Signing Katie Ledecky as an endorser put a major spotlight on the swimwear brand.TYR

Ten years ago, TYR Sport Inc. was the quintessential outsider in the performance swimwear business. As Michael Phelps and Team USA were dominating the pool at the Beijing Olympics, TYR was in federal court, alleging USA Swimming and top rival Speedo had illegally conspired to keep competitors down.

TYR lost that case, but a decade later it has arrived as a true insider. For the first time this summer, TYR has title rights to USA Swimming’s premier domestic circuit, the TYR Pro Swim Series. In June, five-time gold medalist Katie Ledecky left Stanford and signed a seven-year deal with TYR, billed as the richest endorsement in swimming history. For good measure, TYR later added Ledecky’s Stanford teammate Simone Manuel, giving them two of 2018’s biggest new pros.

This has all come gradually for the Huntington Beach, Calif.-based company, which was founded in 1995 by Joseph DiLorenzo and retired Olympian Steve Furniss. There’s been no sudden infusion of capital or huge swing in the competitive landscape, only a steady improvement after a crucial decision by USA Swimming in 2012.

That’s when USA Swimming ended its 27-year, exclusive relationship with Speedo, opening its apparel category to as many as four companies. It wasn’t a direct result of the lawsuit, USA Swimming CMO Matt Farrell said, but it was the federation’s belief that the challenger brands would market aggressively if given the chance alongside the incumbent, thereby growing the overall swimming market.

“It allowed us to showcase who we really are,” said Matt DiLorenzo, Joseph’s son who became CEO of the private company in 2010. “We had a rich tradition and a lot of technically innovative products, and just the ability to get to these athletes and start to tell the story, that was the beginning.”

TYR and Arena, a European company founded in 1973 by Horst Dassler, son of the Adidas founder, joined Speedo with nonexclusive apparel rights after 2012. Speedo added on a few key events to its rights, and Arena had title rights to the pro series at first, but TYR started out with a basic package.

It’s not as though TYR was invisible before then. It signed American swimmer Matt Grevers in 2003 and became a partner of the French Swimming Federation around then, too. But the 2010s was when it really started to come together. Grevers won his first individual gold medal in 2012. More recently, TYR signed with British Swimming, LEN (the European aquatics federation), the Danish and the Swiss teams.

TYR’s success in signing athletes really took off after the Rio Olympic Games in 2016. After Speedo decided against renewing with Ryan Lochte after his Rio gas station scandal, TYR signed him — an attention-turning deal that gave TYR Team USA’s second-most decorated swimmer ever, albeit one who is now serving his second extended disciplinary ban, this time for getting an intravenous infusion for more than the allowable amount.

TYR also signed Leah Smith and Lia Neal in 2017, which Ledecky mentioned as a factor in her decision to go with TYR instead of Speedo, which has long had the inside track for the blue-chip prodigies.

“I have even noticed just in the last couple months before I signed on with TYR that more swimmers have been wearing the TYR racing suits at national level meets,” Ledecky said. “I feel like TYR has really grown, and it’s a testament to the hard work they’ve put in.”

The Pro Swim Series was a big win for TYR, which it took over after Arena wanted out of its deal last fall. It’s a breeding ground for relationships with coaches, clubs, families and athletes themselves — half the battle in an arena where product preferences from swimmer to swimmer are sometimes hard to define and heavily driven by personal preference and exposure.

All the success in its sponsorship business has translated into consistent double-digit revenue growth annually this decade, DiLorenzo said.

All told, Team TYR now has 35 athletes across swimming and triathlon, and they have capacity for more. The Ledecky deal was “not a stretch” financially, DiLorenzo said, “and we have a big list of target athletes.”

But unlike when DiLorenzo took over for his father, who still owns the company, TYR is doing it from inside the tent.

USA Swimming will have a chance to reconsider its nonexclusive approach when the apparel deals expire in 2020. But executives think the strategy has worked well. “It’s likely to continue,” Farrell said.