PROUDLY AUSTRALIAN MADE.
CRAFTED FOR EXCELLENCE
SHARKSKIN™ — Proudly Australian Made. Crafted for Excellence.
About Sharkskin™
We make wetsuits. Then we asked what wetsuits couldn’t do.
The wetsuit was born in a military laboratory.
1952. The United States Navy needed a solution for combat divers operating in cold water. Neoprene worked. It kept military divers operational in conditions that would otherwise have ended a mission.
By the 1960s it had moved from defence contracts to sporting goods shops. Cold water was no longer a barrier. Millions of people entered the ocean who would otherwise have been locked out.
The wetsuit is one of the most significant innovations in aquatic history.
Over the decades that followed, the industry focused on improving what it had. Better neoprene. Thinner profiles. More flexible composites. Decade after decade. The material improved. The question didn’t change.
How do we keep people warm in the water?
Nobody asked whether neoprene was the right answer to a larger problem.
Experts in neoprene. Which is how we found its limits.
Neptune — our Australian-made wetsuit brand which we own — has served divers, multisport athletes, spearfishers and juniors for decades. We are the primary thermal protection supplier to Defence, Police, SES, Fire and Rescue services, and Surf Life Saving Australia.
Professional users ask harder questions than anyone else. They expose limitations faster. They don’t give endorsement easily.
We understand neoprene completely. Which is exactly how we came to understand what it cannot do.
Neoprene is wet by design. Wet in wind means rapid evaporative cooling — the material that protects you in the water becomes a liability the moment you leave it. Neoprene floats — thicker suits require more lead, and many divers carry that weight for one reason only: to offset the buoyancy of their neoprene wetsuit. Neoprene doesn’t breathe — a paddler overheats during effort and chills at rest.
These are not failure modes. They are the inherent properties of the material.
We asked a different question.
What if warmth equivalent to a 3mm or 5mm wetsuit could be delivered by a fabric that doesn’t float, stops windchill completely, and breathes?
The answer wasn’t a better wetsuit. It was a different fabric. Then several fabrics.
Different activities create different thermal challenges. A diver needs warmth without buoyancy. A swimmer needs warmth without restricting the stroke. A paddler generates intense heat during effort then chills rapidly at rest. A rescue operator needs reliable performance across repeated water entries throughout an entire shift.
One fabric cannot solve all of that – so we built several.
Chillproof is a three-layer architecture — an outer DWR shell, a breathable windproof membrane rated at 10,000+, and a hollow-fibre fleece inner. It blocks 100% of windchill, breathes during exertion, and delivers warmth equivalent to a 2-3mm wetsuit. Neutral buoyancy. No lead compensation required.
T2 Chillproof adds titanium Far Infrared nanoparticles permanently embedded in the fabric. They absorb the body’s own infrared energy and reflect it back — improving thermal efficiency without adding a single gram of bulk. Warmth equivalent to a 4-5mm wetsuit. Same neutral buoyancy. Same windproof membrane. Used standalone in 18–24°C water or layered under any wetsuit or drysuit in colder conditions.
Thermal Flex was built for swimmers and paddlers. FIR technology through the core and through the arms and shoulders. Warmth without restricting the stroke. Tested by 50+ swimmers at Manly Beach, Sydney at 5am. Built around actual swimmer feedback, not an assumed design brief.
Rapid Dry is a hydrophobic single-layer fabric that sheds water rather than absorbing it. Dries dramatically faster than conventional rashies. UPF 50+. The base layer for warm conditions and high-output activity.
Every fabric works standalone.
Every fabric works as a layer. That is S.A.L.T. — Sharkskin Amphibious Layering Technology. Not more layers. The right layers for the right environment.
AUSSIE APPROVED
Fiji, 2001. The observation that changed everything.
Ten dive instructors. Eight in wetsuits. Two in early development Sharkskin.
Underwater — identical comfort. On the boat, in the wind, the eight wetsuit wearers shivered. The two Sharkskin wearers did not.
That observation cracked open an assumption that had stood for 50 years. The challenge was not just immersion. It was everything above the water. Nobody in the industry was solving for that.
We named it the Amphibious World. We built Technical Waterwear to serve it. Not a better wetsuit. A system designed for people who move between environments — and need their apparel to move with them.
Stay warm in, on, and under the water with Sharkskin™.
Our factory. Our name. Our reputation.
Beresfield, Newcastle - NSW. 95% of our products made in our own factory. Over 50 years of manufacturing heritage. Almost 100% solar powered. Compostable packaging. Two-year performance guarantee.
Shane Holliday has led the factory for 20 years. What takes competitors a year, we do in weeks. The factory is not behind the Sharkskin brand. The factory is the Sharkskin brand.
Proven where it counts.
Surf Life Saving Australia — NSW and World IRB Champions. The people whose job is to save lives chose Sharkskin.
Damien Rider — 18 world records. 800km ocean paddle. Route 66 by skateboard. States openly he could not do it without Sharkskin.
Lynn Paterson — 432 days. 5,800km circumnavigating New Zealand. Same Chillproof jacket throughout. It still looks new.
Scott Donaldson - 84 days. First ever to solo kayak across the Tasman. Credits Sharkskin with saving his skin.
Emirates Team New Zealand & Volvo Ocean Race for sailing.
Many rowing Ocean crossings – Atlantic, Pacific, Tasman, etc.
Many Multisport athletes with podium finishes in the Coast to Coast, Adventure Racing World Series, etc.
3,400+ five-star reviews.