Aura

In order to give everyone the option of reading the lengthy post below, the paragraph directly below this sentence is a very condensed summary of the the rest of this post.

There's a lot of hype around Squirrel wingsuits right now. People are saying that they're the highest performing suit, the best built suit etc. The point is, if you're in the market for a new wingsuit, DO NOT exclude Squirrel from your choices. Their customer service is matched by no one (except maybe L&B). The entire process was very easy and I cannot begin to recommend them enough. Simply put...Squirrel should be at the top of your list if you're in the market.

Because the summary above does not fully complement the effort Mike/Matt and the rest of the Squirrel team put in, here's the detailed version.

First of all, I want to assure you that I am just some random guy that recently ordered a Squirrel suit. I have absolutely no affiliation with Squirrel, I am not being paid or getting a discount from them for posting this, and I am doing this of my own free will. This is simply me expressing my genuine satisfaction for a company that has earned the recognition.

Pre-Purchase/Exploratory Questions:
Prior to considering sending my money over to Squirrel, I had a bunch of questions. I used Facebook as a medium since I find companies are pretty responsive to Facebook. To my surprise, the responses were coming directly from Mike Steen & Matt Gerdes and this was nice to see. They were responding to my many questions very quickly.

Since they are a new company (publicly anyways), I wanted to know more about the suit's material and available (or hidden) options. I also asked about performance in specific disciplines of interest, why this, or why that etc. All of my questions were answered fully, quickly and to my complete satisfaction .

During the Order process
First of all, I wanted to say that their ordering process is quick and simple. Just a couple measurements, a couple clicks and your credit card company love you! Haha. During the measuring process, I once again had questions. Mike Steen was there again to respond. Simple questions like when measuring my crotch, do I lift my pants up to my dangly bits, do I push the dangly bits to the side, or do I measure it right from where my pants hang. It's these simple questions that can be the difference between getting a suit that fits, and having something that simply doesn't fit. So, the suit was now ordered and Christmas was fast approaching, along with new years...why do I mention this? Because it would delay my suit...or so I thought.

Shipping & Delivery
Suit was Ordered Dec 1, 2013
Suit was paid for Dec 2, 2013
Suit Arrived Jan 13, 2014, 1 week BEFORE the estimated date. That's 6 weeks...including Christmas and New Years.

I was a bit angry at FedEx for leaving my suit alone, unattended and in the cold on my door step for 5 hours while I was at work, but I was thrilled to get the suit. Thankfully I live out in the country and it's nowhere near as bad as the time another courier left a restricted handgun at the front door of my condo in the city... Anyways, I ducked out of work early to get home and try the suit on. Opening the box, the suit was packed nicely in a bag, and a little bag of trinkets was included. I gently pulled the suit out and instantly noticed the VERY HIGH quality of the suit. These suits are built in the same factory as Ozone paraglider wings, and you can tell. The stitches are laser precise and ultra clean. The suit is incredibly well made and feels very durable.

The little bag of trinkets included a couple stickers, some warranty/disclaimer type cards, a Squirrel club card (20% discount on follow up orders!) and a Squirrel pullup cord. Nice!

It didn't fit!!!
After trying on the suit with my rig all hooked up, I thought the arms were a bit long so I got in touch with Squirrel via Facebook again. Matt and Mike were both there again helping me out. They determined that the arms did look a little long after reviewing some pictures. The booties were also too small to fit around my feet. I'm fairly certain the arm length was my fault, and the shoe sizing was a simple mix up. Matt assured me it was no big deal to fix and asked me to send the suit back. I thought...damn...it's gonna cost me $100 to send this back insured; when I got an email from Mike. It was a pre-paid shipping label. This simple thing is what completely won me over. You simply don't see companies doing adjustments/repairs out of their pocket, along with paying return shipping. Just WOW! The suit was sent back on a Monday, and I had it was returned the following Tuesday. I though "Damn...FedEx messed up and returned the suit to me".

Nope...it was adjusted and returned in under a week. Once again...I was stunned. The willingness to complete the repairs, along with the shipping is the type of customer service only paralleled by L&B. This is fantastic.

The suit performance
I'm not going to bother talking about the performance of the suit because you can't explain that to someone and I prefer to avoid the DZ.com banter if I did. The fact is, you've seen the videos...it's an incredible suit. From me...the suit flies great, has wicked pressurization, feels much more stable than an Apache, and a little less stable than a Vampire 4 (due to it being a much different suit). Fact is, I love it even though I only have 4 jumps on it now. I'm looking forward to many, many jumps in this suit.

A huge thank you to Mike and Matt for all their help and putting up with my questions. You guys went way beyond the minimums and this has earned you the best review I could write up. Keep doing what you're doing and you'll dominate the industry (more than you already are). I've seen a HUGE spike in wingsuit interest and new wingsuiters up here in Canada. I've been wingsuiting for 5 or 6 years and I've never seen more than 3 jumpers in one place here in Canada. Now, I show up at the DZ and there's no less than 8 or 9 people with suits on any given day and new students graduating from the new wingsuit school at the DZ this year. There is no doubt that Squirrel has contributed to this with their marketing and awesome suits.

Seriously...Squirrel is doing things that are rocking the skydiving/wingsuit/BASE worlds. They deserve your business and I cannot stress enough how pleasant and smooth the whole process was.

Mike, Matt & Team....a HUGE thank you!

PS: If it was in the budget...I'd happily take you up on the frequent flyer program. Unfortunately...the wife disagrees. That being said...when I'm ready for another suit, I won't mind paying full price for this top notch service.

I should also mention that Squirrel wasn't the only company I spoke with and asked questions to. I was interested in 2 suits primarily, Squirrel and another well known company. I sent messages to the other company and replies were spotty at best. Eventually, they just stopped responding. That sealed their fate in my books. Squirrel was just getting better and better, so they got my business. Customer service means SO MUCH to many people. I won't just give my money to the first company that makes X or Y suit.

That's all for now...