Originally working as a milkman, he founded MacRae and Company Hosiery four years later, manufacturing underwear under the brand name Fortitude (taken from his family crest).

[6] The Australian Army's need for socks during World War I provided MacRae with enough business to expand and in 1927 his first line of swimwear, called a "racer-back costume" was introduced.

[6] The controversial yet revolutionary racerback style's open shoulder and exposed back allowed greater range of motion in water and was quickly adopted by competitive swimmers, despite being banned by some beaches.

After nearly being disqualified for "showing too much shoulder" in her regulation silk Speedo brand swimsuit, Dennis went on to set a world record time of 3:06.3.

The company quickly reestablished itself as a leader in swimwear manufacturing and once again drew controversy when its two-piece was banned by Australian beach inspectors.

[12] The company finished off the 1950s by exporting to the United States and exploring potential opportunities in South America, Europe, New Zealand and Japan.

[13] By the middle of the 1960s, Speedo had acquired 30% of Nottingham, England textile manufacturer Robert Shaw & Company and had established a European subsidiary.

[14] The 1970s also saw the company pioneer the use of elastane (spandex) and the brand's use in Olympic record breaking continued at the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal games, the latter of which Speedo was an official swimwear licensee.

[9] Also early in the decade, Speedo provided equipment and training to China[9] to aid the communist country's return to the Olympics for first time since 1958.

[15] Throughout the decade, the brand expanded its reach in Europe by licensing production in Italy, Spain, Sweden and other nations, bringing its total distribution to 112 countries.

[9] In 1990, British sportswear firm Pentland Group, which had just sold its shares of sneaker company Reebok, acquired a significant stake in Warnaco offshoot Authentic Fitness, which was the exclusive North American licensee of Speedo.

The 1990s saw the creation of the low-drag S2000 suit, the chlorine resistant Endurance line as well as the Aquablade series which was worn by more than three-fourths of medal winners at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games.

[9] Speedo began the 21st century with the introduction of its Fastskin swimsuit and, again, broke world records when the Summer Games returned to the swimwear leader's home town.

[17] Three years later, Speedo celebrated its 75th anniversary with special limited edition lines endorsed by Jerry Hall, Naomi Campbell and others.

Clare Dennis was nearly disqualified from her record-breaking Olympic meet because her suit showed too much skin;[8] early Speedo bikinis were banned from some Australian beaches;[9] more recently, the NASA technology in the LZR Racer suit Michael Phelps wore at the Beijing Olympics was the subject of great media scrutiny.

[20] The full-bodied Fastskin FSII Ice suits were debuted by the silver medal winning American women's bobsled team.

At issue was Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) rule 10.7, which stated "No swimmer shall use any device that may aid his speed, buoyancy, or endurance during a competition (such as webbed gloves, flippers, fins etc).

Fearing the possibility of Speedo-clad race winners being stripped of medals due to challenges, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to examine the legality of the FINA-sanctioned suits.

Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates, however, said in a press conference that their swimmers would be allowed to wear the futuristic neck to ankle covering suits, but would do so "at their own risk".

[35] Ultimately, the suits were approved for use in the Sydney Olympics and in December 2000 the super-suit earned a place on Popular Science's "100 Best of What's New", alongside the US Navy's F-16 replacement and Kodak's Smart Digital Picture Frame with built-in modem.

Speedo competitor TYR developed a similar full body suit with detached sleeves, which the company calls Aqua Bands.

Both TYR's detached Aqua bands and Speedo FSII's attached sleeves are designed to essentially "grip" the water on the inner forearm.

Specifically, the Mizuno suit comes in two variants: a sprinter ("ST") variant with stiff taping on the inside of the suit along the hamstrings, designed to help the upbeat of a kick at the end of a race as a swimmer's energy fades, while the multi-racer ("MR") uses two layers of the FINA-approved textile to decrease air permeability drastically, thereby trapping considerable excess air and making a swimmer more buoyant just like with the original LZR Racer (see below).

Additionally, the de facto trademark appearance of some collegiate teams like the Texas Longhorns at the NCAA National Championships is in Mizuno now, as opposed to Speedo.

To combat the rapid uprise of choosing Mizuno among high-performing swimmers, Speedo released a new lineup of suits in 2019, in advance of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The super smooth suit, which was optimised with the help of NASA wind tunnels, uses welded seams and multiple woven fabrics to reduce drag by up to six per cent.

This can't go on any further.The vague decision by swimming's governing body stated that suit materials would need to be textile, rather than polymer-based, but offered no specific deadline for this changeover to occur.

[45] The reason for the delay, FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu told the AP, is to give manufacturers enough time "to pass from polyurethane to textiles".

[56] For swimmers, videos posted cover a wide range of topics including swimming technique overviews and breaking down the process of designing and making swimwear.

[57][58] Speedo's channel also features high profile athletes at different points of their journey as a professional swimmer such as at the end of a World Championships.