Does a regular jumpsuit work for formation skydiving? RW suits with grippers and booties explained, including fall-rate tuning for your team.
Does your regular jumpsuit work for formation skydiving? The honest answer: not really. An RW suit (relative work suit) differs clearly from what freefly or wingsuit jumpers wear — and the difference isn't a marketing detail, it's a tool.
RW suits have two things other suits don't need: grippers (grip strips on arms and legs) and booties (fabric covers over the shoes). Grippers give your teammates something to hold onto; booties add surface area at your feet and make you more controllable in flight.
Just as important as what is how much: your suit's fit determines your fall rate — how fast you fall relative to your team. A baggier cut slows you down more (more surface, more drag), a tighter cut makes you fall faster. Your suit isn't just clothing, then — it's your tuning tool.
Grippers sit on upper and lower arms and upper and lower legs. They aren't handles to yank on but contact surfaces you grip gently — not tear at. Too hard a grip destabilizes the whole formation because you're introducing uncontrolled force into the system.
Booties add surface area at your feet and give you finer control over your leg steering — important because legs in FS often handle the fine forward-and-back corrections. Without booties, exactly that fine feel is missing.
Jumpers differ in weight and size — yet a whole team has to fall at the same speed. A baggier, draggier suit for faster-falling (usually heavier) jumpers and a tighter one for slower-falling (lighter) jumpers evens that out. This fine-tuning is usually done together with an experienced suit maker.
At the start, a rental suit from the dropzone is entirely sufficient. Only once you jump regularly with the same team does a custom suit pay off — it's then cut precisely to your fall rate relative to your teammates.
Check grippers and seams before every jump — a torn gripper can fail at the exact moment of a grip. Hang the suit up to dry instead of leaving it damp in a bag.
A suit with defective grippers or loose seams is a team safety risk — a teammate holding onto a tearing gripper loses control at the worst possible moment. Check your gear consistently before every jump.
Also make sure the suit doesn't restrict your gripping hand — you must be able to let go quickly and cleanly at any time, for example at break-off. A regular gear check at the packing table costs you less than two minutes but prevents exactly the failures that are most expensive at the worst possible moment.
Ask experienced teammates about their suit maker and watch over their shoulder at your first fitting. The fine-tuning between suit cut and fall rate is one of the most underrated details in FS — and often makes more difference in the end than pure training. Also note which suit cut works at which weather and exit altitude — that experience is worth real money once you order your own custom suit.
Technically yes, but without grippers your team has nothing safe to hold onto. A rental suit from the dropzone is entirely enough for your first attempts — a real RW suit pays off once you train regularly.
Booties add surface area at your feet and give you finer control over your leg steering — crucial because legs in FS often handle the fine correction movements.
Because a baggier cut creates more drag and slows the wearer down, while a tighter cut offers less drag and lets you fall faster. That's how a team evens out different bodies and fall rates.
Once you jump regularly with the same team and your fall rates need to be tuned to each other. Before that, a rental suit is the smarter, cheaper choice.
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