Top 5 Rowing Online Stores

If you’re shopping for rowing equipment online, five names keep coming up among coaches, club equipment managers and competitive rowers. They are Concept2 for ergometers and oars, JL Racing for team apparel, Boathouse Sports for custom uniforms and multi-sport gear, Croker Oars for racing oars and WinTech Racing for boats and composite oars. Each one specialises in a particular portion of a rowing program’s equipment list, thus it is contingent upon what you’re actually buying as to what the “best” store is.

This guide is for those who often have to make that decision: club equipment managers, coaches outfitting a roster, boathouse management replacing ageing boats, and parents trying to figure out where to buy a first unisuit for their junior rower. It tells you what each business is known for, what to look out for before placing a team order, and how to avoid the timing blunders that catch first-time buyers off surprise.

Key Takeaways

• Indoor training gear, clothing, uniforms, oars, and boats are the specialities of the five shops listed below. Very few clubs solely purchase from one provider.
  
  
• Purchasing items for a team differs from purchasing items for one's own use. Prior to placing an order, customers typically have to wait weeks for custom uniforms or new boats to be made, gather bulk sizes, and pay a deposit.
  
  
• Freight companies, rather than regular parcel carriers, are typically used to transport boats and oars, which impacts both the cost and the delivery dates.
  
  
• Gathering sizing data and equipment fees from families becomes much easier for clubs that centralize registration and payment collection compared to groups that rely on spreadsheets and distinct payment methods.
  
  
• Rowing boats, in particular, have a good resale value and are therefore worth looking at on a secondhand marketplace like Row2k before purchasing me.

Quick Comparison: Top 5 Rowing Online Stores

The sections below explain why each store made this list and who it actually fits.

What Should You Look for Before Buying Rowing Equipment Online?

Before ordering, especially a team order, be sure to check on four things: lead time, how you get sized, shipping method, and minimum order requirements. These four things create more headaches for clubs than cost.

Why Lead Time is Important Custom uniforms and new boats are not inventory products. A bespoke unisuit order normally includes a design proof, a size round for each athlete, and production time before it delivers, which might take several weeks. Boats take considerably longer. Racing shells are often manufactured or finished to order instead of being grabbed off a warehouse rack.

Sizing procedure matters because rowing apparel sizing isn’t standardised across brands as general athletic apparel generally is. A ‘medium’ unisuit from one manufacturer may not be the same as a ‘medium’ unisuit from another manufacturer. Skip a formal sizing round, and headache with returns and exchanges will be your middle-of-the-season friend.

For boats and oars, shipping technique is the most important. Shells are typically delivered by truck from a freight carrier, not a parcel service. This means the buyer often needs a loading dock, a trailer, or a plan for delivery, not just a house address.

Team gear is a big deal regarding minimum order needs. Some custom uniform programs require minimum quantities or minimum purchase values to be able to get team pricing or bespoke branding, which affects smaller clubs differently than major programs.

The Top 5 Rowing Online Stores

1. Concept2

Concept2 makes the popular RowErg (previously the Model D), BikeErg and SkiErg indoor trainers, and also makes and sells oars and spare parts through its own online store.

Concept2 is one of the best-known names in the sport, with clubs, schools and gyms using their ergometers for winter training, testing and conditioning, whether they row on water or not. The company has a direct-to-consumer and organisation sales model, meaning clubs can purchase machines, replacement chains, monitors and other components directly from the maker, rather than from a third-party reseller. Concept2 is a good place to start for any program establishing or extending an indoor training facility, and its oars are also used on the water by clubs at all levels of competition.

2. JL Racing

Direct answer: JL Racing is an apparel brand that specialises in rowing-specific clothes like unisuits, tech shirts and warm-ups, and team shop programs designed to outfit a full roster.

Rowing apparel comes with special needs: unisuits that fit close to the body for racing, layering items for training in cold conditions, and team branding that must be uniform throughout every participant. JL Racing specialises in this sector, offering team ordering programs based on club and college rosters rather than one-off individual orders. That makes it a go-to option when a club has to outfit new members, refresh ageing team kit or establish a permanent team store that athletes and parents can order from directly..

3. Boathouse Sports

Boathouse Sports makes custom uniforms and team apparel for rowing and other sports and works with high school, collegiate and club programs for bulk and custom purchases.

As a manufacturer and direct reseller, Boathouse is important to clubs that make larger or more customized purchases because design and production are done under one roof, rather than through many vendors. So much production takes place here that many larger high school and college teams find themselves here — they require matching bags, matching warm-ups and matching uniforms all in one order.

4. Croker Oars

Direct Answer: Croker Oars is an Australian oar manufacturer that sells its sweep and sculling oars direct from its own web store . The oars are frequently utilised at the competitive and international level.

Oars are a major equipment investment for any program, and Croker’s reputation in the competitive rowing world is established on decades of use by top and national crews. For clubs beyond the beginning stage, and racing competitively, oar choice impacts performance in a way that is evident to experienced rowers and coaches, and this is why programs upgrading their fleet's oars look here often..

5. WinTech Racing

Direct answer: WinTech Racing makes racing shells and composite oars and is often picked by clubs and school programmes who need to replace or grow a boat fleet without the cost of some premium boatbuilders.

Shells are the greatest equipment purchase for a rowing programme. WinTech has a reputation for building shells that are competitively priced with some other manufacturers without making shortcomings that athletes and coaches would recognise. WinTech is a name that is regularly mentioned in budget planning conversations amongst equipment managers for a club purchasing its first eight, or replacing an ageing four.

On secondhand equipment: Not every programme has to buy new. Row2k is a long-running rowing news and community site that also has a marketplace for buying and selling used boats, oars, and other equipment for clubs and individuals. It’s not a bad idea for budget-conscious programmes to check out the used market before committing to a new boat purchase, especially for racing shells, which tend to maintain their value well.

Which Store Should You Choose?

Use this quick framework to match your need to the right vendor:

• Need an indoor rowing machine for winter training or testing? Concept2
  
  
• Need to outfit your whole roster with matching race-day uniforms? JL Racing or Boathouse Sports
  
  
• Need to upgrade your competitive oars? Croker Oars
  
  
• Need a new or replacement racing shell on a reasonable budget? WinTech Racing
  
  
• Need to save money on a boat or set of oars? Check Row2k's marketplace for used equipment before buying new

Most established clubs end up working with more than one of these vendors over time, since no single store covers boats, oars, ergometers, and apparel equally well.

How Do Rowing Clubs Manage Team Equipment Orders?

Short answer: Most rowing clubs get their equipment through a mix of fundraising, contributions from athletes and families, and an equipment manager who collects size information and works with the seller on the order.

Usually the simple part is the decision to buy (which retailer, which product). The harder part is the administrative side of it: Getting correct sizing from every athlete, collecting payment from dozens of families on time and keeping track of who has paid and who hasn’t, all while the club is also dealing with practice schedules, registration for regattas and general communication with parents.

The operational side of running a club is as important as the vendor you pick. Clubs that manage online registration and payment collection with a sports management platform can create a custom form that collects uniform sizing along with registration information, then collect equipment fees through the same payment system used for dues - instead of running a separate spreadsheet, Venmo requests, and paper order forms in parallel. SportsPlus provides this form of centralised registration and payment collection for clubs, leagues, and teams, cutting down on the coordinating overhead that traditionally falls to a volunteer equipment manager during the busiest time of the season.

“The club’s internal process and the vendor relationship are two different issues. Even if you solve only one of those, the other one gives headaches every season.

Common Mistakes When Ordering Rowing Gear for a Team

Ordering uniforms too close to the season. Custom uniform production takes time, and rush orders are often more expensive or simply not available. Clubs that wait until a few weeks before the first regatta regularly end up racing in mismatched or incomplete kit.

Collecting sizing informally. A group text or a paper sign-up sheet passed around at practice is easy to lose track of. Missing or inaccurate sizing data is one of the most common reasons team uniform orders go wrong.

Underestimating freight costs and timelines for boats. New or replacement shells often ship by freight truck, not standard parcel delivery. Clubs that don't plan for delivery logistics (a loading location, a trailer, enough notice) can end up with a boat sitting at a freight terminal instead of in the boathouse.

Treating individual purchases and team purchases the same way. Buying one unisuit for yourself is a different process than coordinating twenty-five unisuits with consistent sizing, consistent branding, and a single payment deadline. Programs that don't separate these processes tend to underestimate how much coordination a team order actually takes.

Not centralizing payment collection. Chasing individual payments through cash, checks, and multiple payment apps makes it hard to know who still owes money for a gear order, especially in larger programs.