SALT LAKE CITY — In 1982, Voile developed a simple flexible tension strap as one component of its Snake Skin backcountry ski climbing system. It was never intended to become its own product, much less a design copied across cycling, rafting, motorcycling, overlanding, industrial work, and outdoor recreation.
But that is exactly what happened.
Ski shops quickly found new uses for the strap. Merrell incorporated it as a toe strap on its Super Comp telemark boot. Customers began asking Voile to sell the strap separately, and in 1984 it reached shelves as “The Voile Strap.”
More than four decades later, the basic design has become recognizable enough that an entire class of products follows the same general format.
“You don’t get copied this often unless the idea works,” said Voile Marketing Director Eric Reed. “What started as one small part of another product became something people use for just about everything.”
Through that growth, Voile has continued manufacturing the Strap in Utah and refining the details behind its deceptively simple design. The company has spent more than 40 years developing its proprietary material formulation, dimensions, hole geometry, buckle systems, tooling, molding processes, weather resistance, and manufacturing consistency.
“Forty years of R&D; doesn’t necessarily make a product more complicated,” Reed said. “In our case, it helped us make a simple product better.”
The growing category has also brought a growing number of generic versions, close copies, and direct imitations. Voile has even encountered products customers believed were genuine Voile Straps, including straps presented to the company for warranty support.
That confusion prompted the company’s latest update.
Every new-production Voile Strap now carries a permanent molded Voile brandmark, along with its length in both inches and centimeters. The mark remains even on co-branded Voile Straps carrying another company’s artwork.
“Customers have contacted us about warranty issues before discovering that the failed strap wasn’t ours,” said Voile General Manager David Grissom. “That’s why the permanent mark matters. If the Voile mark is there, you know who made it.”
For Voile, that mark represents more than branding. It identifies a product manufactured under the company’s own material, tooling, molding, hardware, and quality-control standards.
“Keeping production close gives us control over the quality,” Reed said. “The material, the tooling, the process; we don’t want to hand any of that off and risk unseen changes to something we’ve spent so much effort dialing in.”
The original Strap has also grown into a broader product ecosystem that now includes aluminum- and nylon-buckle models, Nano and XL Straps, Extenders, Rack Straps, Strap Keepers, and other specialized configurations.
Voile isn’t dismissive of everything that has followed.
“Some genuinely interesting variations and new uses have come out of people taking the basic idea in different directions, and some of that experimentation has absolutely moved the category forward,” Reed said. “We simply want to make it easy for people to identify the original product and understand what to expect from it.”
After more than 40 years, identifying the original is now as simple as the product itself.
Look for the mark.
ABOUT VOILE
Voile has manufactured simple, durable backcountry equipment in Utah since 1980. Today, the company produces skis, splitboards, bindings, climbing skins, Voile Straps, and related outdoor equipment in the Salt Lake valley.
