RedLeaf Designs

The calm before the frenzy!

It’s a Rutabaga Paddlesports and Swift Canoe & Kayak demo and customer appreciation weekend in Madison.

The shop opens at 10 and there are two huge Swift trailers filled with demo boats and customer deliveries. Even the weather got the memo and is on its best behavior!

Jeremy had the chance to chat with Mike Carney from the Outdoor Sportsman Group at Canoecopia about our gunwale bags, tether tabs, paddle pockets, and a few other bits of outfitting.

It was such an honor to have Mike share his excitement and enthusiasm for our gear from the perspective of a fisherman and sportsman!

Check it out if you have a couple of minutes and a fresh cup of coffee:

Outdoor Channel 8 likes. "Smart Canoe Gear Organization: Fishing & Portaging Solutions Explained"

It’s sleeting and gross outside this Saturday in Marquette. What better way to spend it than in the shop with Calder, outfitting a beautiful plum Hemlock Canoe Mayfly that the designer, David Yost, has loaned to him.

Now, if the snow would just melt so he can get on the water in his first solo canoe!

Big news from the sewing loft!

We’ve listened to feedback and are excited to announce the Super Duper Cover, a combination storage-transport-spray deck. It’s made from a UV resistant fabric that’s a hybrid of aramid and titanium. Once you put it on, you never have to take it off!

Racers will love the proprietary hyper coating that reduces drag by 58% and trippers will appreciate the hollow, helium-filled fibers that cut perceived boat weight by up to 7 pounds on a solo and 11 pounds on a tandem.

Go faster, portage lighter, and never have to look at your actual canoe, ever again!

We don’t usually try to publicly justify the price of our products, but thought we’d share some basic pricing information this morning.

Over the weekend, we had two potential customers (one considering a Canoe Coat, the other an Ultimate Cover) who felt they were too expensive and they would just make the covers on their own.

We support anyone who wants to make their own gear, but…

… if they buy equal materials, they will pay more than we charge for a finished cover before they’ve made their first cut or sewn the first stitch.

Sunbrella Marine Canvas is between $55 and $65 per yard and you’ll need 7 yards to make a cover for an 18’6” canoe. Before sales tax, before shipping, before webbing handles, before a 19-foot long #10 YKK marine zipper, you’ll have already paid $433.65 just for the fabric. By the time you’re done, you’ll have about $500 just in materials.

Our Canoe Coat starts at $389 and our Ultimate Cover at $399. That’s patterned, CNC cut, sewn on our professional, industrial machines, finished, and packaged, all for $100+ LESS than the cost of materials to make a cover from equivalent materials, at home.

(Screenshot of Sunbrella pricing from Sailrite.com, a great source for MYOG - Make Your Own Gear - materials and hardware.)

Composites to the rescue! I caught my fingernail on the tension disc post of my sewing machine today and ripped it almost all the way to the base.

A bit of 1/16” thick infusion-grade core material from the scrap bin, some superglue, and a touch of accelerator spray and it’s as good as new. 😝

Friends and customers, we don’t expect the next package pick up until Thursday. Maybe Friday. The side roads are almost as drifted in as our driveway between the shop and house. ❄️☃️

(For reference, the tall boy is just over 6 feet, the short boy is about 5'3"...)

Current view looking from Jeremy’s office window in the house across 80 feet of yard toward the sewing loft. Here’s a comparison photo of the same view in clear weather.

Visibility is about 30 feet with 30 mph winds and 60 mph gusts. Cassandra is out there shoveling porches and clearing snow around our generator, the wild woman!