Time for another installment of my gymnastics leotards run-down. For today’s article I have dug through the underbelly of the Internet and come up with a couple of new distributors that have very reasonably priced leotards in a wide variety of styles, but more on that in a minute. First, I wanted to recap the Cover Girl gymnastics classic that just occurred. As always, the young gymnasts amazed me. There were some excellent performances during the competition. Here is a clip of Shawn Johnson’s beam routine. Not one of her best, but not too bad for someone who is getting older either.
One of the things that immediately caught my attention in this clip is the fact that Shawn’s leo has lace sleeves. I have seen many styles of leos during my tenure as a gymnastics coach, but this is honestly the first time I have ever seen a black and purple leotard with lace sleeves. Another interesting development is that Alicia Sacrimone was wearing gymnastics leotards that were made by Under Armour. Apparently this was cause for discussion as the leos worn at classics and national competitions are typically provided by GK Leotards. I will keep my ears open and see if I can find out more information about this.
I also wanted to take just a minute and remind you all that the 2012 summer Olympics are about a year out. We are sure to see a whole host of new leotard styles during the international meets leading up to the summer games. If you find any pictures of leos that are particularly interesting, please share them with us.
I have written about Snowflake Leotards in the past, and I wanted to revisit the products they offer one more time today. If you have had to go out and purchase any gymnastics leotards for your little athlete, you know they can get very expensive very quickly. There are some manufacturers out there that can charge upwards of $50 per leotard. That just flat out hurts. Snowflake Leotards has a nice selection of leos that are reasonably priced. Now, remember that the Snowflake leotard will fit your gymnast differently than her favorite GK leo, so make sure you do a good job of measuring your daughter before you get her the leotard.
They have a wide selection of leotards to choose from. For example, here are two nice little blue leotards that have a nice, decorative feel to them.
 
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They also have some very cute red leotard fashions that your gymnast will love to sport while working out. These leos would be great for practice.
 
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Regardless of what type of colorful gymnastics leotard you are looking for, Snowflake leotards should be one of your stops.
One of the up and coming gymnastics leotard manufacturers that I found is Eel Skin Leotards. I found this company while out playing around on Facebook. As soon as I stumbled across them, I knew I had to ping Tamera, the owner, and find out what her story was. Here is the rundown she gave me:
“EEL Skins was designed when my daughter started gymnastics classes. I was shocked to see that a basic leotard was $50…wow. To top it all off, there was nothing cute to choose from! I was told that I could go to a big name store and get a leotard for $20, so I did and really was not happy with the quality or selection. The material that was used was cheap and when I dropped her off for class there were three other girls with the exact same thing on. I went home that night and teamed up with my partner and EeL Skins was born. A cute, quality, unique and most importantly affordable line of gymnastics, dance and ice skating wear that your little girl is going to LOVE!
We make Leotards, unitards, ice skating dresses and skirted leotards. All colors are available and many different textures from metallic and glitter to mattes and velvets.”
Here are a couple of images from their Facebook page that show the style and quality of their gymnastics apparel.
 Eel Skin Blue Leotard |
 Eel Skin Polkadot Leotard |
This is exactly what I like to find – an entrepreneur that has found a problem, identified a solution and then taken it to the people. You can find more information on their products at their Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/EEL-Skin-Leotards/210939715585045).
My other major leotard find has a similar story, read on. Tumbleos is another small start up that realized that the price of gymnastics can just be flat out outrageous sometimes. So instead of spending $50 a pop on leotards. Here is Tumbleos founder Amy telling the companies story in her own words.
“Tumbleos is new to the gymnastics leotard world, having just been established in January 2011. I started making leotards for my daughter after being frustrated by the high prices and lack of easy accessibility to affordable leotards. After all, we spend so much money on our tuition fees for gymnastics, spending $50 on a leotard to practice in seemed outrageous to me. I also began making leotards for my nieces involved in competition gymnastics. Their friends all loved their leotards and other parents started begging me to make leotards for their daughters. From there, I created a website, www.tumbleos.com and posted my leotards on Ebay. Since then, sales have increased about 25% each month.
Tumbleos leotards are unique, fit great, and hold up well. The most popular style, the Racerback Leotards, some of which are adorned with a rhinestone embellishment (are sold with extra rhinestones), are a great choice for girls who tend to outgrow the arm holes first. Tumbleos leotards can be custom-made to fit anyone’s style. On our website you can choose the style you want and then select any of our fabrics in that style or you can just order one of my predesigned leotards. The styles include the Racerback, Tango Top, Keyhole, Classic Tank, Heart Top, Arch Top, and any of those with a sleeve. I’ve also started selling grip bags, which can also be custom-made to match your style or leotard.
All Tumbleos leotards are made with great care by me and ship within 3 days of ordering. All fabrics are high quality and 4-way stretch, mostly a nylon/spandex mix with the exception of the velvet fabrics, which are a polyester/spandex mix. All leotards include a polyester/spandex crotch lining.
Sometimes I’m asked if my leotards are a good quality and if they last. The answer to that question is …absolutely. Something doesn’t have to be mass produced in China and then overpriced in the US in order for it to be good quality.”
Here are some photos of the leotards to give you an idea of their style and quality.
 Hearts and Bones Tumbleos Leotard |
 Polkadot Tumbleos Leotard |
 White and Blue Tumbleos Leotard |
There are many major names in the gymnastics leotard industry – GK, Alpha Factor, Danskin, etc. Each of these major leotard makers does an excellent job of creating a long lasting product, but honestly, they can be pretty expensive. I think it is great that there are smaller companies like Snowflake Leotards, Eel Skin Leotards, and Tumbleos that are out there in the gymnastics leotards market space to keep things competitive and keep the big guys on their toes.
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Hopefully your Christmas was excellent. Regardless of whether you observe Christmas, Hanukkah, or winter solstice day, I hope you had a great time and enjoyed the brief respite this season of the year affords to us. However, that brief rest is done and now it’s back to the serious business of gymnastics. I don’t know about where you live but in Arizona, January kicks off our optional competitive season and a lot of young ladies will be entering the gym for the first time at level VII or higher testing their skills as optional level gymnasts. If you’ve done optional gymnastics or coached gymnastics before you know that this can be an exhilarating and anxious time, but by-and-large most young gymnasts that make it to this point have a love for the sport and the talent that it takes to perform at this level. This is also that time of year when these new optional gymnasts will have an opportunity to finally sport their new competitive gymnastics leos that they’ve been waiting so eagerly to don the entire year.
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating…there are many options when it comes to selecting competitive girls gymnastics leotards. Two of my favorites are Danskin and the GK gymnastics leotards lines. You know, if you’ve read this blog, I’m a value man. I’m all for saving a penny whenever it’s possible, but I think a delineation needs to be made when we are looking at purchasing competitive leotards for our young gymnasts. It’s one thing to have a discount leotard to use for the repetition inherent in gymnastics practice five days a week, but especially in optional gymnastics the look that you present is important. As a gymnastics coach with 20 years of experience in the competitive area I believe it is important that our young gymnasts look like a million dollars. Optional level gymnastics judges have fewer things to critique you on when performing an optional routine, as opposed to compulsory routines. While they may know the execution of your skills and the amplitude of your skills, the big deciding factor can be how you present yourself. A clean, sharp looking competitive gymnastics leotard can help add to the clean lines in your arms and legs, pointed toes, and pretty gymnastics hands.
As a parent I know the sport can be expensive, we just shelled out a small fortune for my daughter’s competition leotard and accessories, but remember that it is worth it. For many of these young ladies they have a small window of opportunity in which to participate in this highly demanding sport, I think we need to help them look their best.
When you have a chance, take a look at the GK and Danskin website and see what they’re selling. Not only might you find an excellent gymnastics competition leotard for your young gymnast, but who knows you may stumble across a couple of discount gymnastics leotards that can be used during practice as well.
Now get out there and stick it!
It has been a while since I have posted, so I figured it was time to get out there on the web and see what is new, or what is old and still worth writing about. During the course of my Internet travels over a cup of tea this morning as I am sitting in Senegal I came across one of my old favorite discount leotard sites. Discount Leotards has an excellent selection of all things relating to gymnastics apparel. They are currently offering their fall and winter gymnastics leotards lines, and you may even be able to score a discounted price on one of the lines they were carrying for Christmas. It is a fairly large site and I did not dig into every nook, but if you have been there before you know that they carry Alpha Factor leotards, GK leotards, toddler leotards, and possibly even Danskin leotards. You should stop by and check them out.
I also spent some time looking at body wrappers leotards. They appear to have a good selection and a variety of leotards. Some of these body wrappers styles leotards could very easily be adapted to gymnastics, and your young lady will enjoy the variety of styles they offer. Take some time and stop in at their online site.
Now get out there and stick it!
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As my “About Me” page states, I have coached recreational and competitive girls gymnastics for more than twenty years. One of the things I have learned during that time is that girls gymnastics is often a mystery to the gymnast themselves and their parents as well. I am going to begin to discuss miscellaneous tid-bits of gymnastics information in the hopes of helping to demystify the sport of girls gymnastics for you and you little gymnast.
Where to begin? If you (or your child) are currently enrolled in a girls gymnastics program, at a minimum you should be aware that there are four events that young ladies perform on – floor, beam, bars, and vault. Let me qualify that previous statement. Those events apply only to artistic gymnastics and not rhythmic gymnastics. Rhythmic gymnastics is a whole other ballgame that I won’t be addressing. Depending on the age and skill level of your child, they will be placed into a class (typically level one or two, or maybe a pre-competitive program). Keep in mind that this placement is not arbitrary, but instead follows guidelines laid out by the United States of America Gymnastics (USAG) association. These folks carefully develop guidelines and standards that help to ensure the proper placement of your child into any girls gymnastics program. Having said that I need to clarify that this is how it should work. Not all girls gymnastics centers adhere to these guidelines, so it might not be a bad idea to ask your gym if they follow the USAG program. The bottom line is that gymnastics is a great way to promote building self confidence in children of all ages, and I have seen it work wonders over the span of my 20 year career in kids. I hope this information helps you get your daughter into a sound USAG girls gymnastics program.
Now get out there and stick it.
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