Coming to Tubbs in 1987, after it was split off from Tubbs Furniture and under new ownership moved from Wallingford to Stowe, Kiniry saw and seized an opportunity to develop lightweight but strong metal snowshoes. Kiniry's vision went further, however, to the four basic principles that he believes underlie all recreational product cycles. In the past few years, Tubbs has sponsored university research into the fitness aspects of the sport-oxygen intake, calories burned, and so on. The way you continue to maintain your market share is to outmanage your competitors, but also to outproduce them in terms of product enhancements, things that work better. Proprietary technology is a very important aspect of not only price, but product margin.
Marketing includes sales to sporting good shops as well as specialty outdoor and ski shops.
Whatever the changes, Tubbs has never lost sight of the need for technological innovation, consumer awareness, access and credibility. While living in New York City architectural carver Roger Questel invented a way to simulate metal castings with metallic resins, there was no limit to the number of uses to which the pioneering technique could be applied. When veteran business leader Barry Culkin came on board the company Questel founded as its first hired CEO, he brought a seasoned awareness that business success depends on having a clear focus. The second opportunity that I saw was the ability to create a brand. The most valuable recurring thing that I've learned in doing this is to stay focused on the important one good idea as opposed to the 12 great ideas, so that one idea becomes a success before launching the other eleven.