(CEO and re-founder, Tiffany Huey | Photos courtesy of Snowshoe Leather Care)
Snowshoe Leather Care was founded back in 1927, when the average snowshoe was still made with leather. The leather would mold to your foot to create a near perfect fit, but the leather itself struggled to survive the cold and wet conditions, without proper leather care. Lessons like this were learned on a massive scale following the WW1, resulting in a surge of leather care products in the post-war era.
Tiffany Huey, the current CEO and “re-founder” of Snowshoe Leather Care says that her family purchased the company in 1950. Her great grandpa, Jack Dees, retired from the railroad business and spent his leisure time at his cabin on Mt. Hood. His son decided to purchase a little something to keep his dad busy; that little something was Snowshoe Leather Care. Three generations later, and Huey is now leading the family business into a new era.
The company has evolved a lot over the years, and these days, their main focus lies in the broad outdoor industry, the rodeo and ranching industry, and outdoor retailers. They sell a particularly high amount of their product to markets like Texas and Florida, where leather products are common; as common as the hot and either wet or dry conditions that cause the leather to wear down faster. In Central Oregon, the many days of dry sunshine we get throughout the year means that leather needs extra care in this region to avoid cracking.
Their main product, the one that has been a staple for nearly a century, is their snowshoe leather conditioner, which can be purchased in quantities as large as one gallon. This leather conditioner works great on any kind of leather, and with proper use, can keep items in top-quality for decades.
“My grandpa would condition his dress shoes with our leather conditioner every week as he watched 60 minutes,” Huey said. “And he kept using those shoes for decades.”
Up until 2025, that leather conditioner was the only product they sold. Now, Huey has expanded the product line to help push the business to address the needs and wants of the modern market. With so many people diving into fast fashion, Huey wants her product line to reflect her mission: preserving beloved leather items and the stories they hold, for generations.
Now on their website, customers can purchase leather care balms, with specific varieties for boots, bags, belts, gloves and saddles, ensuring that each type of leatherworking gets a specific formula designed to keep it strong and healthy for years.
Huey said that going into the near year, the company’s biggest focus is on scaling.
In terms of scaling, her focus is on scaling distribution, as a current goal is to get Snowshoe Leather Care products into local Bend distributors.
Huey participated in the Bend Outdoor Worx Accelerator Program and saw great benefit in working with the experts and advisors available through the program. She says that a main benefit was learning what important questions to ask herself, in terms of what can be done in house, and what must be outsourced. As a “solopreneur” it was and is very important for Huey to understand what she can do herself, with her background in marketing, and what she might need help with. Accurately addressing strengths and weaknesses means accurately addressing any problems that might pop up in the course of running a business.
Looking at the future of her company, Huey has plans to expand and modernize her manufacturing, which currently happens in a barn on the east end of Bend. She also plans to continue giving back to the wonderfully collaborative community that is Bend by being open to talks with new founders looking for guidance, and keeping up her volunteer work with the local nonprofit, Healing Reigns.
