Quoddy Leap
C
QUODDY
an we handle yet another 21stcentury success story too wild to be a myth? Warning: this one that got away may keep you up at night. After the original Quoddy Moccasins brand was bought out by Wolverine, “the attorneys forgot to renew the trademark” worth millions. “So we picked it up for $375,” says co-owner Kevin Shorey, 63. That’s right. Three. Hundred. Seventy. Five. Dollars. “In 1997, my wife Kirsten and I wanted to start a Maine shoe company, so I drove down to The U. S.
Finding a future that fits. BY COLIN W. SARG EN T
Patent and Trademark Office in Crystal City” across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. “My grandfather had owned Quoddy Wigwam gift shop in Perry, Maine, and Kirsten and I had bought it from him in 1995, so I was feeling sentimental. First I looked up Wigwam. That was taken by Wigwam Sox. Then I looked
up Quoddy.” Gulp. “Wolverine never renewed the trademark. They never renewed the name.” THE OTHER MOCCASIN DROPPED This oversight may have happened because of the wild success of Hush Puppies at the time. “Wolverine used the Quoddy brand but put it under the Hush Puppies slipper umbrella.” Maine’s famous trademark may simply have been lost in the shuffle. LET’S GET STARTED “On March 17, 1997, Kirsten, the president of our company, and I found a blueberry truck from Washington County that had made a delivery in Florida and was deadheading it back to Maine. But we’d located some of the old Quoddy stitching machines” which had wound up in Florida. The WINTERGUIDE 2022 33
