As winter hits us with an icy blast, thoughts turn to the cold winter months ahead, which for many rowers, can be daunting. Facing a cold or wet outing can cause even the strongest of us to dither. It is only the donning of copious layers which steels our resolve before venturing forth from the boathouse. Thankfully, Five57 offers a wide range of outwear options from RegattaSport to armour you and your club for the battle against the elements. This short guide will help to decide which is the best option for you. Whether your priority is breathability and comfort, or durability and waterproofing, our range of outerwear is sure to keep you covered.

CATCH WINDSHELL

The Catch Windshell Jacket is a favourite for many of our clubs and schools. Durable, and functional, the Catch offers many features which make it an excellent choice for those looking for an all-round rowing jacket.

Its Hydroflex outer shell is hard-wearing, with superior water-resistance. Its lycra side panels offer added ventilation, as well as increased mobility especially whilst rowing.

A convenient zipped pocket also features on the jacket’s lower back to keep your essentials dry and nearby.

The jacket can be made with a quarter zip or full zip depending on your needs.  Stitched-in lycra piping adds a final flair, with a wide range of colour combinations available to match to your club’s required design.

Offering a classic design with modern features, the Catch will make an excellent addition to your current range.

VELOCITY JACKET

The Velocity is far from a typical splash top. Its origins as a jacket for cycling become clear when you consider its features: a sung-fit to eliminate excess bagginess, four-way stretch fabric ensuring freedom of movement, and a lightweight breathable shell that can be worn for hours at a time.

Premium E3 Gamex fabric sets the Velocity apart from other splash jackets, offering excellent wind proofing along with water resistence at an exceptionally light weight: less than half the weight of RS’s standard Lycra used in their unisuits and baselayers.

The fabric ventilates well, ensuring that moisture can escape, while keeping any splashes from getting in. We recommend the Velocity Jacket as a year-round option for protection against wind, splashes and light showers, for times when a heavy rain coat is not required.

This jacket is also available with a Lycra collar and cuffs for a softer fit and feel, as well as Hi Vis fabric and reflective lettering.

VELOCITY GILET

The same lightweight, breathable E3 fabric is also available without sleeves!

The Velocity Gilet offers the same slim fit and features as the Velocity Jacket, with a breathable mesh lining.

Perfect for keeping the worst of the weather off when you want to avoid the bulk of a full jacket. Full and quarter-zip options available.  Reflective detailing available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PREDATOR JACKET + GILET

Those who like the technical features and incredible light weight of E3 Gamex fabric might also consider the Predator Jacket.

Like its cousin, the Velocity, the Predator Jacket features a lightweight E3 Gamex shell, fully sublimated in your club colours.

RS has also included a warm Power-stretch Fleece front panel for added comfort as well as a reflective rear stripe for increased visibility in low light conditions. An elasticated waist drawstring to achieve the perfect fit, too.

Sleeves are optional. The Predator Gilet offers the same lightweight construction and useful features, minus the sleeves!

CAMBRIDGE JACKET

This is a retro rowing jacket with all the trimmings.

Featuring a heavy-weight outer shell, and soft fleece lining, the RS Cambridge Jacket is designed to keep you dry and warm in even the worst conditions.

With a roll-away hood, and adjustable cuffs, the jacket also features an exaggerated rear scoop for additional coverage, which can be tucked away with hidden poppers to achieve a shorter fit.

The Cambridge’s pockets make it practical off the water as well as on it!

For those who need a heavy-weight rain jacket with plenty of useful features, the Cambridge Jacket is a great option.

 

RegattaSport is continually adding to their range of rowing gear, so watch this space for news about upcoming products, including outerwear.

 

 

Seen something you like? If you would like to chat about RegattaSport rowing kit for your club, contact our team at info@five57sportsgear.com or call the office on 0115 714 7557.

 

On October 29^th 2020 we launched the Burnham UK website, bringing Burnham boat bags direct to the UK market.  The initial take up has been great and we were very excited to receive our first shipment of customer orders into the office yesterday.  Christmas has come early!  If you ordered a cover for pre-christmas delivery – it is on its way.

We received a variety of orders of covers for singles, doubles and oar bags and they all look fantastic and show that the market for boat covers in the UK is alive and kicking!

 

This lovely deep purple Sunbrella single cover comes with natural coloured tips – a very classy colour combination!  There are so many colours to choose from you can be very creative and make sure your boat looks great in and out of its cover.

 

One oarbag that will definitely stand out from the crowd;  lime green Sunbrealla fabric with fully padded lining.  This is a sculling oarbag which holds a pair of sculling blades and offers handy shoulder carrying straps.  You can also choose sweep oarbags which hold up to 4 sweep oars, each with its own blade protector to make sure those painted blades stay chip free!  There are also paddle bags especially designed for canoe/kayak or dragonboat paddles available in the full colour range.

 

This is an Aqualon Edge Soft fabric boat cover in charcoal and ivy green.  This fabric has its own soft fleece backing to protect your boat.  The fabric is lighter than the Sunbrella fabric so the cover itself takes up less space when it is off the boat.

 

These photos show some of the colours and styles you can choose from when you order your own Burnham cover.  If you need help with colours or fabrics get in touch and we can send you fabric swatches to help you decide on the perfect colour/fabric combination. Why don’t you browse the website and see what colour-way would suit your style, there is a huge variety of colours to choose from and you can customise your cover in all sorts of ways.

We are also excited to be sending some sample oar bags off to a national rowing team…can you guess who?  If you think your rowing team would benefit from customised oar bags, rigger bags, or boat bags get in touch and we can discuss how we can help.

Have a very Happy Christmas and don’t forget, winter is just around the corner so cover the boat you love with the best!

The original motivation behind Five57 was to supply top quality kit to top quality people. That is why we initially teamed up with our Canadian partners, the fantastic RegattaSport, who share our mindset. It is also why, when we received an email from Peter at Burnham Boat Slings in the US, saying that he was looking for someone to help expand their UK operations, we jumped at the chance.

Burnham boss, Peter, is yet another ex-lightweight rower (Chris and Joe at RS, and Tom from Five57 are all also ex-lightweights) and that background gives him and his team at Burnham the same kind of outlook and drive that we all have, which I guess could be summed up along the lines of “If you are going to do something, do it as well as you can.”

Burnham are all about boat care and safety, and among their product range are some of the best boat bags in the business. They are designed and manufactured in New Hampshire on the US east coast and shipped all over the world to beginners, masters and international rowers and, more recently, Surfski paddlers.

The Burnham range is a perfect fit to our existing line up. It allows us to offer even more useful value to our existing customers, and hopefully to attract some new ones too. You only have to lay your hands on a Burnham Boat Bag you will see why we think so!

Each cover is designed exactly to fit your boat, with patterns for all the major manufacturers and models from around the world.  Along with offering a custom fit cover for your boat, you can also choose from a wide range of colours, fabrics and finishes.  You can even add your club logo or initials!

In the past few months, with the interruption of crew rowing, many people have looked to their single sculls to keep rowing whilst social distancing; and Burnham have seen a big upturn in sales as rowers want to protect their boats from the elements and from dings in the boathouse!  Whether your boat is brand new or 10 years old, it is worth taking care of.

You will also find a full range of accessories for your boat including trestles, rigger bags, oar bags and blade covers as well as their trademark boat bags.

The accessories we think you will love the most are:

Regatta Slings – these are small, space saving trestles that are perfect for regattas and overnight storage. They fit easily into your car boot, are great value and even have an integrated tie-down strap.  Much easier than searching for spare club trestles to rig your boat, or, God forbid, having to rest it on the ground! And safer than leaving it on the trailer between races with all those other riggers just waiting to ding your shell!

Sunbrella Sculling Oar Bag – keep your expensive sculls safe from scratches and dirt in the bottom of that club trailer.  The full length zip is the clincher here for easy packing and unpacking.

Sweep Oar Travel Bag – Blades are a big club expense and often get a rough ride. Keep your paintwork fresher and protect grips and length adjustment from damage.  Up to 4 sweep oars in each bag make for easy unloading and transport to the boat racks.

Wing Rigger Bags – one bag fits both wing riggers so no more fighting with tangled riggers in the bottom of the trailer!

Blade covers – all that effort goes into painting blades with club colours for them to get scratched and damaged on the way to races.  Once your blades have had a nice new paint job, cover them in a cover and they will stay fresher for longer!

So many great ideas for you to browse so visit the UK Burnham website through our webpage at www.five57sportsgear/burnham. Don’t forget to follow us on our social media to get some great introductory offers and spread the word that Burnham is here in the UK!

Cover the boat you love with the best!

When working in a small company, noting milestones is important.  Watching Pembroke College Boat Club row past at last year’s lent bumps was a proud moment for our team; our first Cambridge University college boat club kit on the water. Just 12 months later it was the iconic light blue racing kit of the Cambridge University lightweight men’s and women’s crews in the Lightweight Boat Races.

These key moments not only signpost our growth as a company, but also our support of the UK rowing community by supplying RS kit to rowers at all levels of competition.

While both clubs represent important milestones in Five57’s journey, they also serve as great examples of our two primary options for placing your club kit order: iTeams and Bulk Orders. Read on to learn how each option works, and which option may best suit your club.

Pembroke College: iTeams

The guys at Pembroke College reached out to us directly.

Like many clubs approaching the start of a new season, the committee were considering their options for club kit, and eyeing the seemingly daunting task of switching to a new supplier. Happily, we were able to quickly show that the switch couldn’t be easier.

An important first step for any new club is a samples meeting.

We took examples of our most popular products to the club, as well as some more unique items (fully-sublimated Sports Bras proved to be a particular hit with Pembroke!). A samples meeting is a great opportunity to discuss your kit requirements in person, and for clubs to get their hands on RS kit for the first time.

With the club now familiar with the quality of RS kit, the next step was design!

Working with the talented graphic designers at RS, we are able to offer bold new designs for clubs who may be looking to update their look, or, carefully match new designs to members’ existing kit. Multiple versions of mocks can be drawn up, with designs altered based on your feedback, until the new designs are just right!

The new Pembroke designs were quickly finalised, and they looked great!

Once the designs had been agreed by the committee, we set up Pembroke’s individual iTeams store on our website. 

It only took Pembroke College 1 week from initial designs to opening their iTeams window and placing orders! 

The iTeams store allows for the club to circulate a password bespoke to the members of the club ensuring only club members can order club kit.  We help clubs get the message out to members by providing a simple set of login instructions to include in a club newsletter or to circulate electronically. 

Then it’s time to shop! 

Once logged in, members will see all the designs and descriptions of the products chosen by the club.  They can select what products they wish to purchase, chose their own size (having referred to our comprehensive size guide), and make a payment to complete their purchase.  Just like any other online shopping experience, our system is totally secure and complies with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards.

Normally our kit windows remain open for 2-3 weeks, but some clubs, like Pembroke College, organise their rowers to get this job done and dusted in a shorter time and keep a close eye on orders coming in to make sure those members who need it, get a quick nudge so they don’t miss the deadline.

There is no need for committee members to collate kit requests, sizes, or money – all this is handled by the online store and the kit secretary gets a tally of orders a few days before the window is due to close.

For Pembroke, all the orders were collated, final production designs were agreed and production began within 3 weeks of the initial mocks – speedy indeed!

7 weeks later we delivered all the Pembroke orders to their Kit Secretary at the Boathouse.  All orders are individually packed with packing slips identifying who the kit bundle is for, so distribution couldn’t be easier.

Cambridge University Lightweight Rowing Club (CULRC): Bulk Order

That same year we were asked to design some training camp kit for the Cambridge University lightweight rowers.

Their racing kit was provided by another supplier so they were after something using the Cambridge blue but being a bit more adventurous! 

Working with the design team at RS, we created a selection of design options for the club to consider.  As they were wanting this for

 a training camp, they wanted to place a bulk order with us to have the kit turned around as quickly as possible. 

While they were finalising the designs they were also collecting the numbers and sizes of kit to order.

CULRC chose a chessboard unisuit and leggings which looked very cool out on the water! 

The design was in keeping with the club colours and gave a lightweight, high performance unisuit for the team to train in.  We spotted some of this kit on the water at BUCS 2019 too!

 

Cambridge University Lightweight Rowing Club (CULRC): Boat Race Kit

At the start of the 2019/20 season.  We were approached about supplying the Cambridge Lightweight men’s and women’s teams with their racing kit for the 2020 Lightweight Boat Race.

Having already done the training kit we had all the necessary logos and colour pantones.  The kit designs were agreed very quickly to match the existing blue boat designs over both the mens and womens teams.  The club knew who had been selected for each seat and so pulling together a bulk order was the quickest way forward. 

Those athletes who had been identified as spares received their own bespoke designed unisuit. 

On the day of the Boat Race, CULRC did a takeover of our Instagram story – visit our Instagram highlights and take a look to see some great behind the scenes insights into their day.

We were delighted to have the RS logo on the racing kit at such a prestigious event.

You might not have known these unisuits were supplied by RS.  Our distinctive RS logo could be found between the shoulders of each athlete – our very own little piece of Five57 magic!

So whether you are looking at Bumps or Boat Races, come and talk to us about how we can help you make supplying your club kit easier. Your colours. Your kit. Your way.

In May 2017 Leander Club asked us to design some rowing kit for them.  Athletes were asked to trial RegattaSport kit for quality, comfort and size. The athletes wanted us to design something a little different, in keeping with the Leander colours so it could be recognised on the water, but having a bit of fun!

The resulting unisuits were the renowned “polka-dot hippo” pattern.

Rowan Law can be seen here sporting his polka-dot hippos while training in the Leander quad for the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup 2017.

Photography credit to @ryanjnicolsonphoto for capturing this in action!

Unusual, fun and definitely just for training!!

Only 13 of these were made in May 2017 so maybe they will be a collector’s item one day!

The club were impressed by the quality of the fabrics and the athletes liked the lightweight, comfort of their unisuits when rowing.

Designs were then requested for the whole squad kit and in November 2017 the first senior and junior squad unisuits were delivered to the Club. During the winter season the remaining kit was designed and delivered.

I am sure you will agree that the Leander Club colours are very distinctive. Our production team in Canada took pains to get this colour just right.  Test swatches of fabric flew back and forth across the Atlantic to ensure the perfect match to the brief we had been given.

We worked with the Club to ensure every detail of the kit matched their Club and sponsors requirements.

We are honoured to be in our third season supplying this prestigious club with their racing kit.

Look around and you will see some of the country’s top athletes in photos and in person, sporting their unisuits, leggings, shortsleeve and longsleeve drive baselayers and their very distinctive black Velocity jackets.

Thanks to British Rowing for these great shots from this year’s senior trials.

We supply some of the top athletes in the rowing community, get in touch to make sure your kit is on top form.