What to Wear Skydiving: A Practical Guide

If you're about to make your first skydive, "what do I wear?" is probably somewhere near the top of your list of questions — right after "am I actually going to do this?" And if you've been jumping for a while, you've likely figured out your own system through trial and error, some of it cold and uncomfortable. Either way, what you wear skydiving genuinely matters: for comfort, for safety, and — once you're past the student phase — for how you fly and how you look doing it.

This is a practical guide, written by people who jump, covering everything from your first tandem through becoming a licensed jumper with your own gear and your own team apparel.

Your first jump: keep it simple

If you're doing a tandem or your first AFF jump, the good news is you don't need anything special. The drop zone will put you in a harness, and often a jumpsuit over your clothes. Your job is just to wear something you can move and be comfortable in.

The basics:

• Athletic clothes you can move in. Think what you'd wear to the gym — leggings or athletic shorts, a fitted t-shirt or athletic top. Avoid anything too loose or flowy; baggy clothing flaps in freefall and can interfere with the harness.
• Sneakers, laced tight. Closed-toe, athletic shoes that lace up snugly. No sandals, no slip-ons, no boots with hooks (hooks can catch lines). You want shoes that absolutely will not come off.
• Nothing in your pockets. Anything in a pocket at 120 mph is gone. Leave your phone, keys, and wallet on the ground.
• Dress for the temperature at altitude, not the ground. This is the one most first-timers get wrong. It's significantly colder at 10,000–14,000 feet than on the ground — roughly 3°F cooler for every 1,000 feet. A warm day on the ground can be genuinely chilly in freefall. When in doubt, a layer you can put under a jumpsuit is worth it.

And take off the jewelry. Dangly earrings, necklaces, loose rings — leave them in the car. The wind doesn't care about your accessories, and you don't want to lose anything you love.

Dressing for the seasons

Once you understand that altitude is colder than the ground, dressing by season becomes intuitive.

Summer. This is the easy one — and the season where breathable apparel earns its keep. On the ground you might be sweating in full gear waiting for the plane, but freefall still has bite to it. A breathable top with good ventilation is ideal: it keeps you cool on the ground and comfortable in the air. This is exactly where mesh panels in a jersey shine — they vent the wind in freefall and keep you from cooking on a hot load.

Spring and fall. Layering season. The ground might be mild but altitude will be cold, so a base layer under a jumpsuit or a jersey is the move. The key is layers you can add or remove between loads as the day warms up or cools down.

Winter. If your DZ stays open through the cold months (many do), you'll want real thermal layers, gloves thin enough to still feel your handles, and something to keep your face from going numb. Winter jumping is its own discipline, and being cold in freefall isn't just uncomfortable — cold hands are slow hands, which matters for safety.

Once you're licensed: the apparel question changes

Here's where it gets interesting. As a student, you wear what the DZ gives you and what keeps you comfortable. But once you're licensed, flying your own gear, and jumping regularly, what you wear becomes part of how you fly — and part of who you are at the drop zone.

This is when most jumpers start thinking about a jumpsuit, and eventually about team apparel. And it's where the difference between "a shirt" and "a jersey built for skydiving" stops being abstract.

A regular jersey or t-shirt will ride up on every exit, balloon in the wind, and flap around your waist. We've written in detail about why that happens, but the short version is: garments designed for the ground don't behave at 120 mph. A jersey actually built for the sky solves this with a silicon-banded waistband that won't ride up, mesh sides that vent the wind, and a longer cut you can tuck into your leg straps. You stop thinking about your apparel entirely, which is exactly what you want when your attention belongs on your flying.

What to wear under your rig

A quick note on layering with gear, because it trips people up. Your rig sits against your back and shoulders, with leg straps and a chest strap. Whatever you wear needs to play nicely with all of that.

• Avoid bulky seams or zippers where the harness sits — they can dig in over a long day.
• Tuck your top in. A jersey with enough length to tuck into your leg straps stays put under the rig; a short shirt creeps up and bunches under the harness.
• Mind your handles. Loose fabric around your hips and chest can interfere with your cutaway and reserve handles. This is a real safety consideration, not just a comfort one — anything that obscures or tangles your handles is a problem. Fitted, anchored apparel keeps everything clear.

Team apparel: looking like a unit

When you start jumping with the same people regularly — a 4-way team, a freefly crew, or just your DZ regulars — matching apparel does something for the group. On video, a coordinated team jersey reads as exactly that: a team. It shows up in your footage, your competition videos, your DZ's social media. It's part of the identity of the group.

This is where custom jerseys come in. A good custom jersey program lets you put your team's design — your name, your colors, your logo — on a jersey that's actually engineered for the sky. The design is yours; the performance features (waistband, mesh, length, cuffs) are built in regardless of how it looks. You get to look like a unit and fly clean.

If you're outfitting a drop zone or a team, the things to look for are a small minimum order (you shouldn't need to buy 100 jerseys to get started), a real design service (so you're not stuck with clip-art), and apparel built for freefall rather than a generic blank with your logo slapped on.

The short version

For your first jump: fitted athletic clothes, tight-laced sneakers, nothing in your pockets, dress warmer than the ground feels, lose the jewelry.

As you progress: think in layers, dress for altitude, and start paying attention to how your apparel behaves in the wind.

Once you're a regular: invest in apparel actually built for the sky — it'll ride up less, fly cleaner, and last longer than anything off the rack. And when you're ready to look like a team, a custom jersey turns your crew into a unit, in the air and on the ground.

Skydiving is a sport where small details compound. What you wear is one of those details — easy to overlook as a beginner, impossible to ignore once you've felt the difference.

Thinking about kitting out your team? See how the jersey program works — your design, built for freefall, with a small minimum and free custom design.