On Dead and Dying Penguins... both my Penguins are broken after 12 miles, my wife's are on their way.

Customer Service

I can hear the conversation in my mind; the Redfeather marketing folks said, "We need a snowshoe that customers can take apart". But the engineers heard, "We need a showshoe that comes apart". Thus the Penguin was born.

We took our Penguins out for their fifth hike today. Both of the hinges on mine broke on today's hike and the hinges on my wife's are on their way. Since we have at the most 10-12 miles on these shoes, it strikes me that maybe the Redfeather engineers spec'd a somewhat totally inadequate material for the live hinge part (I think a strip of beef jerkey may have lasted longer). I didn't expect a lot from these snowshoes and I can live with the truly obnoxious snap design for the take-apart snowshoe that is almost impossible to work, but the hinge is inexcusable.

Aside from the quality of their products, the only other measure of a company that matters is the quality of their customer service. Redfeather already lost the first round with us, I sent them an email outlining my experience today. I'll report back when I get a response.

Redfeather no longer makes this product or the ones with a similar design they introduced a year later. I think I know why...

Follow up to the "dying Penguins" review below: It took forever, but Redfeather finally sent me replacement hinges for the two sets of dead Penguins. The material is different. I hope it's a lot better but only miles will tell.

Customer Service

Redfeather has terrible customer service. They never answered my email, so I sent a formal snail mail letter with two of the hinges and requested a fix or replacement of the shoes. Three weeks later a pouch arrived by mail with two new hinges and not so much as a note to go with them. I requested four in my letter so I could fix both sets of Penguins. I send in another letter with the other two hinges asking for additional replacements. Another three weeks, another pouch (with four hinges this time) and no note or other sign of humans living at Redfeather. I'll let you decide if eight weeks to handle this problem is good customer service. My ratings express my opinion.

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Just bought two sets of MSR shoes since I don't trust these marvels.

These snowshoes are mainly for hiking snowboarders as I've understood it, and for that they're pretty good. The ability to take them apart is nice if you want to put them inside you backpack, however I like it better to strap them up with the board straps and some kind of security strap too. The Penguins are a little small when there is serious fluff pow-pow, but you're still able to ""walk"". I'm a really light guy so I would have no probs, but I guess you 200 lbs-guys should get something else... At least here in Sweden snow shoes of any brand is HELLISHLY expensive so I'll never buy a pair of my own until they go for half the price... or maybe next time I go to the US?

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They've held up for me however they are new this year. I weigh to much for the shoe (225). They even work for me now, however With a pack on they just don't perform like they should, and they weren't mad e to support my kind of weight. I do think they will work quite nice for my fiance' she is half my weight and we are both Just getting into snowshoeing. You can get the basic idea, and for begginners I think the shoe is a great alternative to paying $2-300.00 for a pair of nice shoes. If you really wanted to jump into snowshoeing then these shoes aren't for you. But if you're just going to be a weekend warrior then these shoes will work for you for a season or two. I bought mine from campmor for 59$ and they will make Carly a great pair of shoes. I myself will be getting some bomber shoes, cuz I've done it enough to know that I will definitely be loggin some miles on these babies.

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