Bont BR Shoes – Reviewed

JRN were lucky enough to get review access to Bont Rowing’s latest innovation – the all-new BR series shoe. Branded as the world’s first split sole carbon fiber rowing shoe utilising the lightest, highest quality and best performance materials, the shoe is researched, innovated and built from the ground up for rowers, by rowers. After a period of testing over several weeks, here is what our writers had to say…

RowWithTheFlow

Bont Rowing’s shoes really do epitomise putting the need of the athlete first. When trying the BR, which harnesses feedback from elite, club, masters and school-level rowers, it was distinctly clear that these have the potential to revolutionise the support for the club and school programmes with a product designed for their athletes. 

During the recovery, the shoe holds support and structure allowing it to stay connected throughout the stroke and maintain form into the catch. The catch point indicates the strong design that places these shoes above similar targeted products with the foot at this much narrower platform on the toes feeling equally as supported as at the finish. 

Once the blades are locked in and the drive begins the true engineering design is shown. There is no point in the drive that feels unsupported. Out of the catch to when the heels first connect you can feel the direct energy transfer going through the boat. As the drive lengthens out you continue to feel that no energy is being wasted and that all the power is going into lifting the boat and sending it through the water. 

Overall these shoes do the best of both and could provide the edge to send that boat a bit further.  Whether it be through the design that helps maximise your power output or just the overall increased support and structure that they give which makes rowing with them a more comfortable experience. 

Alliot Irvine

Having spent the last few weeks testing a pair of BR Bont Rowing shoes, I feel that can offer a few impressions on what I think of them. Since fitting the shoes I have certainly felt a step on in my overall level of sculling, both in terms of my technique but also my enjoyment and confidence in the stroke. These last few weeks though have shown to me just how big an improvement in your rowing you gain from a well-designed and proper fitting set of shoes.

The shoes themselves are very high quality both in materials and construction. The lockdown feels secure while there is plenty of room in the toe-box. This particularly has helped with feeling stable around the front end. The added heal pads also helps you to really drive your heel into the footplate and assists with getting that earlier connection in the stroke. After a couple of longer UT2 sessions in them I have been very thankful of the level of comfort they provide and I haven’t had any issues with cold feet despite being based up in the cold north of Scotland.

I would therefore encourage anyone looking for a fairly cost-efficient way to upgrade your own boat or if you regularly use borrowed or club boats to look at purchasing a pair of high quality and proper fitting rowing shoes.

RayRows

For the majority of my elite rowing career, I have used Bont Shoes. Across all boat classes, significantly in the quad scull and my own single, I have been familiarised to the ‘Helix’ model which provided tight security with a single BOA cable system, so I was somewhat apprehensive to move to a Velcro shoe. However, the installation of the shoes into a Hudson scull was simple and required no additional tools or knowledge; I feel this combined with the Velcro aspect makes the shoes feel more accessible and universal.

On the water I was surprised at the comfort and security. Safety is a demanding factor of boat ergonomics, so I was glad when the heel restraints and lace strap made the shoes easy to remove in the potential event of an emergency (this element trumps the older model, which was hard to remove). Personally, I use arch supports when rowing to achieve a more even load on my footplate, these were compatible with the shoe and proved no discomfort, I also felt more powerful around the back end of the stroke and stable at the catch. When under race conditions the shoes were durable for longer distances, even with the addition of fluffy socks! 

From a more aesthetic point of view, the matte black shoes compliment my single’s hardware, which personally makes me feel a little more confident when racing, knowing my boat looks impressive and I am advantaged by the best equipment. 

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Rachel Egan

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