From the Van
This is the second part of 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. If you're just finding this, you can start at the beginning by CLICKING HERE.
Before the Silverton trip, there was Japan.
Years earlier, we’d gone over for the skiing, the food, and the culture. What we didn’t expect was to keep seeing the same winter boots everywhere we traveled in snowy regions.
The B&B owner.
The bus driver.
City workers clearing snow.
Lifties working their shift on the mtn.
Different people. Same style boot.
They weren’t flashy. They weren’t precious. They didn’t look like something designed to impress anyone. They just worked.
Eventually, a friend in Furano pointed us in the right direction. We grabbed a couple pairs for ourselves and a few friends back home.
They were incredibly light. Super warm. Easy to slip on and off. Comfortable in a way that didn’t require a second though.
At the time, that was it. We didn’t overthink it.
They just became our default winter boots.
Fast forward to late March 2024, and we were back in a van in Silverton, Colorado.
Mud season. Dogs. Gear everywhere. Late nights. Early mornings. Snow, slush, rain, and everything in between.
That’s when it became obvious.
Those boots handled everything we threw at them.
Midnight dog walks. Muddy parking lots. Ski days. Errands.
Getting in and out of the van a dozen times a day without thinking about laces or wet socks.
They quietly became the MVP of the entire trip.
And people noticed.
“Where’d you get those?”
“Are those actually warm?”
“Wait… they just slip on?”
Not hype. Not excitement. Relief. Curiosity.
Somewhere between managing wet dogs and drying gloves on the dashboard, the question finally surfaced:
Why weren't these boots a thing here?
Why did winter boots have to be stiff, heavy, and overbuilt to be taken seriously? Why did comfort always seem to come second? Why were they always so hard to get on and off?
We didn’t have answers yet. But we knew one thing:
If we were going to do this, we weren’t going to mess with what made the boots good in the first place...
More soon.
Mike
Founder, Loon’r
