Why Rowing Blazers Made Prep Fun Again

Jack Carlson, a former Olympic rower and Oxford-educated archaeologist, launched Rowing Blazers in 2017 with a simple thesis: preppy clothing had been sterilized by the very brands that popularized it. Ralph Lauren and Brooks Brothers had made prep safe, predictable, and old. Carlson wanted to bring back the absurdity and genuine social-club energy.

The brand came out of a book. Carlson spent years photographing the jackets that rowing clubs and college crews actually wear, the striped, piped, badge-covered blazers that look absurd anywhere outside a boathouse, and published them as Rowing Blazers in 2014. The clothing line is that research turned into product, which is why the crests reference specific clubs instead of decorating a placket.

The rugby shirts are the brand signature piece. Bright, bold color-blocked rugbies with embroidered crests from actual rowing clubs and universities channel a specificity that generic prep brands lost decades ago. Each colorway references a real institution.

If you are buying a rugby shirt, three details separate the real thing from a polo with stripes. The cotton should be heavy, 12oz upward, stiff enough to stand on its own before the first wash. The buttons should be rubber, because rubber does not snap or open a face in a scrum. And the collar should be twill, sewn on as a separate piece, not the same jersey as the body.

You can have the garment without the crest for half the money. Barbarian in Ontario and Columbiaknit in Portland both make heavyweight hooped rugbies at $80 to $110, and Canterbury of New Zealand still sells a traditional cotton version. What you give up is the specific club reference, which is the entire point of the Rowing Blazers one. Decide whether you are buying a shirt or a joke, and pay accordingly. Wash cold and hang dry either way, since heavy cotton shrinks about half a size in length the first time.

Collaborations are where Rowing Blazers flexes its cultural range. Partnerships with the NBA, Babar the Elephant, the USPS, and various Ivy League universities demonstrate that the brand treats prep as a cultural category rather than a dress code.

The actual blazers are excellent. Rowing Blazers produces unstructured, lightweight blazers in bold stripes and solids that feel festive without being costumey. They are the opposite of a corporate navy blazer.

Pricing is reasonable for the quality and specificity. Rugby shirts run around $138, blazers around $395. Everything is well-made, often in limited quantities, and the resale market shows demand consistently exceeds supply.

The blazers are the harder sell. Around $395 buys an unstructured, half-lined jacket in a loud cloth. That is good value for something you wear twice a summer and poor value as the only tailoring you own. If you have no jacket at all, buy a plain navy one first and come back for the stripes when you have somewhere to wear them.

Browse the current collection at https://www.rowingblazers.com. The brand physical presence at their Manhattan shop reinforces the community-driven ethos.

Rowing Blazers matters because it proved prep does not have to be stuffy, exclusionary, or boring. It can be colorful, inclusive, and genuinely fun while still honoring the heritage. If your mental image of prep is khakis and boat shoes, this brand will recalibrate your entire perspective.