The skin suit is the piece of kit skaters think about least and complain about most. Nobody agonises over it the way they agonise over wheels or bearings, and then on race day someone is tugging at a sleeve on the start line, or discovering that a suit which felt fine standing up in a shop is cutting into their shoulders the moment they get into a skating position.
The problem is that a skin suit is not clothing. It is equipment, and it is sized like equipment. Almost everything you know about picking a t shirt size actively works against you here. This guide explains how race fit actually works, how to read a skin suit size run, what the fabric is doing, and how to look after a suit so it is still race worthy at the end of a season rather than baggy and pilled.
Why Skin Suit Sizing Confuses Everyone
Your normal clothes are cut with ease. That is the deliberate extra room a garment carries beyond your actual body measurement so it hangs nicely and lets you move. A skin suit has negative ease. It is cut smaller than you and stretches onto you. The fabric is meant to be under tension when you are wearing it.
Everyday clothes are cut larger than you with room to spare, while a race suit is cut smaller and holds itself under tension against your body.
This is why the standard advice of "order your usual size" is useless. Your usual size assumes ease. It also explains the most common sizing mistake: a skater tries a suit on standing upright in front of a mirror, decides it feels tight, and sizes up. Then they get into a deep skating position, where a suit that fitted standing is suddenly loose across the back and bunching at the hips, flapping in the wind it was designed to cut through.
Always Judge Fit in a Skating Position
This is the single most useful thing in this article. Put the suit on, then get into your actual position: knees bent, back flat, chest low, arms where they live when you skate. That is the shape the suit was patterned for. A suit that feels snug standing and comfortable in position is correct. A suit that feels comfortable standing will almost always be too big.
A suit that feels comfortable standing is usually too big, while a suit that feels snug in your low skating position is the one cut for racing.
Then check three things in that position. Can you breathe fully into your ribs at the bottom of your position? Does the crotch seam stay put when you extend a leg fully sideways, or does it drag down? Does the shoulder pull uncomfortably when you swing an arm across? Tightness is expected. Restriction of breathing or of a full stroke is not.
Reading the Size Run
The LiveLica Pro Skin Suit for Speed Skating is offered in sizes 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16, alongside S, M and L. Two parallel size runs on one product confuses people, so it is worth explaining what is going on.
The Numeric Sizes
Numeric sizes are the junior and youth end of the run. The numbers step in twos and are designed around growing skaters, where a small gap between sizes matters because bodies change quickly. If you are buying for a young skater, this is the run you are working in.
The Letter Sizes
S, M and L are the adult sizes. The steps between them are larger, which is the usual trade off in adult race kit.
The Growing Skater Problem
Every parent of a junior skater eventually asks whether to buy a size up so the suit lasts. It is an understandable instinct and it is the wrong call for a race suit. An oversized skin suit does not simply look loose. It stops doing the job it exists to do. The compression is not compressing, the aerodynamic pattern is not sitting where it was patterned to sit, and the leg grippers cannot grip a leg they do not reach. A suit bought a size up is a suit that does nothing useful for a year and then fits for six months. Buy for the body that is in the room.
What the Fabric Is Actually Doing
Skin suit fabric gets described in marketing language that skaters tune out. It is worth knowing what the specifics mean in practice.
Lycra Weight
The LiveLica Pro Skin Suit is made from premium Colombian textiles, featuring lycra that ranges from 260 to 360 grams. That gram figure is fabric weight, and it is the number that quietly determines how a suit behaves. Lighter fabric is cooler and more forgiving. Heavier fabric holds its shape under load, resists going see through when stretched over a body in position, and lasts longer before it starts sagging. A suit built across that range is using different weights in different places for different jobs, which is exactly what you want.
Compression in the Legs
The Pro Skin Suit uses compression fabric in the legs, with bidirectional stretch fabrics through the suit and greater resistance to pilling. Bidirectional stretch matters because skating is not a single plane movement. Your leg extends sideways and backwards at once, and fabric that only stretches one way fights you in the other.
Pilling resistance sounds cosmetic and is not. Those little balls of fluff are fabric fibres that have broken and migrated to the surface. A pilled suit is a suit whose fabric structure is degrading, and it is losing both compression and its smooth surface at the same time.
Heat and Sun
For skaters training outdoors in humid conditions, this is the part that matters daily rather than on race day. The suit carries Fast Dry quick drying technology and Sweat Resist fabric, plus Solar Guard offering UPF 50 plus protection against UV rays. On a long outdoor session, a suit that dries as you go and does not hold a kilo of sweat is not a luxury. UPF 50 plus across the parts of you the suit covers is a real practical benefit when your training window collides with the sun.
The suit is also made using an Eco Process, described as environmentally friendly manufacturing.
The Details That Decide Race Day
Silicone Leg Grippers
The leg finish on the Pro Skin Suit is a seamless laser cut with integrated silicone, which keeps the suit in place and helps aerodynamics. Two things are happening here. The laser cut edge means no hem, so there is no seam ridge sitting across your thigh creating drag and a pressure line. The silicone stops the leg riding up.
A rode up suit leg is not just untidy. Every centimetre it climbs is fabric bunching at your hip, and a bunch is a drag source sitting in exactly the wrong place. If you have ever spent a race pulling a leg back down, this is the detail that fixes it.
Sleeves
The suit uses ribbed fabric sleeves for improved air flow and reduced drag. Ribbed surfaces on the arms are a deliberate aerodynamic choice rather than a texture decision, which is why sleeve fit should be snug rather than loose.
The Zip
There is a visible YKK zipper at the back. A back zip is standard on race suits because it keeps the front of the suit clean and unbroken where the air hits you first. It also means you will need help getting in and out until you learn the trick of it, which is normal and not a defect.
One habit worth building immediately: always fasten the zip before putting the suit in a bag, and never yank a back zip while the suit is under stretch. Do the zip up with the suit relaxed on your shoulders, then settle it. Most dead zips on race suits died from being forced at an angle.
Making a Suit Last
Lycra has three enemies: heat, chlorine and time under tension. You control two of them.
Washing
Rinse the suit in cold water as soon as you can after a session rather than letting sweat dry into the fabric. Salt is abrasive at a microscopic level and it is what quietly grinds elastane down. Wash cold, inside out, on a gentle cycle or by hand. Never use fabric softener, which coats fibres and destroys both wicking and stretch recovery.
Drying
No tumble dryer, ever. Heat is what kills the elastane that gives the suit its compression, and once it is gone the suit will never recover its shape. Dry the suit flat or on a hanger in shade. Direct harsh sun on a wet suit is the second fastest way to age it, which is a nice irony for a garment with UV protection built in.
Storage
Store the suit flat or loosely folded, not stretched over a hanger by the shoulders and not screwed into a ball in the bottom of a kit bag. Lycra that spends months under tension takes a set and comes out with a permanently stretched patch.
You can see the full range in the LiveLica SkinSuit collection.
Where the Suit Sits in Your Setup
Be realistic about what a skin suit buys you. It is not going to add power to your stroke. What it does is stop you losing things: it stops fabric flapping, stops kit shifting mid race, stops chafe on a long session, and keeps sweat off your skin. Those are all small margins, and they are the kind of margins that only show up when everything else is already sorted.
If you are still fighting basic equipment problems, fix those first. Wheels that suit your surface and bearings that actually roll will change your skating far more than a suit will. Once your wheels and bearings are right, the suit is the next honest gain.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I size up if I am between sizes?
Generally no. A race suit is meant to be under tension, and a suit that is slightly too small still functions while a suit that is slightly too big does not. The exception is breathing. If the smaller size stops you filling your lungs at the bottom of your position, size up, because no aerodynamic gain is worth restricted breathing.
How tight is too tight?
Tight is expected. Numbness, pins and needles, restricted breathing, or a crotch seam that will not stay put during a full extension are all too tight. Marks on your skin after a session are normal for compression kit. Marks that are still there an hour later are not.
Can I wear something under a skin suit?
As little as possible, and nothing with seams that sit under the suit. Anything bulky under a compression garment defeats the compression and creates ridges under a surface designed to be smooth.
Why does my suit have a back zip instead of a front one?
Because the front of the suit is the surface that meets the air first, and a zip there is a break in it. Back zips are standard on race suits for exactly this reason.
My suit is pilling. Have I done something wrong?
Usually it is heat or friction. Tumble drying, hot washing, or washing with abrasive fabrics such as anything with a zip or velcro will accelerate it. Wash the suit cold, inside out, on its own or with other soft kit, and dry it flat.
Buy for the Position, Not the Mirror
If you take one thing from this guide, make it this: try the suit on and get into your skating position before you decide anything. The mirror lies, standing upright lies, and your instincts from buying normal clothes lie. The position tells the truth, because it is the shape the suit was designed around and the only shape you will actually be racing in.
Get the size right, wash it cold, never put it near a dryer, and a good suit will still be doing its job at the end of the season.
