Wally was eleven. He'd been Kid Flash for six months now and was sick and tired of being called a mustard bottle. His costume had been carefully chosen to protect him. He threw off yellow lightning when he ran. With the costume yellow, it blurred his lines and protected him from attack.
Robin was the kid whose costume people should be making fun of thought Wally defensively. Wally was still new to the hero business and didn't know how to handle criticism of any kind.
The list of silly costumes included Kid Flash, Robin, then Wonder Woman. Most of the time the boys at least could be argued into agreeing that Wonder Woman's costume was attractive and eye catching and worked for her, being that she was tough enough that she wasn't depending on her costume for protection. (Not wanting to be pounded on by the Queen of the Amazons anytime soon, Wally thought the words attractive and eye catching were the safest paraphrasing he could come up with for what they boys in class had actually said about Wonder Woman's costume.)
When Kid Flash met Robin the tiresome silly costume debate was revealed for what it was, ignorance.
Robin was two years younger than KF and really short but when Kid Flash saw the real, actual, 100 percent not made up, no exaggerations, no lies costume, he thought it was actually kind of intimidating and cool and Robin had the self confidence to pull it off.
Those weren't exactly pixie boots. The so called pixie wings were throwing daggers stylized into the boots. His legs weren't bare he was wearing tan knit kevlar that was cut resistant but allowed maximum flexibility and the so called scaley sequined underpants were more high tech scale plate armour because Robin was capable of moving like he had no bones and his costume needed to be flexible. His red vest was the colour of blood. It was bullet proof. The cape moved with him in swirls confusing the aim of bullets, knives and fists.
Flash explained later that peripheral vision relies heavily on strong contrasting colour and movement. Because peripheral vision is almost always active in one eye at a time, depth perception is lost when one depends solely on peripheral vision. The cape tricked the bad guys into firing before they could properly aim and what looks like a giant target, is a giant 'Missed me. Missed me. Now you gotta kiss me,' taunt. The Bat had done extensive testing.
"I bet it also lets Batman know where Robin is in the heat of combat. But how does he hide with the bright cape?"
Uncle Barry's only response to that inquiry was, "Kid never play hide and seek with either member of the Dynamic Duo. Robin's spotted when he wants to be spotted."
KF noticed the cape was short. He guessed if Robin didn't want the yellow visible it wouldn't be. It was just big enough that in a pinch Robin could shelter behind it curled in a ball. Apparently it was fireproof, acid resistant and cut resistant.
KF and Robin's masks/goggles used similar tech except Robin's had access to thermal vision rather than night vision. Night vision gave crisper images but thermal vision let the Bats see through smoke bombs.
After Wally met Robin when the kids at school were talking about heros with silly costumes, and again both he and Robin were mentioned near the top of the list Wally just smirked remembering Robin's confident stance. "I'd like to see you tell either of them to their face that you thought their costumes were lame."