I’ve been writing this blog for a little over two years, and during that time I’ve written multiple articles about a whole host of different gymnastics leotards vendors. Those of you that have read my “About Me” page know that I have over 20 years experience as a competitive coach in the sport of gymnastics. Furthermore, I have several children who participate in the sport… so it stands to reason that outfitting children for gymnastics is something I know about. I thought I would take some time on this post to kind of go back and summarize the various leotard manufacturers that I’ve written about — there are a bunch of them. If you are new to the site this post will provide you a broad overview of some of the topics I’ve covered over the past two years and give you a decent starting point for your research regarding which gymnastics leotard is best for your young superstar.

I anticipate this post will be rather long so for the purposes of organization I decided to break it into three basic categories: personal favorites, established vendors, and new sites. In the personal favorites section I will spend time talking about the gymnastics leotards manufacturers that I’m partial towards. There are multiple reasons for my partiality towards the specific brands, and I will spell them out as I’m discussing these different gymnastics leotards. In the established vendor site I will focus on those girls gymnastics leotards makers that have been around for a while and have an established reputation. Most of these vendors I’ve only used infrequently, but their good standing in the gymnastics community certainly warrants a discussion of their products on this site. Finally, the new sites section will spend some time reviewing several of the new gymnastics leotards manufacturers that I have come across (primarily by surfing on the Internet and reviewing the ads in the latest copies of USA Gymnastics magazine). While most of these sites are still proving themselves in the gymnastics community I feel it’s only fair to give them a mention on this blog and provide you, the consumer, with an opportunity to try their products. Hopefully if you try their products and have something to report you’ll come back here and share your experiences with us. So now…onto the review.

Personal Favorites….GK Leotards and Danskin Leotards
If you spend any time at all looking at the pages of this blog you’ll notice that I write a lot about GK leotards and Danskin leotards. It should come as no surprise that these are two of my preferred brands. I don’t work for either of the companies, they don’t advertise on the site, and I don’t get a kickback for saying that. As a competitive gymnastics coach I have worked with young ladies for 20 years and seen my share of leotards that last and leotards that wear out quickly. Personal experience has taught me the GK leotards and Danskin leotards seem to perform and last considerably longer than some of the other brands. That’s just from my personal experience. As I have said in the pages of this blog, if you want a GK leotard or Danskin leotard, and intend to buy it new… you’re going to pay for it. They are not inexpensive leotards, but if you look at it like any other investment amortizing its depreciation over the usable life of the product, in the end you will certainly realize your return on this investment.

Established Vendors
The next group of gymnastics leotards manufacturers/vendors I wanted to talk about are those companies that have been in the gymnastics community for quite some time and that have a good reputation for producing high-quality products. Brands such as MotionWear, Addidas, and Alpha Factor (Aerials) have established themselves in the gymnastics leotard niche, and I believe they will continue to be major players for quite some time. The reason for their success, again as with my personal favorites, is that they continue to make high-quality products. While I have had many girls throughout my gymnastics career that have used these types of leotards, I personally don’t have any first-hand experience with them. These companies are widely known for having a widely varied product selection, with some type of leo to fit almost any gymnast’s taste. Additionally, in regards to Adidas, if I remember correctly, they produced the ladies leotards for the 2008 USA women’s gymnastics team. Again, if you’re looking to purchase one of these leotards new you can expect to pay a higher price, but you can have a high degree of confidence that the quality of these products will not disappoint you.

Newer sites
One of the other topics I’m fond of writing about in this blog is new and upcoming girls gymnastics leotards distributors/manufacturers. I am a huge value guy and I like to get the most bang for my buck, so should come as no surprise that I take great joy in finding a new gymnastics leotard maker that is producing high-quality leotards with super reasonable prices. I simply love writing about these types of vendors. Over the past two years as I’ve been writing this blog I have come across several of these: – Jillybeans Leotards, Satara Leotards, Snow Leotards, Leotard City, and Rebecca’s Mom’s Leotards. Now I use the phrase newer when describing these sites not necessarily because these are sites that have cropped up within the last six months… that is not the case. However, these companies are not as established as some of the industry leaders that I mentioned previously. I have purchased leotards from several of these newer leotard companies, and to date I have been very happy with the merchandise I received. As a matter of fact, some of these companies even send complimentary scrunchies along the leotard you order. Customer service-I love it.

The nine or so companies that are profiled in this post are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gymnastics leotards manufacturers. There are many different leotard vendors out there, and I think most of them are selling decent products. I would encourage you to try and purchase from vendors that you’re familiar with or that friends of yours have used, but if you absolutely have to purchase from a brand-new source make sure your initial purchase is modest in size so that you have an opportunity to evaluate the quality of not only the product, but of the customer service the vendor will provide as well.

Now get out there and stick it!

Gymnastics Leotards

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!

Girls Gymnastics Leotards

So as 2009 draws to a close, I decided it was time for a new look for the blog. Given my strong patriotic feelings in the strong ties that gymnastics has to patriotism in America, I decided to go for this America themed blog format. I hope you like it.

I also decided it was time to go out and review a couple of new sites. My goal is to begin to try to post an article at least one time per week, as I have been rather delinquent in posting new information. Sorry. Before I jump into my review of the two sites, would like to take just one moment and say congratulations to the USA women’s team, who took five medals at the world championships, held recently in London. Way to go girls!

Now down to business. The first site that I spent a little time poking around on this week was TumbleWear Leotards. It is your standard gymnastics leotard site. It provides a wide selection of girls gymnastics leotard’s for just about any size and gymnast. As a matter of fact, it looks like they even offer toddler gymnastics leotards. The price of the leotards on this site is comparable with that of other gymnastics leotard sites on the Internet. They do point out that with each order you will receive a free scrunchie. While it is not a lot, it is something. In addition to the girls gymnastics leotards they offer they have a whole host of accessories as well. While these are not what I would consider cheap gymnastics leotards, by no means are they expensive leotards either.

The second site that I went out to explore was GymTreasures. Be advised that this is not your typical gymnastics leotard outfit, but instead they specialize in all of the accessories that one may need, or think they need. They have items such as gymnastics hoodies, gymnastics flannel warm-ups, key chains, gym bags, night lights, necklaces, and the list goes on. If you have a little gymnast like I do, who likes to accessorize their outfit, this site may be just what you’re looking for. In addition to gymnastics accessories they also have accessories for dance and cheerleading. All of the merchandise is reasonably priced and should make it easily affordable for most gymnastics parents. If you have a little or big gymnast, especially one that likes their stuff I would highly recommend taking some time to visit the gym treasure’s website.

Now, get out there and stick it.

Girls Gymnastics Leotards

It’s November again, and that magical time of year is quickly approaching…not tax season, but Christmas. If your gymnastics programs run anything like ours in the Southwest, then your compulsory season is in full swing, you have gotten your new competition leotards, and you have broken out the long sleeved leotards because it is getting cold out. Now it is time for holiday shopping. You and I both know that your little gymnast would love to find a new girls gymnastics leotard under the tree for Christmas. Lucky you, there is no shortage of retailers that will be selling these. My recommendation to you would be to go out online and find the leotard you want and order it now. Don’t wait till the last minute, because the selection will be smaller, and the shipping will cost more.

Finding a gymnastics retailer that will be selling leotards is not difficult. I am certain that if you go out and look at GK gymnastics leotards, or Danskin leotards you will find leotards that have been put together specifically for the Christmas season. If you have shopped at either of these two stores before you know they can be a little pricey, so you may also want to check out some of the other sites we have profiled in the past. I am sure that Leotard City, Lizatards Leos, and Jillybeans will all be offering some type of Christmas special. The key is that you get out there and see what you can find. Like I said above, the sooner you begin looking for your Christmas leotards, the easier it will be to get exactly what you want.

Good luck with your shopping and Merry Christmas…Now get out there and stick it!

Girls Gymnastics Leotard