Dressing for Success: What to Wear During Your Skydive

As you gear up for your heart-pounding leap into the boundless skies, it’s essential to consider the appropriate attire for skydiving. What you wear for your skydiving experience can significantly impact your comfort, safety, and overall enjoyment. We’ll guide you through proper skydiving outfits and help you choose the perfect ‘fit for a safe and thrilling journey with Long Island Skydiving Center!

Safety First: The “Base Layer” of Skydiving Outfits

Before diving into the specifics of skydiving clothes, it’s important to understand that the primary purpose of your skydiving outfit is for safety. Skydiving isn’t just an adrenaline-pumping thrill, it is also a technical and precision-oriented sport that prioritizes safety. And just like any other sport, the right clothing can make all the difference. You wouldn’t want to run a marathon in jeans and flip-flops, right!?

What to Wear for Skydiving

We get it, you want to look fly while flying through the sky – especially if you intend to post your skydiving video on the gram (#longislandskydiving)! But more importantly, you’ll want to choose something that’s going to be comfortable so you can fully embrace the moment and to avoid having an embarrassing or dangerous wardrobe malfunction.

Luckily, piecing an outfit together for skydiving is super easy and you can still look cute! In general, when choosing what to wear for skydiving, you’ll want to consider these three main characteristics:

• Comfortable: You’re about to embark on one of the most epic journeys of your life, why ruin it with constantly adjusting your clothes or being uncomfortable? Start by choosing your most comfortable athletic wear or even some moisture-wicking layers that are going to help keep you dry and comfortable, then adjust as necessary.
• Adaptable: Temperatures can rise and fall especially as you travel to higher altitudes, where it’s typically 30-40 degrees cooler – so, you may decide that you want an added layer of comfort. It’s a good idea to be prepared with versatile clothing options that are easy to layer.
• Secure: Have you ever stuck your hand out of the car window as you travel on the interstate going 60 mph? Yeah, multiply that feeling by TWO and that’s what you’re about to experience during the freefall portion of your skydive. Which means, you’ll want to choose clothing and shoes that can withstand the high wind speeds and won’t fly off into the blue abyss, never to be seen again!

Clothes for Skydiving

When selecting what to wear for skydiving, we recommend prioritizing items that provide a snug fit without restricting any movement. Skydiving outfits usually consist of stretchable fabrics such as spandex that allows for flexibility and protection. In addition to your clothing, skydivers and students sometimes wear a skydiving jumpsuit over top of their clothing. These jumpsuits are usually made from nylon, cordura, spandex, or polycotton which can add that extra drag you need to help your flying capabilities while also offering an extra layer of protection against potential abrasions during landing.

When it comes to skydiving clothes, you’ll want to focus on these qualities:

• Snug: Skydiving often involves varying altitudes and weather conditions, so dressing in layers is key. Choose some snug-fit basics with thin-ish material that won’t be uncomfortable to put more layers over top if needed. We’re thinking, tank top underneath a thin long-sleeve shirt here.
• Stretchy/Durable: Skydiving involves a lot of crouching, scooching, and bending – so, you’ll want to be in clothing that will conform to whatever shape you need to take on while on your skydiving journey. In addition, you’ll want to choose clothes that won’t rip or tear as you brace the 120 mph in freefall, or the grass slide at landing.
• Simple: What do we mean by “simple” clothing? We mean, avoid clothing items that have notions and embellishments that will serve as “snag hazards,” so zippers, hardware, buttons, drawstrings, tassels, and loose material that might flap in your face or your instructor’s face (we’re looking at you hoodies and collars). These accessories could potentially snag the skydiving rig which could damage the material or cause a more serious malfunction. Besides, flapping materials can not only be obstructive and get in the way of your enjoyment, they can straight up hurt! So double knot those laces and leave the fringe jacket at home.

Shoes for Skydiving

Skydiving footwear is one of the most important choices when putting together your skydiving outfit. More importantly, what shoes NOT to wear skydiving … boots, high heels, cleats and shoes that expose any part of your foot (sandals, flip-flops, slip-ons). Pretty much just wear what you would wear when going for a jog.

Here is what you should look for when choosing the best shoes for skydiving:

• Closed Toe: Athletic sneakers or any kind of shoe that does not expose any part of your foot.
• Flat Sole: This one is more for the pro skydivers. Having shoes with flat bottom soles are good for landings because they don’t snag or catch onto anything on the ground while sliding.
• Secure: Choose shoes that won’t come off in freefall and that can be laced up tightly or secured to your feet with lock laces or elastic laces. Trust us, you don’t want to feel the pain of flapping laces on your legs. Ouch!

Accessories for Skydiving

Accessories can add that personal touch to your style, but we urge you to tone down the accessories as much as possible. Mostly because we wouldn’t want you to mess up one of the best moments of your life by losing one of your most prized possessions. We always say if you don’t want to risk losing it, don’t wear it! As far as glasses go, we have protective goggles that are designed to fit over your glasses and keep them secured to your head.

Ready to “dress to the skies” with Long Island Skydiving Center? Contact a team member  or book online today! Blue skies.