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TYR Venzo Tech Suit Review: a Hands-On Review for Swimmers

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If you are ready to swim fast this racing season, crush some PBs in the pool, and ace those gold medals and qualifying times then suit up, because today we’ll be looking at one of the most popular racing suits currently on the market, namely the TYR Venzo tech suit. 

TYR is one of the leading swimming brands when it comes to high-performance swimming gear, producing some of the best training and racing swim gear on the market with one of their latest tech suit innovations of course being the TYR Venzo. 

That said, a while back I picked up the TYR Venzo racing suit myself, and after swimming a couple of meets with it and giving it some thorough testing, I’m ready to give a full review on the suit.

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the TYR Venzo so that you can know whether or not this is the right tech suit for you. Let’s get started!

TYR Venzo Tech Suit Review Quick Summary

Review Of: TYR Venzo Tech Suit.

Use: Competitive Racing Suit.

Performance

5/5

Great performance in the water.

Design

5/5

Innovative technology & fabrics.

Comfort

3.5/5

Comfort could be better.

Price

4/5

Fair price for top-end tech suit

We Like

  • Superior Performance Features.
  • Excellent Compression.
  • Good Durability.

We Don’t Like

  • Tight Waistband On Men’s Jammer.

Summary: The TYR Venzo is one of the best tech suits currently on the market. It presents some of the best features and technology designed to enhance your swimming performance so that you can swim as fast as possible. It has a few issues, but considering the performance of the suit, they shouldn’t be a problem for most swimmers.

This is why I’ve put this review together so that you can decide whether or not the TYR Venzo tech suit is right for your racing needs. Read on for full details on this tech suit.

What Do You Get Inside the Box?

Before we get to the nitty-gritty features of the TYR Venzo tech suit, let’s have a quick look at what you get when you purchase the suit as this is something you are probably interested in knowing. 

Below is a breakdown of what you receive upon the arrival of your TYR Venzo tech suit-

  • Magnetic Display Box (high-quality).
  • The actual TYR Venzo tech suit (obviously).
  • A carry pouch to store your tech suit in at meets.
  • A really nice Venzo-styled name tag for your swimming bag.
  • Fitting instructions to help you get the suit on.

Here’s a photo of all the goodies you can expect-

TYR Venzo Tech Suit Review

Which Swimming Events is the TYR Venzo Ideal for?

Before we get further into this review, let’s start by looking at whether or not you should consider the TYR Venzo as your tech suit of choice for this swimming season. We’ll start by looking at which events and strokes the Venzo tech suit is designed for.

  • Strokes: From my experience, I’ve found the TYR Venzo tech suit to be ideal for all of the swimming strokes. This includes- butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. The suit offers a good range of motion in all of the general swimming movement patterns and doesn’t feel like it’s restricting me on any particular stroke.
  • Sprinters: As we’ll discuss a bit later, the TYR Venzo is a highly compressive tech suit. This makes it great for sprinters who require a lot of power and snapback in their events. Sprinting events include the 50s and 100s.
  • IM’ers: The TYR Venzo is ideal for swimmers who swim IM as it offers good range of motion and overall support in all of the swimming strokes. Personally, I think this is probably one of the best 200 IM tech suits out there, for the 400 IM, you might initially find this tech suit to be a bit tight, but after a few uses, it should be right up there.
  • Mid-Distance Swimmers: Swimmers who compete in the 200-400 range of events can also use the TYR Venzo tech suit. Personally, I’ve used it for 200 butterfly a couple of times so far (I swear, I’m not crazy) and have found the hip-lifting effect to be really helpful in these longer events. As mentioned, the suit is pretty tight the first few wears, but once it stretches out a bit, it provides a really nice fit for mid-range events as well.
  • Not Recommended: If you are a distance swimmer, I don’t think the TYR Venzo tech suit is going to be your best option. I’d rather go with something like the Arena Carbon Glide, Speedo LZR Pure Valor, or TYR Avictor in that case.

Who is the TYR Venzo Tech Suit for?

For the most part, if the TYR Venzo is suitable for your swimming events then you are in the clear to pick up this tech suit. I just quickly wanted to cover exactly who should consider this tech suit in a bit more detail.

The TYR Venzo is a high-end tech suit meaning that it’s packed with the latest swimwear technology- and also comes with a big number on the price tag. 

I recommend this tech suit for any swimmer who is serious about their swimming and have at least had a bit of experience with tech suits in the past. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this suit as an introductory tech suit. 

Here are some swimmers who can consider picking up the TYR Venzo-

  • High-level Age Group/ Club Swimmers.
  • Serious High School Swimmers.
  • College Swimmers.
  • And obviously- the Pros (but they’re not going to be paying if they wear this suit).

If you want some cheaper and more beginner-friendly tech suit options, I recommend the following suits-

Think this is the tech suit for you?

Top Pick for Sprinters and IM
TYR Venzo Tech Suit

Quick summary: the TYR Venzo is one of the best sprinting tech suits, although still perfectly suited to mid-range events. The suit works well with all strokes.

Features include a durable, water-resistant fabric combined with a frictionless fiber construction and seamless exo-shell to reduce drag. Built-in surface lift technology, dual layering, and an endo-compression cage further enhance your performance.

Downsides include lacking comfort and being hard to put on.

Buy Now on SwimOutlet

TYR Venzo Performance Features

Now, for the most important part of this review- the performance features of the suit- and of course my experience with them as well.

The TYR Venzo tech suit has 4 main performance features, namely-

  • Frictionless Fiber Construction.
  • Surface Lift Technology.
  • Endo Compression Cage.
  • A Seamless Exo-Shell.

Let’s have a more in-depth look at each of these features and how they will help you to swim faster-

1. Frictionless Fiber Construction

TYR Venzo Frictionless Fiber Construction

The frictionless fiber construction proves TYR’s dedication to designing some of the best performance swim gear on the market.

The TYR team analyzed drag on a microscopic level to create a tech suit fabric that effectively lowers your friction in the water as you swim. This will ultimately reduce your drag in the water allowing you to swim faster.

Personally, this is something that is quite hard to notice from a human stand-point of view just by swimming with the suit on, but I did definitely feel like I was able to get a better glide coming off the walls, and when taking those longer strokes on events like the 200 Butterfly compared to my standard training suits which can probably be attributed to the frictionless fiber construction.

In terms of the actual fabric composition, the TYR Venzo’s design features a make-up of 70% Nylon and 30% Lycra. Before purchasing the suit I thought that the higher nylon content might not be ideal in terms of water-repellency and compression, but after using the suit I can say that this definitely isn’t the case.

In fact, I am quite happy the suit had a higher nylon content, otherwise, comfort would have been a real issue as it already wasn’t the most comfortable suit out there to start with.

2. Surface Lift Technology

Apart from the Endo Compression Cage, the Surface Lift Technology is probably going to be one of the most noticeable features of this tech suit. 

When diving into the pool for the first time wearing the TYR Venzo tech suit (I think it was on 100 fly), I could instantly feel my hips sitting high in the water without really doing much to keep them there.

Obviously, this is what you want as a higher hip position is key to having and maintaining a good body position while swimming. And looking from a technique standpoint- what’s one of the best ways to reduce your drag in the water and swim faster? Yep- by having a good body position.

Sure, you definitely shouldn’t be relying on a tech suit to help you achieve a good body position in the water, but inevitably, in all races, when we get tired usually our hips will drop and your body position will suffer as a result. This technology is going to help you maintain a good body position for much longer, which should help you to swim faster for longer.

So how does it work exactly? Well, to put it simply- the suit prevents any water from permeating the fabric, resulting in a higher body position. The technology behind this includes water-resistant coatings and fabrics, as well as a solid pair of leg- and waist-band grips to keep water out of the suit.

3. Endo Compression Cage

TYR Venzo Endo Compression Cage

One of the prized features of the TYR Venzo- and also one which you’ll notice as soon as you’ve got this suit over your legs- is the Endo Compression Cage. Apart from being super-noticeable when wearing the tech suit, this is also one of the features which you can very visually see on the interior of the suit. See below-

As you can see, this is a strategically positioned set of taping and interior fabrics (yes, the suit is dual-layered between taping) which forms a flexible and compressive cage of support for key muscle groups such as-

  • The abdominal and oblique muscles (only on the women’s suits and the high-waisted variation of the men’s jammer).
  • Quadriceps.
  • Hamstrings.
  • Glutes.

The endo compression cage also helps to create a snapback effect and increases your distance per stroke. The snapback is especially noticeable when swimming breaststroke and pushing off the walls as well as when diving off the blocks. That said, you’ll still definitely feel it on your butterfly, backstroke, and freestyle kicks as well.

4. Seamless Exo-Shell

TYR Venzo Seamless Exo Shell

The final performance feature of the TYR Venzo tech suit is the Seamless Exo-Shell. This essentially just refers to the outer fabric of the suit. The suit features no taping or seams on the outside and once you flip down the leg grips the suit will be completely streamlined. (If that makes sense).

This creates a really hydrodynamic design which will help you to swim without any additional drag as all the technology is neatly concealed on the interior of the suit. Combine that with the Frictionless Fiber Construction and you’re going to be flying!

Top Pick for Sprinters and IM
TYR Venzo Tech Suit

Quick summary: the TYR Venzo is one of the best sprinting tech suits, although still perfectly suited to mid-range events. The suit works well with all strokes.

Features include a durable, water-resistant fabric combined with a frictionless fiber construction and seamless exo-shell to reduce drag. Built-in surface lift technology, dual layering, and an endo-compression cage further enhance your performance.

Downsides include lacking comfort and being hard to put on.

Buy Now on SwimOutlet

TYR Venzo Cons- What I Didn’t Like

For the most part, I’ve had a really great experience with the TYR Venzo, and I really enjoy racing in this tech suit. That said, there are a few things I don’t quite like which you should probably be aware of-

Comfort: This isn’t the biggest issue, as I’ve found that after a few wears the suit becomes much more comfortable as it stretches out a bit. That said, you should know that for your first meet or two this tech suit is going to be quite uncomfortable and really tight until you break it in. 

That’s why I recommend you use this suit at least 3 or 4 times before any big championship or national meet, just to make sure you are comfortable in the suit and know what to expect.

Tight Waist-Band: One of the things that didn’t become more comfortable, was the waist-band. The leg grippers aren’t too bad, but personally, for the men’s suit, I’ve found the waistband to be a bit too tight for my liking making the suit quite a pain to get on and also wear for very long periods of time.

One solution to this problem though is to flip the waistband down after you are done racing. Just make sure to have some shorts on when you do it if you go with the standard-waist variation like me.

Leakage: Once again, this is a jammer specific issue and one that shouldn’t really be a problem on the women’s suits. When swimming breaststroke I sometimes found that some water entered the back of my suit. Possibly I should try to get the tech suit up higher to avoid this issue- but as mentioned the waistband makes it quite a pain.

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My Experience with the TYR Venzo Tech Suit

Overall, I really enjoyed using the TYR Venzo tech suit over my last few swimming meets. The suit definitely felt the best on my 3rd meet as I did mention it needs a little bit of time to stretch out. The first meet I honestly did doubt the suit a little bit, but the second time around using it I could tell it just needed some breaking in. 

Performance in the suit felt great- the compression was some of the best I’ve had in any tech suit and the hip-lifting effect was also very noticeable when using the suit. 

One thing that really stood out to me on this tech suit was how sturdy it felt. I haven’t yet had the time to actually test the durability of the suit, but from what I’ve heard and how the suit feels I definitely think that this tech suit will last longer than a lot of other suits on the market.

In terms of comfort, there are definitely some better options out there, but despite that, I did find that I was able to quite easily wear the suit for long periods by simply flipping the waistband down and the leg grippers up.

For women’s suits, you might have to take off the straps temporarily between races and wear a swimsuit top while you wait. This, however, shouldn’t be a problem for most female swimmers as most do it with all tech suits regardless.

I mentioned that there were some minor issues with the suit, but personally, I don’t think these are deal-breakers considering all of the other awesome features packed in the design.

Top Pick for Sprinters and IM
TYR Venzo Tech Suit

Quick summary: the TYR Venzo is one of the best sprinting tech suits, although still perfectly suited to mid-range events. The suit works well with all strokes.

Features include a durable, water-resistant fabric combined with a frictionless fiber construction and seamless exo-shell to reduce drag. Built-in surface lift technology, dual layering, and an endo-compression cage further enhance your performance.

Downsides include lacking comfort and being hard to put on.

Buy Now on SwimOutlet

Who Are the Pros Wearing the TYR Venzo?

You might be interested in knowing who are some of the top level swimmers currently rocking the TYR Venzo for their races, so here is a little list-

  • Katie Ledecky, 5x Olympic Gold Medalist.
  • Cody Miller, 2x Olympic Medalist.
  • Lilly King, 2x Olympic Gold Medalist.
  • Ryan Lochte, 12x Olympic Medalist.
  • Matt Grevers, 6x Olympic Medalist.
  • Simone Manuel, 4x Olympic Medalist.
  • Tom Shields, 1x Olympic Medalist.
  • Kelsi Dahlia, 1x Olympic Gold Medalist.

TYR Venzo Tech Suit Sizing Guide

Now that we’ve covered all of the most important aspects of the TYR Venzo tech suit let’s quickly cover the sizing and what my recommendations are here in order for you to achieve the best fit.

My recommendation: For most swimmers, especially sprinters, I recommend going with the sizes recommended by the sizing chart.

If you, however, swim a bit longer events such as 200s and 400s or have some more weight on you, you might opt to go one size up despite the size chart recommendations. Keep in mind, the suit will stretch out over time as well.

Here are the size charts for the tech suit, both for the men’s and women’s Venzo tech suit-

←Scroll To View Full Table→

Men’s Sizing:

Size 20 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 32 34 36
Waist (inches/cm) 24-25.5/ 60-65 26-27.5/ 66-69  27-28/ 68-71 28-29.5/ 71-74 29-30/ 73-76 30-31.5/ 76-80 31-32/ 78-81 32-34/ 81-86 33.5-34.5/ 85-87 34.5-36/ 87-91 36.5-38.5/ 92-96 39-41/ 99-104 41.5-44/ 105-111
Hips (inches/ cm) 30-31.5/ 76-80 32-33/ 81-83 32.5-33.5/ 82-85 33.5-34.5/ 85-87 34-35/ 86-88 35-36.5/ 88-92 36-37/ 91-93 37-38.5/ 93-97 38-39/ 96-99 39-40.5/ 99-103 41-43/ 104-109 43.5-45.5/ 110-115 46-48/ 116-121

Women’s Sizing:

Size 20 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 32 34 36
Chest (inches/ cm) 27.5-28/ 69-71 28.5-29.5/ 72-74 29-30/ 73-76 30-31.5/ 76-80 31-32/ 78-81 32-33.5/ 81-85 33-34/ 83-86 34-35.5 /86-90 35-36/ 88-91 36-37/ 91-94 38-39.5/ 96-100 40-41.5/ 101-105 40.5-42/ 102-106
Waist (inches/ cm) 22-22.5/ 55-57 23-23.5/ 58-59 23.5-24/ 59-60 24-25/ 60-63 24.5-25.5/ 62-64 25.5-27/ 64-68 26.5-27.5/ 67-69 27.5-29/ 69-73 28.5-29.5/ 72-74 29.5-31/ 74-78 31.5-32.5/ 80-83 33-34/ 83-86 34.5-36/ 87-91
Hips (inches/ cm) 29.5-30.5/ 74-77 31.5-32.5/ 80-82 32-33/ 81-83 33-34.5/ 83-87 34-35/ 86-88 35-36.5/ 88-92 36-37/ 91-94 37.5-38.5/ 95-97 38-39/ 96-99 39-40.5/ 99-103 41-42/ 104-106 42.5-43.5/ 107-110 44-46/ 111-116
Body Loop (inches/ cm) 51-53/ 129-134 53.5-55/ 135-139 55-57/ 139-144 55.5-57/ 140-144 56.5-57.5/ 143-146 57.5-58.5/ 146-148 58-59/ 147-149 59-60/ 149-152 59.5-60.5/ 141-153 60.5-61.5/ 153-156 62-63/ 157-160 63.5-64.5/ 161-163 65-67/ 165-170

For more help with your tech suit sizing, consider checking out my tech suit sizing chart guide.

Where Can You Purchase the TYR Venzo Tech Suit?

For swimmers in the USA, Canada, and anywhere in Europe, I highly recommend using SwimOutlet to purchase your swimming gear and tech suits. They are one of the biggest swimming stores online and have fast, reliable shipping, as well as some of the best tech suit pricing in the game.

Top Pick for Sprinters and IM
TYR Venzo Tech Suit

Quick summary: the TYR Venzo is one of the best sprinting tech suits, although still perfectly suited to mid-range events. The suit works well with all strokes.

Features include a durable, water-resistant fabric combined with a frictionless fiber construction and seamless exo-shell to reduce drag. Built-in surface lift technology, dual layering, and an endo-compression cage further enhance your performance.

Downsides include lacking comfort and being hard to put on.

Buy Now on SwimOutlet

Additional Tech Suit Resources

Here are some additional tech suit resources to help you to get the most out of your TYR Venzo tech suit and its performance-

The TYR Venzo Is a Great Tech Suit

Overall, the TYR Venzo is a superb tech suit. Without a doubt, I think that this is one of the best high-end tech suits currently available and it’s sure to deliver you with some great swimming performance in the pool.

Photo of author
I am Benjamin, a competitive swimmer with over a decande of experience in the sport of swimming. I also hold certifications in Exercise Science and Nutrition. I am very passionate about competitive swimming and love sharing everything I have learned about the sport. I specialize in swimming butterfly and my favorite event is the 100m butterfly with the 50m and 200m fly closely following.

A Cheat Sheet for Creating the Perfect Swimming Workout and Routine

Download this FREE cheat sheet to create the perfect swimming workout and routine. Learn how to structure your swim workout and enjoy 9 example workouts, ranging from beginner to advanced.

Swim Workout Cheat Sheet
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