Company

Mad River Canoe’s story unfolds on a picturesque hillside in Vermont, circa: 1971. In his backyard shed, Jim Henry, the company founder, began his mission to build a better canoe through innovative thought, design and materials. With confidence in his abilities, he designed and built the first Malacite model. He then raced in – and won – the Downriver National Championship and the rest, you know. Word spread and demand grew. A tradition of innovation was born.

The irony is, while Mad River Canoe has been the innovator in design and materials all these years, it’s the great tradition of canoeing that goes back thousands of years that has kept us so popular generation after generation.