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Looking for a gift for the swimmer in your life? Here’s a look at the best gifts for every kind of swimmer and every kind of budget.
In this gift guide for swimmers, you’ll find everything for the chlorinated athlete in your life, from swim gear to maximize performance in training to gadgets for real-time workout tracking.
While you may not be able to give the gift every swimmer truly wants—a new personal best time, gold medal at the Olympics, and so on—there are some excellent gift ideas in this list that will help swimmers improve technique, get inspired, and improve their mindset in the pool.
Let’s dive right in.
The Best Gifts for Swimmers
Whether they are looking to get more enjoyment from daily noon-hour lap swims, shave a second off a personal best time, or take a run at qualifying for the Olympics, these gifts for swimmers are sure to put a smile on their face…
- Swim snorkel
- Smart swimming goggles
- Swim parachute
- Waterproof headphones for swimming
- Swim fins
- Mental training guide
- Foam roller
- Swim bag
- Shampoo for swimmers
- DragSox
- Towel
- Goggle case
- Bonus: SwimSwam magazine subscription
Next, we will look at each gift individually and help you decide if it’s the perfect match for the swimmer in your life.
1. Swim snorkel
Swim snorkels are one of the essential types of swim gear for improving swim technique. By reducing the need to turn the head to breathe, swimmers can concentrate all their attention on swimming with perfect, PB-busting technique.
Snorkels are also a great tool for doing kick without a board, mastering better body position in the water, and for sculling and not having to worry about picking your head up to suck down air.
The best swim snorkel is the FINIS Stability Snorkel, which has a hydrodynamic head mount, dual head straps for a more secure fit, and a mouthpiece that swivels to the side for sipping water and chatting with your coach between reps and sets.
FINIS offers the Stability Snorkel in a couple of different colors and also has a kids’ version that is perfect for younger swimmers (aged 6-10) looking to build confidence in the pool.
2. Smart swim goggles
Swim goggles are one of the essentials when it comes to swimming safely and quickly. Goggles allow you to see the walls, the pace clock, and the swimmers in your lane, avoiding painful head-on collisions.
And now, they can also help you train smarter.
Smart swim goggles, with heads-up displays in the goggles’ lenses, detail real-time swim workout metrics, including heart rate, time elapsed, splits, stroke counts, and more.
Literally, anything you can track or measure in the water can be displayed in real-time right in front of your eyes.
The FORM Swim Goggles were the first goggles of this type to hit the scene in 2019, and FINIS has followed up with a smart goggle of their own.
The FORM Swim Goggles now feature an onboard coaching feature with technique videos, training programs, and much more, making them an excellent option for swimmers who train solo and want to up their swim game.
The FORM Swim Goggles come with a case to protect the lenses and display from scratches and dirt, and the dashboard on the heads-up display can be customized to show what swimmers care about most in the water.
3. Swim parachute
Swim parachutes, also known as drag chutes, are resistance training tools utilized by swimmers in the water to increase strength and power.
Typically made of nylon, swim parachutes are attached around the waist and tug the water behind a swimmer, forcing swimmers to work harder to overcome the resistance.
Training with a parachute is a great way to improve body position in the water, doing contrast training (i.e. pairing resistance work with max speed repetitions), and even balancing out a swimmer’s stroke.
A study (Telles et al., 20217) examined the stroke of experienced swimmers using swim paddles and a parachute and discovered they encouraged a more balanced pulling motion, improving “propulsive continuity.”
The best parachutes for swimmers are made by FINIS, who have medium and large versions of the parachute (the large version stops you faster than the brakes on an F1 car, so be forewarned).
The FINIS Swim Parachutes are adjustable, made of durable polyster and nylon, and are a great substitute for power towers, making it an awesome gift for swimmers looking for more strength in the water.
4. Headphones for swimming
Music is one of the best ways to get more from your workouts, and swimmers are no exception. For a long time, however, the water was an obstacle to clear, booming sound when swimming. No longer.
Waterproof headphones for swimming, either as earbuds with custom tips for a snug fit or using bone conduction technology to bypass the need for earbuds altogether, enable swimmers to enjoy their favorite adrenaline-blasting tunes while swimming.
Our favorite bone-conduction headphones for swimming are the Shokz OpenSwim, which feature a super light and hydrodynamic titanium frame that stays out of the way, allowing swimmers to focus on technique and effort.
The device holds about 1,200 songs and lasts for 8 hours on a charge.
And yes, music can even help you swim faster!
A study published in the Journal of Strength Conditioning Research showed that when swimmers strapped on some waterproof headphones to their chlorinated domes, they improved swim performance during time trials of 50m and 800m freestyles.
The swimmers also noted that the music reduced perceived fatigue, allowing them to push harder and faster in the water.
The Shokz OpenSwim headphones retail for around $150 and come with a carry case to protect the device between swim workouts.
5. Swim fins
Swim training fins are one of the favorites when mixing things up in swim practice. Using fins increases swimming velocity, strengthens the legs, and can also help improve technique by promoting more efficient body position in the water.
Swim fins are also simply a lot of fun to use in the pool!
Arena makes the best swimming fins for competitive swimmers, a 100% silicone swim fin that eliminates blisters, features side rails for more control when kicking, and bright and vibrant colors to satisfy the aesthetic taste of every swimmer.
The Arena Powerfin PRO Swim Fins are more expensive than your standard rubber swim fins, but the silicone construction doesn’t crack and break when exposed to pool chemicals over time.
The Powerfin PRO are available in a wide range of sizes for both male and female swimmers, and the short-blade design ensures that the training swimmers do with fins carries over to their regular swimming.
6. Mental training guide
The right mindset is crucial for swimmers looking to optimize their performance in the water during swim workouts and on race day. Mental training can help by teaching how to set goals, incorporating visualization, and learning how to channel pre-race nerves for peak performance properly.
Conquer the Pool: The Swimmer’s Ultimate Guide to a High-Performance Mindset is the best mental training book for swimmers. It features sections on how to set and plan big goals in the water, master the practice mindset, and learn how to put it all together when it matters most in competition.
The book was written with the feedback of 200+ Olympians, head coaches, and NCAA champions and is used by some of the fastest swimmers and swim clubs on the planet.
Ultimately, swimming fast requires physical and mental preparation, and a mental training guide can help you master both.
7. Foam roller
Swimmers spend a lot of time training, and as a result, they need a solid recovery plan to speed up recovery between sessions in the pool.
A foam roller is an excellent tool that can promote blood flow to sore muscles, increase range of motion, and even prevent injuries during the swim season.
A paper titled “Foam rolling as a recovery tool after an intense bout of physical activity” showed that foam rolling reduced muscle soreness and improved athletic performance in experienced athletes.
The TriggerPoint Foam Roller is the classic for the best foam rollers.
While they have many different models with added bells and whistles (a vibrating foam roller, for example), the “regular” foam roller is more than capable of helping swimmers alleviate stiff and sore muscles and achieve peak performance.
8. Swim bag
By now, if you’ve been following along, you are getting a sense of just how much swim gear that swimmers use in the course of training and racing.
Enter a swim bag as a practical and thoughtful gift for swimmers who require an organized way to carry essential (and wet) gear to and from practice and swim meets.
Bags for swimmers offer compartments for wet and dry gear like towels, swimsuits, swim goggles, and caps. Smaller pockets store valuables like smartphones, keys, and wallets, separating them from wet and damp towels and swimsuits.
The Speedo Teamster 2.0 continues on the popularity of the original Teamster bag, with a large 35L storage capacity, drainage pockets on the side of the bag for wet swim gear, and lots of small pockets to store goggles, caps, earplugs, and so on.
The main compartment of the bag is partitioned so that you can separate wet swimwear and towels from your clothing and valuables.
Speedo offers the Teamster 2.0 in over a dozen colors, and compared to the original Teamster, this bag stands up straighter, making it easy to access.
9. Shampoo for swimmers
While you cannot give the gift swimmers want most–a personal best time, a State cut, qualifying for Olympic Trials–you can give them something almost as awesome–hair that is damaged and smells like chlorine for hours on end.
Swimmer shampoos are made of all-natural ingredients that remove chlorine and other pool chemicals from hair, preventing damage and dryness.
The UltraSwim Shampoo, our favorite chlorine-busting shampoo for post-swimming, combats the harsh effects of prolonged and frequent exposure to chlorine, leaving hair feeling and smelling healthy and vibrant.
A perfect stocking stuffer, swimmer shampoos like the moisturizing UltraSwim Shampoo have all-natural ingredients and a fast-acting formula that nukes the smell of chlorine and protects hair from the effects of chlorine.
10. DragSox
Another resistance tool, DragSox are specialized resistance swim socks made of durable mesh worn over the feet.
They increase resistance in the kick, helping swimmers develop a stronger kicking motion, whether its freestyle, dolphin kicking, or even breaststroke kick.
By amplifying the drag and resistance, DragSox can lead to improvements in speed, endurance, and overall swim performance. Use them to improve your kick (with a kickboard or doing vertical kicking) or as a power development tool with maximum intensity sprints.
Inexpensive, and available in three sizes, with the large size creating maximal resistance (you can also double up the DragSox on each foot for even more resistance and difficulty), DragSox are the perfect gift for swimmers who want to take their kicking to the next level in the pool.
11. Swim Towel
Swim towels are one of the unheralded types of equipment for swimmers.
They keep swimmers warm, dry them off between swim practices and races in competitions, and act as a dressing stall for when swimmers need to deck change.
Microfiber swim towels, made with a blend of polyester and polyamide, are highly durable, soak up moisture quickly, and, because they don’t take up the same amount of space as big, thick cotton towels, can be stocked in multiples inside a swimmer’s bag.
Perfect for those long days at swim meets or when a swimmer has multiple swim practices lined up today.
The Sporti Microfiber Dry Sports Towel is available in several colors and is an extra-large size for maximum drying and coverage. They are also inexpensive, retailing for less than $15, and come with a carry case.
Soggy swimmer is not included.
12. Swim goggle case
Looking for an inexpensive gift for swimmers? A swim goggle case is a great option, retailing for less than $15 and offering long-lasting protection for a swimmer’s goggles.
Over time, and when not stored in a case between swim workouts, swim goggles get dirty, get scratched, and lose the crystal-clear vision of a new goggle lens.
A swim goggle case offers a secure enclosure, extending its lifespan. Arena’s swim goggle case checks all the boxes with a strongly built storage unit for swim goggles.
It has a carabiner to lock the case onto the side of your swim bag, a rubber strap to secure the goggles, and tons of color options to match your swimmer’s favorite or team colors.
The case is also large enough to add a couple of other small items, like a swimmer’s earplugs or a swim cap, in addition to protecting swim goggles.
Bonus Gift for Swimmers: SwimSwam Magazine Subscription
You can’t have a list of the top gifts for swimmers without repping the home team!
SwimSwam’s magazine is issued quarterly and is jam-packed with beautiful photography, exclusive interviews and content, and a unique oversized design that looks great poolside and on the coffee table.
SwimSwam’s magazine costs just $40 USD annually, saving you 33% on the retail cover price. You also get digital access to past issues with a subscription.
SwimSwam offers the option to gift a subscription and you can also purchase physical copies of back issues, including Olympic Year in Review editions.
Click here to get your subscription of SwimSwam magazine.
Wrapping Things Up
Selecting the perfect gift for the swimmer in your life can feel like you are trying to understand what a psych sheet is when reading it for the first time.
Fortunately, there are plenty of options that enhance swim performance, self-care, swim knowledge, and overall swim awesomeness.
Choose the gift that matches the goals and needs of the swimmer in your life and give with confidence!