Letter from the workshop, March

There is a version of this decision that would have been cheaper, faster and entirely defensible. We did not take it, and the reasoning is worth setting down…

25 March 2026 2 min read By admin

There is a version of this decision that would have been cheaper, faster and entirely defensible. We did not take it, and the reasoning is worth setting down properly rather than leaving it to a product page.

Limestone neoprene has a denser cell wall than its petrochemical equivalent. In practice that means less water taken on, less weight carried, and a suit that stays closer to the temperature it started at.

Assembly happens in Ericeira, by hand, by people whose names are on the record inside the cuff. It is slower than the alternative and it is the reason the lead time is six weeks rather than six days.

In practice

When the thousandth unit ships, this closes. Not as a marketing device — the pattern, the tooling and the run were specified once, and extending them would mean building a different object and calling it the same name.

Most of what gets written about wetsuits is written to sell them. What follows is closer to a working note: what we tried, what we measured, and the places where the answer was less flattering than we would have liked.

Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better.
Sir Frederick Henry Royce

Everything above is subject to revision. If a later batch tells us something different, it will appear here rather than quietly replacing what is written now.

Filed under Dispatches. Sample content — replace before launch.