Tubbs Snowshoes Designs Less for Purists Looking for Wooden Traditional Snow Shoes

The latest Winter Outdoor Industry survey suggests snow shoe purists and traditionalists are quickly declining in numbers. Manufacturers such as Tubbs Snowshoes still make some wooden snowshoes for purists who insist on the traditional snowshoes. But these types of users are outnumbered 99 to 1 by customers who prefer more modern footwear.

"You've still got hunters and trappers who prefer wooden snowshoes, because they're so quiet," said Dan Kiniry, Tubbs's product manager. However most consumers are leaning toward sleeker models made of stainless steel and aluminum. Tubbs hopes that the most adventurous outdoor enthusiasts will pay up to $289 for its latest snowshoe line, the Tubbs Elevation series.

The Elevation snowshoes are designed for snowshoers who like to trek in backcountry. The important feature is a newly designed snowshoe binding, called the Nexus, that can be fixed adjusted easily, even on the trail. "There are some bindings that, if they fail, it basically renders the snowshoe unusable," Mr. Kiniry said. "That can become a huge problem if you are miles from the nearest road and facing a blizzard."

The bottom of the Tubbs Elevation series shoes are lined with steel crampon teeth, each more than an inch long, critical for back-country hikers who hike over both icy mountain sides and deep powder.

"When designing the Elevations," said Mr. Kiniry, "the biggest challenge was balancing weight and strength. Snowshoeing is a grueling physical activity - it can burn more than 1,000 calories an hour - and heavy footwear makes it all the more exhausting."

Beginning in 2002, the Tubbs Snow Shoe design team came up with 12 two-dimensional designs; a focus group of snowshoers then reviewed them. That helped narrow the potential offerings to three, which were then turned into proto-types. The Elevations combine the best characteristics of all three finalists, from weight (the lightest women's model is 3.56 pounds per shoe) to base construction (using a puncture-resistant alloy that won't crack at temps of -40 below).

Tubbs, based in Stowe, Vt., was acquired by the sporting-goods maker K2 of Carlsbad, Calif., and Tubbs plans to move its manufacturing from Vermont over to China. Lately, Tubbs has emphasized snowshoeing's health benefits, sponsoring snowshoe races and snowshoe festivals.

One of the fastest-growing segments of the market has been older adults who want to keep fit during the winter but no longer wish to brave downhill skiing. Tubbs has tried to communicate that modern snowshoes don't force users to walk unnaturally like wooden traditional snowshoes do.

Mr. Kiniry did acknowledg that some longtime snowshoers would never make the switch from wood to modern materials, no matter how many fancy new bindings and crampons Tubbs invents.