Notes from the van.
An ongoing series about how Loon'r came to be. The decisions, the detours, and the moments that mattered more than we realized at the time.
Suitcases full of boots
The sampling year wasn't one big decision. It was hundreds of small ones, made in cement rooms far from home, and carried back in whatever would close.
Read itFrom the start.
Every note, in the order Mike wrote them.
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This wasn't the plan: how Loon'r started in a van in Silverton
And somewhere between managing wet dogs and drying gloves on the dashboard, the wheels started turning. Not in a “we’re starting a company” way.
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The boots we kept seeing everywhere
Before Silverton, there was Japan. In some of the snowiest places on earth, we kept seeing the same winter boots worn by everyone from lifties to bus drivers.
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The one thing we refused to change
Once we decided to take this "boot idea" seriously, we started thinking about how to "improve" the boot. Every time we made it stiffer, heavier, or more complicated, it got worse.
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We got a lot of things wrong
We made plenty of wrong guesses early on: sizes, colors, quantities. But every mistake taught us something useful, and the one thing that never wavered was how people felt when they put the boots on.
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Suitcases full of boots
The sampling year wasn't one big decision. It was hundreds of small ones, made in cement rooms far from home, and carried back in whatever would close.
More soon.
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