suit-

• The Arena Carbon Flex VX has a multi-panel design that utilizes anchor points and high-strength taping to create tension along the back of the suit. This helps you to maintain a good body position while reducing drag in the water.
• The V-Flex design removes the lower leg side seams allowing for maximum flexibility and range of motion in all directions while swimming, this makes the suit ideal for any 50, 100, or 200 swimming event.
• Intelligent muscle compression allows for enhanced blood circulation and higher muscle activation ensuring that you’re able to reach your peak swim speed as fast as possible while delaying fatigue in your large muscle groups. This will power you to the wall.
• The Arena Carbon Flex VX has a lightweight design with a material composition of 52% Nylon, 47% Elastane and 1% Carbon Fiber. This keeps you light and agile and optimizes your performance resulting in more gold medal performances.
• The suit delivers a locked-in-effect while optimizing your hydrodynamics in the water, this ensures that you’re able to swim at your maximal speed to claim those qualifying times.
• Taped seams reduce drag in the water by cutting down on surface area, allowing you to swim as fast as possible.

Cons-

• Some swimmers experience a bit of an issue with the sizing of the suit. It is recommended to order this suit in your standard training suit size to avoid purchasing a suit that is too small.
• The high compression makes the suit hard to put on.

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5. Arena Carbon Ultra Tech Suit

The Arena Carbon Ultra is a solid tech suit with some crazy amounts of compression and optimization technology packed into its design. The suit contains high levels of lycra and carbon fiber, so it really isn’t the most comfortable suit to wear, but this is all done with a purpose.

The Arena Carbon Ultra is a great tech suit for sprinters swimming the 50 and 100 events. The design of the suit makes it ideal for any stroke, but as mentioned, I don’t recommend using this suit for events longer than that.

Due to the high-levels of compression, internal taping, and dense design this tech suit will be able to provide intense muscle activation and support helping you to absolutely power to first on any 50 or 100 swimming event.

Overall, I think the suit has a good build and some great features that will allow for enhanced sprinting performances in the pool. But what I’ve found with this suit is that you either love it or you hate it, so make sure that it’s what you want before making a purchase.

Features and benefits of the tech suit-

• Ultra-cage fabric creates an innovative outer shell that delivers intelligent muscle compression and increases muscle activation, allowing you to reach your peak swimming speed as soon as possible.
• The infinity-loop design, based on a deep knowledge of key muscle chains, helps to streamline your body position and optimize your efficiency in the water.
• A continuous taping throughout the suit anchors important muscle groups for added support. This allows for a stabilized stroke when swimming at high speeds which will allow for good technique and maximized stroke efficiency.
• X-pivot technology in the suit provides intelligent compression and anatomical support without limiting your range of motion while swimming. This allows you to generate maximal power with each pull and kick.
• The suit has a material composition of 50% nylon, 47% lycra, and 3% carbon fiber allowing for a highly durable and watertight design that will reduce your drag in the water.
• Ultra compression panels in the suit are designed to work in harmony with the outer ultra-cage to provide targeted muscle compression on the inside of the suit to support and align muscles in the direction of movement, this optimizes your speed and helps you to win more gold medals.

Cons-

• The highly compressive design makes the suit very uncomfortable and hard to get on.
• Limited in terms of events, you can really only swim 50s and 100s, and maybe 200s if you size up a bit.

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6. Arena Women’s Carbon Duo Tech Suit

The Arena Carbon Duo is the ultimate tech suit when it comes to customizability and comfort. This suit is designed for all of the female swimmers out there and doesn’t come in a men’s version.

The suit consists of a top and a bottom jammer that are purchased separately and then combined to form the ultimate custom tech suit that will represent you as a swimmer while packing all of the features you want.

If you are a sprinter you can say purchase a smaller sized bottom with a slightly bigger top to allow for maximum power output from your legs while allowing for a maximized range of motion from your arms.

The color patterns that you can create for your tech suit are also limitless since the suit comes with lots of different top and bottom color variations that you can choose from.

Features and benefits of the tech suit-

• The Carbon Duo provides ultimate comfort by making the suit easy to put on and removing uncomfortable shoulder straps, allowing for a great race day experience.
• The bottom jammer streamlines your lower body, allowing for effortless glide and innovative muscle compression. This enhances your body-position in the water and increases power output from your legs, resulting in maximized swimming speed.
• An innovative racing textile fabric enhances performance in the water and efficiently repels water allowing for reduced drag while you swim.
• The hydrodynamic one-piece top allows for a rigid and tight streamline while reducing your drag and increasing your speed in the water.
• The entire suit is lined with a carbon cage fabric that provides intelligent muscle compression and enhances muscle activation and blood circulation.
• Unique fabric composition with 65% polyamide, 34% elastane, and 1% carbon fiber in the top and 52% polyamide, 47% elastane, and 1% carbon fiber in the bottom, this keeps you light and agile in the water.
• The construction of the suit enhances flexibility, making it easy for you to reach a full range of motion on every stroke and kick resulting in maximized power output and more gold medals and best times.
• The customizable nature of the suit makes the variety of options endless. You are able to design your own suit specific to you and your swimming events to maximize your performance, preference, and style in the pool.

Cons-

• Swimmers can customize a suit that isn’t quite what they expected if they don’t pay close attention to sizing and colors when they make their purchase.

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7. Arena R-Evo One Tech Suit

The Arena R-Evo One is a great mid-range tech suit with an awesome price point, but slightly less superior features when compared to the new flagship Arena tech suits. Nonetheless, the features and technology it does contain will still pack a serious punch and will allow for enhanced and optimized swimming performance in the water.

The Arena R-Evo One is great for any swimming event since it allows for complete freedom of movement in any stroke while having good muscle compression that isn’t going to limit or restrict you in any way.

The suit will make a great fit as an introductory tech suit for those of you who are looking to pick up a tech suit for the first time without spending a ton of money for some good features. It’ll also make a great fit for any swimmer looking to save some money while still receiving a good suit.

Features and benefits of the tech suit-

• The Arena R-Evo One is constructed with a single fabric design and has a single bonded seam at the back, eliminating the traditional side and upper-body seams. This allows for an increased range of motion and comfort, as well as reduces drag.
• Fine-thread and high-density weave of the fabric allows for advanced hydrodynamics resulting in enhanced compression, reduced water absorption and decreased drag, which will allow you to power to first place.
• Lightweight and flexible design with a material composition of 78% polyamide and 22% elastane ensures that you stay agile and fast while swimming breaststroke.
• The design of the suit makes it easy to get on and off and allows for a comfortable and compressive fit.
• Affordable budget price saves you money.

Cons-

• Lacks durability when compared to the high-end suits.
• The compression is slightly lower than some of the other Arena tech suits, some swimmers may, however, prefer this.

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8. Arena Powerskin ST 2.0

The Arena Powerskin ST 2.0 is the base level Arena tech suit. It’s the least expensive Arena tech suit that you can buy and it’ll make an excellent fit for a budget tech suit if that’s what you are looking for.

The suit still packs some good features, but nothing that can really match up to what is found in the new flagship tech suits. Don’t get me wrong, this suit will still provide some good performance benefits and can definitely have an impact on how fast you are able to swim, but it simply won’t be quite as much as the top-end Arena tech suits.

The Arena Powerskin ST 2.0 was actually my first ever tech suit when I started out with competitive swimming way back when and I had only great experiences with it. I even wrote a review on it that you can check out by clicking here if you are interested in learning a bit more about this suit.

Features and benefits of the tech suit-

• The Arena ST 2.0 offers decent muscle compression and activation allowing for increased blood flow to muscle tissues while racing ensuring that you are able to maintain speed throughout your entire race.
• Relatively light-weight design with a material composition of 71% nylon and 29% lycra keeps you agile in the water.
• The Arena ST 2.0 allows for complete freedom of movement ensuring that you’re able to generate maximum power on every pull and kick to swim as fast as possible.
• Ergonomic design allows the suit to offer enhanced muscular support, stability, and comfort while racing.
• The affordable budget price point saves you money.

Cons-

• Lacks high-end features found in the mid-range and top-end Arena tech suits.

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Carbon Tech Suits Technology Overview

If you are thinking about picking up one of the Arena Carbon tech suits you may find this table helpful. It provides some key technical information about each tech suit that can enhance your swimming performances. If you are unsure about these features listed below, I recommend just looking at the table at the beginning of the article to see which tech suit is ideal for your main events.

Powerskin technology comparison	Carbon tech suit
Carbon cage	Arena Carbon Glide, Arena Carbon Flex
Carbon bands	Arena Carbon Air 2. Arena Carbon Glide
Intelligent muscle compresion	Arena Carbon Glide, Arena Carbon Flex VX, Arena Carbon Air2, Arena Carbon Core FX
Power return construction	Arena Carbon Flex VX, Arena Carbon Core FX
Seamless outer construction, dual panel construction, with strategic placement of seams in the hips and tights to help you maximize power and speed in the water	Arena Carbon Core FX, Arena Carbon Ultra
V-flex system, with intelligent placement of the front and rear seams to provide you with maximal range of motion and freedom of movement while swimming.	Arena Carbon Flex VX, Arena Carbon Core FX
Lean construction	Arena Carbon Air 2, Arena Carbon Glide
Second skin effect and enhanced comfort	Arena Carbon Air 2, Arena Carbon Glide

Didn’t find the right tech suit for you? Consider checking out some of our other tech suit articles–

• Best tech suits for butterfly swimmers.
• Best tech suits for backstroke swimmers.
• Best tech suits for breaststroke swimmers.
• Best tech suits for freestyle swimmers.
• Best budget tech suits.

How to Choose Your Arena Tech Suit

1. Your Main Swimming Events

Picking your Arena tech suit based on your main swimming event or events is by far the most important aspect to consider. For the most part, you’ll be able to find a suit that will cover all of the events important to you, but if you have a really diverse set of events and you’re really competitive, then you may want to consider picking up more than one tech suit.

You can reference the table at the beginning of the article to see which Arena tech suit is ideal for your swimming events.

2. Compression

When picking your Arena tech suit you want to choose a tech suit with good compression while keeping your main events in mind. So for example, if you are a sprinter, you’d want more compression than someone who is a distance swimmer.

Compression has many benefits. Firstly, it helps to improve blood flow through your muscle groups, this will help your body to quickly flush out lactic acid over the course of a race and supply more oxygen to your muscles.

It also assists you to keep a more streamline position and to reduce drag in the water while activating your muscle so that you’re able to reach your peak swimming speed as fast as possible.

3. Materials

The type of material your suit is made from is one of the most important aspects of choosing a tech suit. Some materials are better at repelling water, others are lighter, some provide more compression and some are more comfortable than others.

I, however, recommend not worrying about this too much since there are a bunch of different fabrics used in tech suits and each fabric has 2 or 3 different names. You’ll most likely just end up confusing yourself.

Just have a thorough look at the features of the suit and it’ll usually tell you everything you want to know. If you had another suit in the past that you really liked, then it may be worth your time to see how these suits match up in terms of their material compositions. It’ll usually allow you to pick up a suit similar in feel, but with a couple of extra features.

4. The Fit

You want to make sure that you pick a suit that fits you well. Meaning some swimmers prefer tighter, more compressive, and usually more uncomfortable suits while others like a more comfortable and less restrictive tech suit.

You also want to make sure that it fits you as an individual, this is entirely up to the preference of what type of tech suits you like and of course the sizing of your Arena tech suit.

We didn’t include sizing guides in this article since each suit has its own sizes, we simply recommend checking the size guide below the suit on SwimOutlet if you are a bit unsure, but ready to make your purchase.

5 Tips to Take Care of Your Arena Tech Suit

Quick overview-

• Save your Arena tech suit for your big meets.
• Change in and out of your tech suits slowly- be patient.
• Avoid hanging up your tech suit.
• Rinse your Arena tech suit out with cold water.
• Wear clothing over your tech suit in between races.

1. Save Your Tech Suit for Your Big Meets

I recommend only wearing your tech suit, when gold, a really important record or a PB is on the line. Don’t wear your tech suit unnecessarily. These suits wear out a little bit with each race, so save them for the big ones!

If you have more than one tech suit, then I recommend using the older suit for your smaller meets and then obviously your new Arena suit for the big and important meets. That way you’ll maximize the lifespan of your tech suit.

2. Slowly Change in and Out of Your Tech Suit

Yes, I know these tech suits are quite tight for the most part but don’t try to get them on or off as fast as possible. They were never designed with the idea that you should change into them quickly, they were simply designed to enhance your swimming performance.

When putting on or taking your tech suit off as fast as you can, you make yourself vulnerable to a tear, as well as stretching of the fibers.

I’ve been in the changing rooms and the guy next to me simply pulls down his suit and has it down within 2 seconds, only to cry about his newly made tear for hours… worth it right?

3. Avoid Hanging Up Your Tech Suit

I recommend laying your tech suit down somewhere indoors on a flat surface and letting it air dry. Don’t hang it up since this can cause water to collect in the lower seams of the suit which will then stretch it out.

Stretching will make your suit looser and have you lose some of those nice, valuable compression benefits.

4. Rinse Out Your Arena Tech Suit with Cold Water

The high concentration of chlorine in the pool (some more than others) can damage your suit if you don’t rinse it out. When your done racing for the day it’s always a smart idea to just rinse your suit out with some cold water.

It doesn’t take much effort and it’s certainly going to make your suit last much longer.

5. Wear Pants and Shorts Over Your Tech Suit Between Races

Unless you are planning on taking your tech suit off and putting it back on in-between every race, it’s probably a good idea to wear pants or shorts over them. This will prevent your tech suit from damage or getting caught on something and tearing.

If you are interested in 11 more tips to make your tech suit last longer check out my article on that topic by clicking here.

Swim Faster with a New Arena Tech Suit

I hope that this article helped you to find the perfect Arena tech suit for your swimming events. These tech suits are awesome and I’m sure you’ll fall in love with whichever suit you opt for.