Ugliest Unisuit

row2k Features

row2k features > row2k Exclusives

Photo Poll
Ugliest Unisuit

September 21, 2009
Erik Dresser, row2k.com

Hawaiian Print on uni?

Think you know your rowing fashion? Submit your nominees today for row2k's latest photo poll: Ugliest Unisuit.

Guidelines:

Send a photo of the uni in question here. Photo must be of a unisuit to qualify. No trou/tank or other combination will be considered.

The better the image of the uni, the more likely it will get selected and the more votes it will get.

If the photo is a row2k photo, you can just email a link to the photo.

Name of the club or school

Year or approximate time frame

Description of the uni. Special consideration will be given depending on the quality of the description.

Nominees will be accepted through Saturday (9/26) of this week.

We know that one person's "ugly" is another person's "eternal classic," view the finalist below and vote for your "favorite" now!

UPDATE - Voting now complete, the Notre Dame Zebra unisuit is the winner!

Finalists:

1994 Border Patrol Rowing Club - Uni was designed by Yaz Farooq (US Team coxswain) so the US athletes would/could be identified at races overseas. The attempt was for the unisuit to represent the US flag. I am hard pressed to think of anyone on the team that did not trade that particular Uni for either Oil Rig Man's jock strap (member of the Romanian men's 8+), BELVIS' (the Belgian Elvis') tighty whitey's or Pajama man's pajama's.

2008 USRowing Dev Camp Madison - Flames. Look how hot they are. Good thing there were some gold medals. Otherwise it would have been pretty embarrassing.

2006 Choate Rosemary Hall - A classy, full Burberry unisuit with a stylish black "C" on the chest for Choate. Simple yet sophisticated- this IS your mother's rowing uni.

2003 Belmont Hill - Belmont Hill School at Crash-Bs in 2003. They were modeled after Evans Liolin's race day hawaiian shirt, which he wore to ever race in the 2002 season.

2006 Penn Lightweights - Our Louis Vuitton themed unis from the fall of 2006. Unfortunately the athletic department's sense of humor was lacking and we were only allowed to wear them for Navy Day regatta. The unis were brown and gold, we added a "P" to the iconic "LV" logo (for Penn Varsity Lightweights) and we changed the design of their geometric pattern logo to look like the penn oar pattern. The shoulder straps had lighter color fabric to evoke the leather bag handles. I'm not sure why we did those unis, I guess mainly because we could.

2005 Penn Lightweights - In the fall of 2005 we did a tartan plaid unisuit, with a silver dolphin on the front. The dolphin comes from Penn's crest.

2003 Princeton Men - Orange creamsicle with huge type Princeton that wrapped around the entire body.

2007 Purple/Sleeved/Zippered - There are only two unisuits like this in the rowing world. The masterpeice was created by Michael Lombardi (Princeton '10). Mike saw an international team rowing with zipper, sleeved unis at Henley in 2005. In 2006, we decided to make our own version and Mike ordered two unisuits. We wore them for the first time that fall on the Schuylkill river. The unisuit is a purple, sleeved uni with a zipper on the front. The sleeves consist of a black stripe, a white stripe and what JL refers to as a "Cambridge blue."

2007 Thompson Boat Center - The Thompson Boat Center junior women's A 8+ at Club Nationals, summer 2007. We planned to just practice in these funky unicorn-evoking unis, but when the team's JL shipment (containing the official maroon and navy TBC unis) was delayed, we had to race in these for our heat. Our coach said the unisuits were so hideous we had to win the heat, or jump out of the boat in shame when we crossed the finish line--so we went on to win our heat by 34 seconds, win our semifinal by 7 seconds, and lead our final wire-to-wire. Those hideous unis really were magical!

2004 Princeton Women - Full body tiger print with matching JL striped long sleeved.

2007 West Side Rowing Club - These are the Tuxedo Uni's from the 2007 West Side Rowing Club Lightweights.

2009 Yankee Unisuit - From the row2k photo of the day, With opening day this week and the opening of the new Yankee Stadium, I thought this was most appropriate. I custom ordered the uni from JL with pinstripes, and then I sewed the NY on front and an MLB logo on the center back.

2009 Notre Dame - Notre Dame's Custom-Designed Safari Uni features the ND blue and gold up the side, but the main attraction is the wild zebra print that reflects ostentatious originality as well a honed instinct to blend together and leave all other crews in their wake.

Row2k Polls

Photo Poll - Ugliest Unisuit
2696 Votes
	2009 Notre Dame - Zebra 19.5%
	2006 Choate Rosemary Hall - Burberry 13.8%
	2003 Belmont Hill - Hawaiian 11.2%
	2007 Thompson Boat Center 11.2%
	2007 Purple/Sleeved/Zippered 10.3%
	2004 Princeton Women - Tiger Stripe 6.8%
	2009 Yankee Unisuit 6.1%
	2007 West Side Rowing Club - Tuxedo 5.3%
	2006 Penn LW - Louis Vuitton 5.1%
	1994 Border Patrol Rowing Club 3.7%
	2005 Penn LW - Tartan Plaid 3.3%
	2008 USRowing Dev Camp Madison 2.3%
	2003 Princeton Men - Orange Creamsicle 1.3%

past row2k polls

SUPPORT ROW2K
If you enjoy and rely on row2k, we need your help to be able to keep doing all this. Though row2k sometimes looks like a big, outside-funded operation, it mainly runs on enthusiasm and grit. Help us keep it coming, thank you! Learn more.