Vesta Rowing Club, London, UK

Harry Bond, Club Captain at London’s Vesta Rowing Club on the Thames, first came across BAT Logic as a solution for his own situation post-injury “I had a bad knee injury and was left with one leg shorter than the other. I was researching shims when I came across BAT Logic and decided to try it out.”

“It got me thinking about the System for the club as a way to improve fit and comfort. You wouldn’t swap into someone else’s shoes in any other sport! Rowing in England and being on the tide we have problems – shoes get wet and boat sheds are not weatherproof, the result being you are putting your feet in size 14 rotten shoes. I’d always been looking for other solutions.”

Proud to be London's friendliest competitive rowing club, Vesta has 150 seats spread from eights to singles. Due to the size of the sheds, any improvement to the club needs to happen within the current fleet. “We’re volunteer based, the result is that shoes are replaced piecemeal, we don’t have a big budget and things get neglected. We had one rower rowing in shoes six sizes too big while another two sizes too small. Most of us are lightweight and were rowing in size 14s up to our ankles.”

Harry put forward a proposal to the committee for a move to the BAT Logic QuickRelease System. “I explained the issues we had, the costs and the potential future savings. I wanted to do it properly, across the whole club not just the top boats, this should be something for everyone. Although most of our Club shoes could be fitted to the System, I proposed buying some spare club shoes and I wanted to encourage people to also buy their own that fit them.”