Birth of the Canvas Squat Suit

Ernie Frantz noticed that the South Africans were using some canvas to reinforce certain areas of their suits @ the '94 Worlds (WPC)

Ernie said, I think I’ll make a whole suit out of canvas, a month or two later he had a couple that he broke out to practice with

i still have one of his “prototypes”, nothing like current models but I did squat 1005 in it while training

As I recall Willie Wessels was one of the first guys to really ramp up with one - It was awesome watching Willie train

side note, Willie if you are out there you da Man!!!

so for any of you P.L. historians out there… file that info where you would like!

I always thought that squat suits were invented by a guy who forgot his gym clothes one day and ended up squatting in denim overalls. Afterwards, he was like “Holy shit, I think I’m onto something here”.

could be… I am talking about the canvas suit…

Thanks for the interesting trivia. I made my first squat suit a few months ago and patterned it after a Frantz canvas suit. I didn’t use the best material (kind of thin denim), but it was just my first go around. The next one will be canvas. What is different about the newer suits and your “prototype”? Just curious as I have some tweaks in mind and don’t know if they’ve already been done or not.