Snowshoe Design and Prototyping

The desire to design and to create new things is something I have had from an early age.

Growing up in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York, I spent a great deal of time outdoors. One of my favorite activities was hiking, especially in the winter when snow covers the trees and makes a satisfying crunch underfoot. Unfortunately, while there were several manufacturers making aluminum frame snowshoes at the time (as are required for serious outdoor travel or legitimate snowshoe racing), no one was making such snowshoes for children. It happened that my father had become well-known in snowshoe racing circles for having helped organize many international competitions throughout the northeastern United State and neighboring Canada. When I was 7, he was putting on the North American Snowshoe Championships in my home town and had invited the president of Sherpa Snowshoes (Jeff Liataud) to stay with us at our house during the competition. Seizing the opportunity after breakfast, I busted out some paper and some crayons and sketched out my dream snowshoes with Jeff, complete with little arrows and text to highlight the important features. He took my designs back to the factory and began working to develop snowshoes for the junior market. I received two prototypes that winter, which I immediately took outside and put through their paces before putting in a call to Jeff with my feedback. By the fall of the next year, I received the production model of the snowshoe I helped develop. My snowshoe was put into mountaineering shops across the country, and before long, many of my friends owned them too. This was truly a life-shaping experience, the realization that many of life’s problems have solutions, but that some of these solutions are still waiting to be designed.