A Short History of Row West

Row West was founded in 1992 by Beverie Lucas, a local Victoria rower. Bev provided the local rowing community with something that previously had only been available through mail order - clothing by rowers for rowers. Bev ran Row West out of her basement for 4 years while raising two teens and training on Elk Lake. At the end of four years, Bev decided it was time to move on to other projects and adventures and she began the process of shutting Row West down. About a week before it's final day, Bev was visited by Justin Nakatsuka. Justin had previously designed a couple of t-shirts for Row West and was beginning another term of Fine Arts at UVic when Bev offered to hand the business name to him. He accepted.

In its first months under Justin, Row West provided t-shirts and sweats to local rowers while contracting out the occaisional order for racing uniforms and stretch clothing. The company took on a new logo and new designs. It also got its first website.

After less than a year, Justin decided that the design and manufacturing of uniforms and clothing was the place to take Row West and he invested in industrial sewing equipment and fabrics. Phase 2 had begun. At that time, Row West consisted of Justin Nakatsuka and Graham McLaren - working out of the basement at Graham's parents' house. It was a small operation. Over the next couple of years, Graham's rowing career took him away from Row West and Justin began running it more and more on his own. Today, Row West hasn't grown much in terms of staff. Though product line and yearly sales have steadily increased, it's basically Justin doing most of the work with part time help from a variety of people. There have been some very good people to cut fabric and sew clothing at Row West; Pauline, Shaylin, Jesse, Pascale, Lisa, Trevor. Row West now has a representative and source of outlet in Vancouver to help serve growing numbers of mainland customers. As Row West continues to grow its product line, more staff will be necessary. It will be a natural evolution and the timeline is not yet set.