Pro-Row have developed three types of rowing fleece seat pads as well as fleece grips to help athletes through those long and sometimes painful training sessions. The Pro-Row Fleece seat pad is a "Hand Crafted" rowing/sculling/adaptive/ergo seat pad, or as they are known "Butt Buddies"
Most training sessions end with a grimace because of the pain in the glutes and after extensive research finding the optimum sheep skins, types of wool and tanning processes Pro-Row now have a product which helps reduce the "pain in train" for all those long training sessions either on water or land. After testing many different types of materials Pro-Row identified the need for airflow not only around the glutes, the main point of pressure, but also the release of moisture. The initial seat pads were designed for adaptive rowers to help prevent pressure sores,but we soon discovered that the ultimate softness, support and comfort came from 100% natural sheepskins and was essential to dissipate sweat, considerably reducing that damp on the athletes shorts, which can easily turn into something more than just a pressure sore. Pro-Row use only natural sheepskins from sheep originating in America and the United Kingdom which provides an ideal balance of 25mm fibre length, with high density wool, providing strong springy support coupled with the ultimate in soft feel and comfort.
The structure of the 20mm wool fibres absorbs moisture, insulates against heat or cold and maintains its resilience by trapping air between the fibres. The crimp of the wool ensures the fibres stand apart from each other and the mesh of the fibres creates millions of air pockets that further help regulate temperature and humidity. Still air is trapped between the fibres, the athlete rocks over throughout the movement of the rowing stroke, allowing an air flow between the athlete and contact with the boat seat. The cells in the outer layers of the Pro-Row seat pad allow the fibre to quickly and efficiently wick and evaporate moisture keeping the skin dry and comfortable helping to avoid skin breakdown and pressure sores.
The specified tanning process allows the Pro-Row pads to be washed in the washing machine at temperatures up to 60c and tumbled dried without shrinkage, stiffening of the leather or any loss or flattening of the soft springy support of the fibres and should be washed on a regular basis for health reasons.
Using a Pro-Row seat pad offers protection to the athlete from the underlying surface, this ensures an even temperature and the user feels more comfortable by keeping the skin dry, in fact the fibres in the Pro-Row Seat Pad can absorb up to 34% of its weight in moisture vapour without feeling wet — ten times as much as any synthetic fibre. Each fibre acts like a small spring, because wool is a naturally strong fibre it can bend back on itself 20,000 times without breaking. Compare this to cotton at 3,200 times, silk at 1,800 and rayon at only approx 75 times. There are many fibres in to day's market, but as yet, science has been unable to produce another fibre having all of the properties of the wool used in the Pro-Row seat pads.
PRO-ROW IS A PROUD MEMBER OF THE REAL SHEEPSKIN ASSOCIATION
