Crescent Moon Snowshoes Engineers Products for Women

Jake Thamm, president of Crescent Moon Snowshoes in Boulder, Colo., said his company has spent the past eight years working to perfect its snowshoes for women.

This year's women snowshoes models feature a new binding system that makes them easy to get on and off, even for beginners. "We designed the binding around women from the beginning, because women are smaller and lighter," Thamm said. "My wife is the designer. Her perspective is a woman's perspective to begin with. We felt like if the bindings work for a small, light person, it will certainly work for a larger, heavier person, so we have it on all of our snow shoes."

The snowshoe shape includes a front that is traditionally aligned, but the tail narrows to a near point. The teardrop shape is engineered to allow for a natural walking gait that eliminates the trips, skips and bumbles so common with other popular snowshoe designs.

"The teardrop shape is unique to Crescent Moon," Thamm said. "It is our signature. Women have more narrow strides than men, so this shape allows for one snow shoe to clear away from the other shoe."

"Also," Thamm said, "Because women have narrower strides, they are prone to hip-flexor irritation when forced to walk on shoes that are too wide. The teardrop shape of the womens Crescent moon Snowshoes allow for a much more natural gait."