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Wenonah
Mike Cichanowski was born to paddle. He grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River, where he cultivated a love for the water and an insatiable curiosity to explore it. First with his father’s canoe. Later, with wood-strip canoes he built as a teenager. Fiberglass models soon emerged from the family garage. The roots of those same designs are still evident today in some of Wenonah’s most iconic canoes.
Through the years, we’ve watched competitors sell to holding companies and move manufacturing overseas to the lowest bidder. Mike’s team in Winona, MN, still convene shareholder meetings at the kitchen table and sneak out early on Fridays to paddle the Mississippi. It’s been a philosophy and way of life at Wenonah for 50 years. Mike chose to stay. As a result, we’ve all gone much further.