Regna Custom AI Tri Kit Review – Triathlete

The greatest discomfort I’ve experienced in triathlon wasn’t the hamstring cramp that seized my left leg four miles into my first Ironman run. It wasn’t the record heat at Coeur d’Alene 2021, where 130℉ ground temperatures caused full-foot blisters. Nor was it the road rash and concussion at Kona 2022 when an overzealous German sideswiped me five minutes into the bike leg.

My most memorable pain didn’t even occur during a race. It happened two hours after, in a Chattanooga suburb, when I hobbled into the shower at our Airbnb.

If you know where this is going, you’ve also spent too many hours in an ill-fitting tri kit. Mine was a last-minute online deal that was a little baggy in the butt and shoulders – and lacked a zipper guard. The loose fit caused heinous chafing in the armpits and crotch, and 140.6 miles of direct zipper-to-skin contact rubbed my stomach raw.

The moment the water hit my body, I started howling. The pain rivaled the time I swam into a Portuguese man o’ war in the Sea of Cortez – and it kept burning long after I hopped out of the shower, just like that jellyfish sting. The sensation was so intense that I searched a few medical websites and discovered that the condition has an actual scientific name: cutaneous hyperalgesia. It’s an autonomic reaction that occurs when external fluids contact the hypersensitive nerve endings that are exposed when your epidermis (the protective outer layer of skin) is rubbed away. The damaged cells release chemicals that simultaneously produce pain and lower your pain threshold, exacerbating the irritation when the shower spray hits you.

All of which should explain why I really like Regna’s Elite Trisuit despite its eye-watering $575 price tag. As someone who’s always struggled to find technical clothes that truly fit my very tall, very slender 6’6” frame, I’ve finally found a tri suit that doesn’t chafe my ass or distract me as various sensitive parts start smarting. For athletes who train long hours and race several times a year – and especially those who are tall, short, shapely, muscular, or otherwise outside the “normal” range of sizes – the comfort of a kit that hugs you in all the right places might be worth the hefty investment.

How the Regna AI custom tri kit fit works

Headquartered in Singapore with a factory in Vietnam, Regna is a new brand launched by an experienced apparel manufacturing group. The company’s calling card – and the reason for the svelte fit of my suit – is an AI-enabled design process that uses scans of your body to create custom-cut kits.

My wife and I went through the process independently, which took less than 20 minutes. We downloaded Regna’s app (iOS and Android), uploaded front and side selfies taken while wearing a current kit, and selected the basic suit style we wanted. We both chose the full open zip; a two-thirds zip is also available.

The process is so simple that we were initially skeptical that our kits would fit any better than a standard off-the-rack suit. This gave me pause, because Regna’s custom kits can’t be returned. But the company claims that it can capture “100+ key measurements” from the two selfies. And the team assured me that its AI technology scans the images and fine-tunes the data through a machine-learning algorithm trained on a multitude of body types – ultimately outputting a 3D model and individualized pattern for cutting and sewing.

A tech-forward design process

The next step in the process took longer but increased our tolerance for the price. After getting word that our 3D avatars were ready, we returned to the app and mocked up our preferred kit designs, selecting colors, patterns, logos, and other elements. The palette and patterns available are extensive, and you can style each of a dozen or so panels differently, even uploading your own logos and images. Using standard touchscreen gestures – tap, drag, pinch, spread – we switched accents, added highlights, adjusted visual textures, and resized logos. Because every change appears in real time on your avatar, you can prevent awkward placements, like a stripe or logo stretched across a breast or butt cheek.

I’m no fashionista, but this was a gear nerd’s dream come true. My initial design featured a subtle tiger-themed color scheme and stripes, plus a few functional choices – a white upper for less solar absorption, and some reflective piping. My more-creative wife went with a dramatic kaleidoscopic tribute to the phoenix, a symbol that has great personal meaning for her.

Within a day of submitting our designs, we each received an updated mockup from Regna’s designers, who substantially improved my work and suggested helpful adjustments to my wife’s based on their knowledge of the fabric options. I signed off and received my kit the next week; Heather iterated through two more versions with the designers, a back-and-forth they assured us was available to all customers, not just Triathlete testers.

Field testing performance

Any skepticism I’d harbored about the AI-generated fit evaporated in the first days of field testing. I wore my kit through more than 30,000 meters of swimming, 500 miles of riding, and 100 miles of running in Colorado’s early-summer heat. The result: no chafing and no discomfort. Time will tell, but Regna appears to be using resilient materials that won’t fatigue as quickly as some, turning a tight fit into a saggy kit. I also appreciated the svelte front stash pockets for each gel access during the run; the chamois, which compares well to high-end brands; and the stretch, cooling, and wicking of the various materials.

But would Heather’s kit work as well? In assigning this review, my editor knew that we’re a Mutt-and-Jeff couple who would push the extremes of the brand’s 3D modeling capabilities. I’m a beanstalk, and Heather is a fireplug: 5’3”, buxom, and more powerfully built.

So far, my wife is giving good grades, saying her fit is 95% right. It’s a tiny bit loose in her midsection, but better than kits she’s worn before. “This is the best my undercarriage has felt in a tri kit in years,” she reported after a four-hour training ride. “There’s a bit of irritation from the stitching around the outer edges of the chamois, but I can live with that.” Meanwhile, the design came out just like she hoped, giving her a few extra clicks of confidence.

The final test was stepping into the shower at our Airbnb in Springfield, Massachusetts, after a 70.3 race in mid-June. The conditions were ideal for cutaneous hyperalgesia: extremely hot and humid with a punchy bike course whose poor road surfaces prompted a lot of shifting around the saddle. This time, there was no howling when the spray hit.

Regna custom tri kit review: the final verdict

Is this custom kit worth the price of a plane ticket to your next race? If standard sizes fit you, it’s not. But if you’re an odd-sized athlete – or really want a one-of-a-kind kit design – my guess is that you’ll wear your Regna more than enough to get your money’s worth.