Here are a couple of cool designs from the Fall season:

It's Sunday and a midst the stacks of orders I'm working through for the weekly Fall deadlines, I took the kids into Victoria for an hour to the Cherry Bomb Toy Show at Pearke's Arena.    I have a lot of respect (and envy) for artists who are making their own brands of cool creations.   One of my favorites is Terri Wild who is the one-person force behind My Friend Monster.   Her work is really outstanding and worth checking out.  For the quality of her product, her prices are very fair.   The monsters are super cute and weird and immensely creative.   I strongly recommend checking out her etsy.  She has even more epic creations if you can get to one of her on-site setups.

 http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/myfriendmonster

If you were judging by the lack of blog posts, you might think there's nothing interesting going on at Row West.    The truth is, this summer has seen some very fun and interesting uniform designs and an intense workload.   Here are some (not all) of the designs that I worked on and subsequently printed, cut and sewed for teams in a few different sports...

Canoe Kayak Saskatchewan for the Canada Summer Games

Blacktips Quidditch (Uniform design by Lauren Mosley)

York Quidditch

Titans Quidditch

Aspire Triathlon 

Team Nova Scotia - Canada Summer Games

 Utah Crimson Fliers - Quidditch (uniform design by Jen Jewell)

In the tiny times between orders, I also created dye sublimation sandwich boards for Shawnigan House Coffee- highly recommended if you are ever in Shawnigan Lake.  I built a go kart that rides on train track rails for my kids (and general exercise from pulling the kids along in it) , I completed 3 lego sets - two copies of the Horizon Express Train (so they can link together to form a bullet train, and the Grand Prix Racer. I got jumping stilts, which may be a bad idea, but definitely a fun thing.  It's pretty scary running down the road in these things.

So, it's into school season again and I'm finishing up jerseys for Ecole Cobble Hill's athletics program, working on uniforms for several rowing clubs around Canada and several Quidditch Teams from both the USA and Canada.    The only thing I wish for is more time to sneak out to downtown Victoria to skateboard and see movies.

Here's hoping I can post more cool designs as I roll along.  My next door neighbour and designer Darian Slater has some ideas in the pipeline that I hope to help him bring into reality.  He's a Grade 12 student with some cool ideas for snowboarding gear that I think would also work in sports like Rowing.

Seems like Spring rowing finished with the CSSRA wind storms in Ontario and suddenly we're into Alberta floods and Ontario heat waves.   Is it just me or is it getting harder to hold a full regatta without a weather incident?

It might be time to set aside several million dollars and build that indoor rowing course we've all imagined.

Work at Row West has been extremely busy.  Some of you may have seen the athlete jackets worn by Shawnigan Lake School at CSSRA's.  That was a brand new design with a new ultralight waterproof fabric. I'm working on getting that on the Row West website (in the minutes between working on orders).    Also new were the coach jackets worn by SMUS and Brentwood College at the same regatta.   I feel like I've almost got the jacket categories solidified.  The types of fabrics available these days make designing quite fun.   

I wish I had some photos to post right now - I've done some fun pieces of clothing between my orders, but my workshop is too chaotic to actually do some photography.  

I hope all of you are looking forward to a good summer of rowing and let's keep hoping for calm waters and a little bit less rain.

Row West gets tagged in Quidditch Quarterly

Just got my first issue of Quidditch Quarterly because someone told me Row West got a mention there:

Ok - so I know I'm terrible at blogging.   If I had a personal blog, it would be full of all my personal curiosities and interests but with a company blog, even though the very nature of Row West is small and personal, it's hard to decide what might be relevant to post.   Although I have a lot of ideas for clothing designs, prints, etc - I don't like to post them before I'm ready to actually sell them.   Give that I'm usually working every day to get orders out the door, this tends to be a drawn out and sporadic process.

If this was a personal blog, I would post my amazement with good design work in a variety of fields.   I'm constantly fascinated by the convergence of toys and robotics that occurs in Japan (and in Lego too!).  Amanda Spayd is cutting loose with her brilliant and emotionally provocative artworks.   Apple is finally talking about a smartwatch (which I feel Blackberry should have come out with already).   Google glass is weird the idea is almost there (no way I'm talking to my sunglasses).  Can't wait for Google Windshield for my car though.   Thalmic labs has just posted previews the MYO - an armband controller for your computer.  Love their youtube promo video.  A tech forecaster recently speculated that self-driving vehicles would be required by law by 2020 in city limits, eliminating traffic accidents and congestion.    You can build your own camera equipped micro-drone quadricopter small enough to fit in your hand and controllable by computer.   The world is simultaneously becoming terrifying and incredibly cool.

But this is the Row West production blog - so what I'm actually posting - aside from all this other stuff that flows through the workshop in the form of radio and podcasts, is this.

Yep - pretty awesome.    It's a microfiber puffball.  Just got it at Staples.  You use it for cleaning screens.  Computers, phones, etc.  It's silly, but for some reason it a lot easier to use than those microfibre cloths that come with sunglasses.   So here's to a world without finger print smudges.

The Gorge Rowing and Paddling Club of Victoria, BC has just redesigned their uniform.   Here is one of the first new unisuits to come off the sewing machines.    The previous uniform was just a solid orange top.  This new unisuit design is based on the Row West DIG unisuit.

 

As we're well into winter, I felt it was time to finally update the jackets on the Row West website.   As a response to customer feedback and requests, I have posted a new low cost Helo (and Mithril) jacket - the RW Bones, available in 6 different colours and 2 choices of fabric weight.   My very first jacket design was the Darksky, and although this is a nice looking jacket, the reflective detailing is expensive and labour intensive.  Making a basic jacket without all of that detailing allows the possibility of a $100 softshell.   So, for those looking for a basic crew jacket with minimal cost and maximum function, this is where to start.

I have also added new variations of the Helo.  The Uninvisible Camouflage Helo is available in 4 different camouflage colour schemes.   The I Row Canadian jacket is also available now in two colour choices: black and red.   http://rowwest.com/clothing/Jackets.html

More radical print ideas are in the works.

We're well into the new year and the spandex is flying out the door to freezing cold junior rowers.   Surprisingly (to me) I'm also getting emails from Quidditch teams in the middle of winter.  Those are tough broom jockeys out there.    Sorry for the long gap in posting - there are a lot of projects I've been working on but I often don't want to post an image until something is ready to for actual ordering.

I was doing the year end accounting while taking breaks between clothing orders and found some old sketches - rough ideas for paintings so I though I would post those here.

As to upcoming regattas, I plan to send Row West to Monster Erg and then the Shawnigan Regattas in February.   Inventory goals for those events will be pogies, tights, and hopefully some new jacket designs.  If anyone happens to have specific requests for items at regattas, just send me an email from the link on the Row West website.