Who really invented the one-piece race ski suit ?

I’ve always believed that the first aerodynamic one-piece racing suit had been invented by the French sport garment manufacturer Fusalp. and was premiered during the 1966 Portillo World Championships that saw the clear domination of the French ski team.

According to some, an extensive physical training regiment was to be credited for the 16 out of 24 medals possible, but it’s certain that the never-seen-before sleek ski suits had an impact in terms in gaining a few critical fraction of seconds on the race course and, from the get go, somehow demoralized the other competitors. 

Today, with the passing of Hans Hess at 90, history is once more being revised. Allegedly, this Swiss gentleman came up with the idea of using his neighbor and diving pioneer Hannes Keller’s expertise, to develop an aerodynamic alpine racing suit while visiting the Lauberhorn races. 

The flapping trousers when jumping over the dog's head made "a noise as if an express train were passing by," recalls Hess. In 1969 both men founded Skin AG, with the goal of producing ski suits that fit like a second skin. 

Eventually, Hess was able to refine his product, and from 1971 Skin AG became supplier to the Swiss ski team. In the same year, Descente, the Japanese textile manufacturer, became aware of Hess' high-tech suits. Interest in working together developed following the Swiss victories at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics. 

From that point forward and to this day, Descente has been used by the Swiss. After hearing that nice story, I'm not convinced at all that Hess and Keller “invented” the sleek one-piece suit skiers use today. 

In fact, prior to Portillo, Léo Lacroix a finicky and technically-oriented racer was always looking for ways to improve athletes' performance, so he asked Fusalp's management to conduct  some wind-tunnel testing in order to study the behavior of existing ski clothing. 

He remembers: “That made us think, how can we get rid of all these flapping, jackets, pants or bibs, at high speed; there had to be a practical solution to that problem…” 

Something had to be done to drastically redesign these garments. Three month later, one-piece suits were readied just in time for the world championships in Chile and would become the tangible marker of a historic and overwhelming French victory. 

 It’s therefore impossible to ignore Léo Lacroix and Fusalp’s roles in originating, inventing and designing this new aerodynamic form of clothing that Skin AG eventually perfected. 

Who could disagree with that?