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Old 01-26-2018, 03:35 PM   #8
SEATUX
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Port Charlotte Fl
Age: 76
Posts: 2,480
Re: Custom suit/zipper opinions?

You made the right choice. But for future information let me run this info past those thinking about adding zippers to a suit.
I get request all the time for adding zippers, Most of the time they want them for the wrong reason. The correct reason is to make it easier to get on and off, the wrong reason is to gain some space, because the opposite will occur. If you were to measure the area taken up by a #10YKK zipper ( which is the ONLY zipper you want to see in your wetsuit) with a reasonably small inside flap, that comes out to 1/2". What that means is you just reduced the size of your suit by 1/2", so if it was already tight, you just made it 1/2" tighter...but wait, were not done yet. Lets say your putting the zipper in the neck of your suit, and your neck is 16", the inside circumference of the neck should measure damn close to 16" ( the outside of the hood/neck will measure much more, depending on the thickness of material being used) . So we know that we reduced the inside circumference of the neck by adding the zipper and the inside flap, but that 16" of material going around your neck has a % of stretch ( which can vary greatly with the type of neoprene used and more so with the type of fabric bonded to one or both sides). When a zipper is installed it is Usually glued in or affixed with a double sided tape so that when sewn it doesn't ruffle ( I use a walking foot with walking needle machine, and because of the sponginess of the material it can still be and issue feeding it, and the thicker the material the spongier it is) So the zipper is affixed to the material and now you sew it on. Look at the Overall distance of the stitching holding the zipper to the suit and you will see that you have lost at least 3/4" and often up to 1" of material that would normally be able to add stretch to the suit.
So as you can see, by Just adding a zipper you have effectivly made the suit considerably tighter.

But..so far we have been talking about the effective change to a 16" neck..What if we were talking about an 8" wrist? TWICE the impact!

I'm not saying a suit can't be made larger by adding zippers, but they need to be on a new piece of material ( insert) that is wider to make up for all those issues, with additional material width to adjust for what was too tight a fit in the first place.

Last edited by SEATUX; 01-26-2018 at 05:55 PM.
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