A Swim Brand's Story in Pictures

Last July the pop-up image for a major swim brand's newsletter sign-up prompt on the homepage for their U.S. website caught my attention because it shows 6 young adults who appear nearly homogenous in age, physical fitness, body types, hair textures, and ethnicity. 

My disappointment in seeing how many different kinds of people were  excluded from this image led me to check in on that website at least once per month (except October & November 2023 and March 2024). 

Even if the homepage images during the 3 missed months featured a wide assortment of people of various ages, fitness levels, body types, hair textures, and ethnicities - as unlikely as that is, the majority of this swim brand's images during the past 15 months reveal a noticeable pattern of focusing on a very narrow portion of the population.      

Their homepage images from February, May, and June 2024 generated my cautious hope for expanded inclusion even as the pop-up prompt remained the same. Those other images ended up being a temporary deviation instead of the beginning of a broader approach to representation. 

It's the 21st century with the most multicultural, multiethnic population in the U.S. and the world, but not according to the majority of the following images. Excluding entire demographics as the norm in swim and aquatics marketing and outreach undercuts efforts to close the swim skills gap between Black and Brown people and their Anglo/white counterparts by reinforcing persistent assumptions that Black people don't swim. 

Humans swim. 

Black people are humans. 

Therefore, Black people swim. 

My work in pushing against the waves of disregard and dismissal of Black and Brown people in swimming and aquatics continues.  

The preceding timeline of photos tell one particular swim brand's story of limited consumer demographic focus, but all of the major sports brands have room for significant improvement. 

Adidas is ahead of the other retail consumer marketplace dominant sports gear brands in terms of expanded swim inclusion in their products, while Nike's visual array in the body types, hair textures, and skin tones of their swim models appears the broadest. 

Making inclusion in swim the universal default requires the joint efforts of influential people who are already automatically represented with active, ongoing input from a variety of people who are routinely excluded. 

Closing the swim skills gap demands consistent, conscientious dedicated effort from those of us who enjoy the privilege of knowing how to swim and having access to safe places and frequent opportunities to swim. 

While "keeping the water out of your hair so your hair doesn't keep you out of the water. (TM)" is the reason SwimMission Swim Cap was invented, my ultimate SwimMission remains contributing to:  

Universal water competency 

Strong swim skills for all 

Zero drownings