Pogies are good for you.

I'm in the process of posting all the new designs for dri pogies on the Row West website so check them out as they go up.  Dri pogies use a lightweight softshell material that is waterproof and breathable for the main hand as well as the oar-cuff.   The wrist cuffs are made from the same quick dry technical fabric used in MAXRAD high performance clothing.  Stretchy and quick drying.

Smash water.

 Aside from the serenity of gliding across still waters, rowing is really about getting in touch with your inner beast.   Grab oar.  Smash water.

top of pogies

underside of pogies

Coming soon to www.rowwest.com

Was that the Fall season?

Well, after 60 straight days in the workshop hammering out team uniforms, I'm getting close to 'catching up'. Not that I would ever want to be totally caught up because that would indicate a lack of orders - but I'd sure like to be able to ship something the same week someone orders it!   Perhaps wishful thinking for the moment.   I am, however mopping up orders that are overdue to customers that have been very patient (thank you to any of you who happen to read this).

For those of you looking for gear to trim the pain of winter rowing, check back next week for a batch of new pogie designs.  I believe strongly that there's no better pogie out there than my dri-pogies and I'm taking that to a new level of visual design.  Hopefully my new designs will help people keep track of their pogies too.  It's such a hassle to lose your gear and distinct designs can help make it easy to see if someone else is using your stuff!  Photos to come soon!

I'll take a quick paragraph to thank Kerry Poulsen who attended the Fall regattas here on Vancouver Island for me.  She's a great people-person and in addition to hauling around my tent and inventory to weekend races, she worked hard in the workshop production frenzy to help get customer orders out the door.    As we enter winter, my hope is to work with her to help her interface with customers that I don't regularly reach - local people and particularly paddlers.

If anyone is craft oriented (pretty much everyone is here at the house of Row West), David Landis is in the last days of a Kickstarter push.  You can check him out if you search for Desktop Gremlins - Kickstarter.   We really enjoy his whimsical and clever paper-craft designs.

Horizontal stripes

Ummm....

So, as a resident in the small township of Shawnigan Lake, I sometimes get requests from the neighbours for custom clothing for sports such as motocross.  If you don't recognize this design, apparently you need to watch Talladega Nights (or so the recipient of this jersey informs me).

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Bluebody

Custom order for a full body suit including tight fitting hood and booties.  Hockey fan perhaps?

The biological Trinity is complete.

These designs, while challenging, have been very fun to work on.   I've spent a fair bit of late-night time on the computer getting them to fit into the patterns for unisuits, singlets, and eventually shirts (more difficult).  I think a full body suit is possible, but wouldn't likely be a popular product.   Aside from fun, I do have to balance commercial viability with my efforts since I'm using a lot of time, dye sublimation materials and fabric.

This should be the last anatomy design and then I've got other science themed ideas in the works along with some more whimisical 'pretty' graphics.  

I'm not sure what to call this one yet.  I was thinking about 'No Guts No Glory' .

The sleeves were hard to do...

The popular feedback of this design in particular has led me to try translating it into a shirt.   Merging front and back images of the humerous with clavicle and scapular attachments.... not so fun.  But the end product is pretty good.

Going a bit deeper...

Continuing the exploration of the rowing body....

2nd try. I think this is better. Look for this uni at the Challenge West regatta, Elk Lake, BC.

  Corrected the placement of the pectoral muscles and adjusted the brightness/contrast of the graphic.

A backburner project ....

I've been wanting to do this unisuit for a while.  Finally had to take a quick break from the team gear and do this up.   Looking at it here, I can see there needs to be an adjustment to the front image, but you get the idea...

I'm liking this design...

Working on shirts for Nova Scotia provincial team.   I'm pretty pleased with the design.

SUPPORT TEAM CANADA - QUIDDITCH!

My poor neglected blog finally gets a new post.   It's been so crazy busy, I haven't had time to post anything interesting until today.   Available now on rowwest.com in the QUIDDITCH section of the site, you can order two variants of the Team Canada Quidditch Jersey.  One is a Competition Jersey that you can customize with your own name and number and one is a Booster Jersey.   A healthy portion of each jersey sale goes back to Team Canada, so please order one today and support their travels in the quest for World Quidditch dominance!   

Team Canada - Booster Jersey

Team Canada - Competition Jersey

Show some colour on the dock this summer!

Just added a batch of singlets to the SLEEVELESS TOPS section of the Row West website.   Lots of other ideas in the pipeline.

I just need one perfect shade of red . Aaaarrrgggghhhh

Stats can be fun.

Yes, a blog without posts is a sad and digitally wilted being.   As of April 2012, Row West is incorporated instead of being a Sole Proprietorship.  Officially, the company's new name is Row West Activewear Inc.   This has entailed a lot of accounting adjustments (and painful expenses) - which is what much of April evenings and weekends have been spent doing.    The financial data is pretty interesting though.    Here are a few numbers from 2011:

Amount spent at Canada Post in 2011 - $7235 .  I actually feel kind of patriotic about spending money at Canada Post.  Plus I really like all the people that work at the Shawnigan Post Office.

Research and Development - $342.   Weak.  But I just can't find time to work on my new ideas for clothing.   Have to trim my less efficient work to make time to finish that darn skort pattern!

Manufacturing materials (like fabric and thread) - $34 993.   Not a bad year for Visa.   But at least I get points that I can redeem for Future Shop gift certificates.   Got my eye on that RC helicopter near the checkout....

The information I wish I had from every year of Row West, but just don't track, is how many articles of clothing I personally cut, put logos on and sewed.    If I take an averages approach and do some dirty math, I can make a guess at around 3000 pieces of clothing.   So I can make a reasonable estimate that in my life I've thus far sewn around 43000 pieces of clothing.    Yeah, Grandma.  Bring it.

Who's the God of Thunder and Lightning? You are. That's who.

Meet the first prototype for the Firebolt Unisuit.   
Inspired by a design sketch by Kayla Smith, cox for the UVic men's crew.

 I know it's always the same mannequin wearing my unis and believe me although I appreciate his work, I'm wanting some diversity in the synthetic model division of Row West.   I think I've mentioned before how hard it is to find an athletic female mannequin.  You'd think there would some degree of choice given the popularity of fitness wear in everyday fashion.   At any rate, I've found some various designs on ebay so I should be able to display women's clothing (on a female form) on the blog in the next month or so.    And yes, I could ask a real person to model the gear, but who has time for an actual photo shoot?   Not I.

Years after ruling the skies, the P51 Mustang rules the waters too.

This design was based loosely on some of paint schemes of the USAF P51 Mustang airplane.
This video is of the design rolling off the Dye Sublimation printer. Literally watching paint dry. Enjoy!

Pink is awesome.

Here are some images of the Helo Darksky Jacket with hood, front pockets and full zip.

More Dye Sub Overdrive

This jacket was created in Youth M for an 8 year old.   Obviously a fan of aviation.

Blueprints Greenprints .....

Made another jacket for a friend's child.  The front print is a copy of the original patent application for Lego.

Spandofashion takes a look back at the 60's through a modern lens. Peace, dude.

small updates to rowwest.com

Just added the padded shorts (finally) to a new Dragon Boat section of Row West.  On the main site, the menu is on the left.   Shirt info to come soon.

Also added a Quidditch section with a bit of info and some products to come soon.

Coming soon - Row West Designer Unis

Here's a quick preview of the first design that I'm going to offer in the unisuit section of rowwest.com.  I'll be working on new ideas all the time and posting them once I feel like they're good enough.  Next uni up will be "The Grid" (previewed already in this blog) with flourescent base tone.

I know that dye printed stretch gear has been growing in popularity and I'm happy to be able to do it.  I think that some uniforms are still best suited to cut and sew paneling, but dye printing opens a world of possibilities.   I don't want to just make 'crazy' spandex gear.  I want to make cool designs that are specifically tailored to the clothing - ie the difference between making a uni out of a crazy printed material vs actually designing where on the uni each element is going to go.   It's not an easy process and involves a lot of computer work but the end results will hopefully be worth it.

This is a front photo of Spirotechnic.  Will be available in two tone of your choice or full rainbow.  Centre of circle placement to be determined (still deciding what will look best)

Manufacturing! An inside look into the making of a Quidditch jersey.

Carleton Quidditch is unleashing the Raven and I'm happy to help them do it.

There is a whole other world out there on the water...

 I'm working hard to meet all my deadlines and get those web orders out the door, but I slipped in a quick dye-sublimation experiment today.   Guess what happens when you print black on top of flourescent?  Pure nerdy coolness.  Can't wait to do some more!  

Shawnigan head race - prelaunch

Early morning from the deck of the Shawnigan boathouse

Manufacturing Materials

Ideally I'd like to post a tour of my workshop on this blog but it's really too messy right now.  Instead, I'm posting  some images of the nooks of my workspace.

 This is the storage shelf for vinyl.   The long rolls are for decals - applications include lettering for vehicles or boats, decals for any smooth surface.   They work well for blade striping or adding a team logo to paddles and oar blades.  UVic Men use them on their oars.

These are some of my zippers for jackets and vests.   I use YKK zippers these days , after some bad trials with lesser brands.   It's pricey ordering hundreds of zippers at a time!   Right now I'm thinking about some cool jacket/zipper colour contrasts I saw at Mt Washington ski resort.