West End Rowing Club, Auckland, NZ
“WE NO LONGER HAVE THE SITUATION WHERE ROWERS USE SHOES THAT ARE THE WRONG SIZE RESULTING IN BETTER ROWING PERFORMANCE, IMPROVED FOOT SUPPORT AND CONNECTION AND BETTER STABILITY IN THE BOAT.”
West End Rowing Club Captain, David Vallance
“I know as a rower it’s not a great experience having your feet in shoes that aren’t the right size, but we had no solution because of the shoe sizes of our rowers who range from school kids to Masters. The school kids suffered most, especially girls who were wearing size 12 shoes because that’s what worked for our Masters rowers” says West End Rowing Club Captain, David Vallance.
David first saw the BAT Logic click-in-click-out system in a Hudson boat and started to explore the idea for the club. The club has a diverse range of rowers, running a learn to row programme for schools and at the same time developing athletes that go on to represent New Zealand at the highest level.
“This was a real culture change for us. We could see the benefits but there was some push-back from parents who had questions about cost and rowers who had questions about using the system. People worried it would take extra time, but it doesn’t - they just unclick them on the pontoon once they get back to the club.
We also had to answer some questions ourselves - when people are new to the club and don’t have shoes what do we do? How will we store the 200 new sets of shoes that are no longer in the boats? What if people take someone else’s shoes?”
David ordered sample shoes and attached three options to a board with prices so rowers could try them and see how the click-in-click-out footplate worked. West End got the go-ahead and teamed up with other local sheds to make an order for 250 base plates, rower’s shoes and some club shoes.
The BAT Logic QuickRelease system works for any boat and every seat, improving the comfort, hygiene, and performance of rowing. “We’d long struggled with our shoe replacement costs which were $5000 per year. BAT Logic has reduced our costs for shoe replacement and people take better care of their shoes now as their own property. It’s an overall positive cost saving.”