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Rick Howell, Stowe, Vt
Starting at a very young age, in high school, Rick Howell co-developed the #-1 selling alpine ski binding in the world --- the Salomon 555.
After becoming 5th in the US in the downhill event of alpine ski racing and after double-majoring in engineering and business, Rick was employed by Geze ski binding company of Stuttgart, Germany for 8-years, first as Product Manager, then as Director of Marketing, where the company's products went from worst rated to best and from a 2% to a 20% market-share, profitably.
While full-time at Geze, Rick was corporate-mentored by Arthur D. Little company in Boston, focusing on market research --- and had on the side, developed what became the world's first clipless bicycle pedal / shoe system, CycleBinding, now a major bicycle accessory after-market-category with over a million pair sold per year for the past 17 years.
After selling CycleBinding, Rick was commissioned by a company who at that time only made wood-frame rawhide-lace snowshoes --- Tubbs --- to develop a "high tech" snowshoe and manage its market launch --- which project resulted in the #1-selling snowshoe in the world, 12-years consecutively in the #1 position.
Over the past 10 years Rick has led the development of one line of footwear for the Cole Haan division of Nike as a consultant and product developer, made Reader's Window overhead book holders, and is a product development sales engineer for a leading plastic injection molding company and a high-tech die casting company. Both are located just over the border in nearby Sherbrooke, Quebec.
Additionally, Rick is presently licensing an ankle-friendly snowboard binding --- and developing, from scratch, a new knee-friendly alpine ski binding and cross-country water-walking watercraft. He is also sole distributor of Flexmeter snowboard wrist protectors for North American and can be reached at rick@readerswindow.com
Rick Howell lives in Stowe with a son in college and a daughter in Stowe Middle school where they are active in their local church, sailboat racing on Lake Champlain and all forms of snow skiing.
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