Read about how Canion came around and enjoy the story - from our founder Anne's perspective.
From problem to idea
In early 2019, I was at a cross roads in life, feeling unsatisfied in the office treadmill situation I was in. The drive to do something more motivating led me to the thing I love the most - dogs. Combined with my passion for solving problems and create, I thought maybe I can do something about my Pinscher Floke's back problems and the fact that we could never find a perfectly fitted harness for him. I'd previously crafted paracord collars, and got the vision of the perfect harness for us. I found some rope and started to carefully lay it out on Floke’s body, while he modeled patiently.
The Pippi-quote; «I've never done this before, so I'm sure I can do it» was basically the attitude, and at the end of the evening I thought -why not? I decided to reset my mind about dog harnesses and think of the harness as it was a brand new concept. How would I make it if I never saw one before? What materials are best? How should it be assembled? How can it be made to perfectly fit any dogs' body? Those were the questions I thought about, and those were the questions not answered by known concepts in the dog harness industry. And just like that, I had a new mission in my life :)
No turning back!!
Founding a company and developing a new product was a big challenge without any prior knowledge in prototyping. Because the concept required some custom-made parts and there were no standard off-the-shelf components that could do the job. However, I'd already exhausted my personal savings and was lacking the necessary skills to create the prototypes myself. So it would become a tricky road to navigate. Learning by doing was the only way to move forward.
For starters, I applied for startup funding through Innovation Norway and narrowly secured the necessary support for phase one. To solidify the brand’s identity, I had a logo designed, embracing the mindset of becoming a genuine brand, and Canion AS was established as an LLC in January 2020, marking the official beginning of our journey to create the perfect dog harness. I was determined, and there was no turning back!
Getting technical
Developing this harness has been a fun and educating journey. It's also been very important for me to keep the integrity of the project and not lose sight of my core values. There has been many distractions along the way, but when you know what you want to create, then you should listen to your gut feeling. In my case, I was right in the center of my own target group, so I knew what the real problems were.
I knew the struggles and frustrations and the guilty conscience of using equipment that hurt my dog. And once I became really aware of that, I realized I needed to learn how to make my own prototypes. Because how could I expect a hired professional to feel the way I did about it and understand my vision? So in March 2023, that's exactly what I did. I learned:
The lift off of Canion
With the harness taking shape, we could finally show it publicly, test it on more dogs which resulted in more support and momentum. We found potential partners and met more people that wanted to see Canion succeed. The harness got the name MEGIN, from the old Norse language, meaning Strength and Ability, because that's what I see in every dog.
We’ve partnered up with some renowned manufacturers of components, but the actual production takes place right here in Troms in Northern Norway. We still have a lot of work to do, because development never ends, but the future is looking bright. I can't wait to see more dogs happily wearing their MEGIN harness from Canion. Floke, now a senior, wears it every day and I'm so happy to see that his back problems are gone :)
