It’s that time of year when Christmas shopping is a top priority. For those of you looking for wonderful gift ideas for boat lovers you can’t go past the collection from Strokeside Designs. If you follow my Instagram @susanseipel.paralympian you will have hopefully seen that I do a lot of promotion for this company. This is because they kindly support me by donating a percentage of sales purchased through my unique link http://bit.ly/Canoe-KayakJewellery And I also just absolutely LOVE their products so I am happy to recommend them.
With this in mind, I thought I would introduce you to the team behind Strokeside Designs and give you an insight into the brand. I interviewed Business Manager Dom Scara who graciously answered my questions…
How did you become involved in Strokeside Designs?
I used to be Marcin’s flatmate in New York City (Marcin is the creator of Strokeside Designs) back in 2013-2014. I still remember when he told me what he was working on. He used to spend many hours inside his room and rarely go out to eat and take in some fresh air. I started to get interested in what he was doing back there, but I was travelling a lot and I could not commit to such a thing in that moment. Once I settled in Australia, I decided to bring the brand here.
Strokeside Designs was initially inspired by the sport of rowing and later expanded to include other water sports including kayaking, canoeing, and dragon boating. What is it about these sports that inspires you?
“The Game”… rowing is just like life. You start from a point and direct yourself towards an end (which could be a goal/objective or just the whole life). In between you encounter obstacles, pain, sprints, energy flows, and so on. But then you have also the off-water life; the community, coaching, teamwork, preparation and so on. This is what drives us. We found that lots of sports can relate to this, but the water races have something more than others. This is why we love kayak, dragon boating and canoe. Just cause you “row life” on a different position and direction, won’t make you different.
I personally love your jewellery collection. Can you tell us about the jewellers you work with?
Marcin met two professional designers from ARD STUDIO (who design collections for Tiffany and other high-end brands) who helped him create subtle designs. With breakthrough CAD technology, each piece undergoes a meticulous process from 3D printing to manual polish which provides world class shine. Our jewellery is made out of 925 Silver and available in gold too!
While hand-crafted jewellery is the cornerstone of Strokeside Design, can you tell us about the other products you have in your collection?
Accessories including belts, wallets, ties and bowties (silk), and some clothing too. Also bags and pouches, we are still developing the collection.
You also make customized pieces on request, how does this process work and have you worked with any famous teams?
Personalisation for each club is something we are proud of, as we value team-work more than anything else. We work with clubs and organisations to provide custom jewellery with their blade colours or logo on them. We are the accessories and jewellery provider for US Rowing and many other clubs all around the world, especially Germany, USA, England and Australia. We are working with other organisations and there is something really big coming up soon!
Finally, this maybe a really difficult question for you, but do you have a favourite piece from the Strokeside Designs collection?
My favourite pieces are the blue tie and the belt. As far as jewellery goes, I wear the men’s ring all the time!
Huge thanks to Dom and Strokeside Designs for sharing their passion. Although it is challening to narrow my choice down to one or two pieces I would have to say my favourites from the collection are the Kayak Paddle Ring and the Canoe Paddle Heart Pendant. Check out all of these and more on their website below…
Susan Seipel 
Very creative ppost
LikeLike