Toward the end of the 80’s, Joe Pulliam and three paddling buddies decided to pool their considerable experience in the fledgling paddlesports industry and create their own boat company. After a tiresome search for the perfect location, they finally settled on Roane County, TN. The deciding factors were close proximity to a variety of quality paddling and cheap rent – but not necessarily in that order.

Thus, in 1988, Dagger Canoe Co. was introduced to the world. In those days, Joe was as likely to be delivering a trailer-load of boats to Minnesota as he was to be in the plant shaping a plug. He and the other three owners quickly realized the tragic irony of this industry – when you’re spending all your time designing, manufacturing, selling, and delivering boats, there’s not much time for paddling them. They made do. But mostly they made boats.

Since then we’ve moved to a new facility in South Carolina, and grown a bit . These days, our shipping warehouse alone is large enough to hold our entire Tennessee facility. When we started, there wasn’t even a separate area for R&D. Now, we have a state-of-the art R&D facility with more space and better equipment than some manufacturers’ entire plants.

But though we’ve grown bigger and changed locations, our commitment to the sport, to innovation, and to you the paddler remains as strong as it was in our dirt-floor days. At heart, we’re still just a bunch of paddling buddies. Except now, there are enough of us sharing the load that we all get to paddle quite a bit. It’s pretty cool, really.

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