One is Sewing, the Other Rowing: Sisters Pin Their Olympic Hopes on Teamwork

In the Olympics, the margin of victory is needle-thin.  Just the hint of a second makes the difference in bringing home a medal.

That being the case, University of Cincinnati fashion-design alumna Raegen Salchow, 28, has been in stitches over the past year to design a competition unisuit for the women’s 

U.S. Olympic rowing team

that will give them the edge toward a medal performance.  She’s come up with a winning design, such that her suit will not only be worn by her own sister and the rest of the U.S. women’s and men’s rowing teams but by the Canadian and Australian teams too.

Kelly Salchow, 30, also a UC alumna (in graphic design) and a veteran of a boatload of international rowing competitions – having just won a bronze in the World Cup rowing finals in Lucerne, Switzerland – explained that the new suit is the perfect fit for competitors.  “I own about 30 unisuits that I’ve worn at U.S. national and international competitions.  I wear them constantly.  Old gear has chafed and been ill proportioned, sometimes knock offs of men’s gear,” she explained. 

In contrast, Raegen’s unisuits – to be manufactured by Nike, Inc., where she has worked for about two years now – are geared toward the specific individual needs of men and  women rowers.  “Because the rowers all ‘face’ backwards, I pushed all the seaming to the front of the garment to aid aerodynamics.  Even there, I cut down on abrasion by choosing to construct the garment with flat seams.  I chose a ‘no-sew’ hem construction…. The garment’s hem is finished with a glue that’s heat applied.  It helps the hem stay in place when there’s movements and reduces abrasion,” Raegen said.

She adds that she chose a smooth face, super light-weight, dri-fit fabric to help keep the rowers cool and dry.  The smooth face helps reduce drag and is pieced with a dri-fit mesh for breathability.  All of these factors, while subtle, add up in the minute margins that separate Olympics athletes.

Throughout the design stages, Kelly, a six-time member of the USA National Team who has also won two national titles at the U.S. Rowing National Championships, tried on various prototypes and coordinated with other rowers to wear and give feedback during the long year-and-a-half process.  She explains that the garment fits and is flattering, “something that is important with all the television coverage and photography at the Olympics and being in front of 110,000 spectators from all over the world.”  But Kelly adds, “It’s so well-designed, it’ll add to our ability and time.  I can tell the immense thought, consideration and effort that went into this.  In this case, the professional became something very personal.”

And that’s just the reason Raegen made her own Olympian effort to complete the design.  At Nike, her duties normally encompass designing for alternative outdoors sports like trail hiking, mountain biking or snowboarding.  So, volunteering to serve as the principal unisuit designer – along with a team of over 30 including a creative director, developers and technical designers specifically dedicated to Olympic wear – meant a special commitment in a long and arduous regimen. 

“We started by talking to rowers, researching how they train and how they move and what their needs were.  I looked for appropriate fabrics and considered the construction of the unisuits.  I did a series of concept sketches which were reviewed and narrowed to final technical illustrations.  Prototypes were made, and testing with the U.S., Canadian and Australian teams began.  Fittings and feedback ran throughout the process,” explained Raegen, who initially designed for a New York women’s boutique when she first graduated from UC’s top-ranked

College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning

when she graduated in the year 2000.  Later, she joined Nike.

She added, “I worked on this project every spare moment because it was something extra I took on.  So, I worked all during the vacation I took at Christmas when I came home to Cincinnati to visit.  I was doing concept sketches the whole time.  I’ve worked many evenings on this.” 

Raegen will cap all of her design efforts by traveling to Athens for the Olympics with her parents.  Looking back, she says, “It was great to be connected to my sister in this way.  It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance that won’t come again.  More than I knew that I was helping athletes with their performance, with the actual times they’ll achieve, I knew there was a good chance my sister would actually be wearing this.  It’ll be surreal to see her compete in something I designed.  When we’re in Athens together, we’ll be in the same boat.”