Why Always Call ‘Em Speedos?

I address this issue in my very first post (Speedo brand was first with this style of suit and the name stuck) but now I will elaborate further. To avoid trade mark infringement, after all the Speedo name is registered, the generic term that used to be used most often was ‘competition style swimsuit,’ but now that male swimmers are wearing ‘Jammers,’ ‘Johns,’ and ‘Leggings’ to name a few, ‘competition suit’ is no longer an accurate description of the sexy brief-style suit we all love. ‘Brief-style’ is a term that works well, but to me it sounds like the suit should have a fly like in Fruit-of-the-Loom briefs. ‘Bikini-Style’ works too, but to me that connotes a suit that is thinner on the sides than the traditional ‘Brief-style’ even though I would be happy with either in my ‘Speedo’ collection.

The basic fact is that the term ‘Speedo’ is one everybody can relate too, whether the suit has 3-inch sides or 1-inch, we all get the picture when someone says ‘Speedo.’ It is the simplest and easiest way to describe those incredibly sexy suits.

If only the real world was that easy though. Take eBay for example. Do a search for ‘Speedo’ and you get everything that that company makes from watches to water wings. Plus you get Speedometers for cars (Speedo is a nick name for them) and all sorts of thing you don’t care to see. ‘Competition’ is the heading of the sub-category under ‘swimwear,’ which is under ‘Men’s Clothing,’ under ‘Clothing, Shoes & Accessories’ where you will have the best luck of finding ‘Speedos.’ You will see the other styles of competition suits in this category as well, but you shouldn’t see any of the baggy styles of suits that most men in the USA wear. Of course, if the seller calls his suit a ‘Speedo’ and it is instead a brand like Nike, N2N, Laguna, Tyr, Aussie Bum, etc. that seller is in violation of eBay policy and the auction might be cancelled by the powers at eBay. So doing a narrow search with ‘Speedo’ in the search under the limited categories and you are still stuck not finding everything you might want. Uhg!

I know that use of some brand names has become so wide spread that companies have lost the right to own the word. I believe ‘escalator’ is an example. Perhaps if we all just insist on calling them Speedos (maybe I should stop capitalizing it) the word will enter the public domain and we will all be set free.

(Wow, I ramble on and on and on and on and on sometimes)