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Jim Kershaw
Jim went to school for industrial product design at Appalachian State University. He began his career designing tools for construction, refining designs and ergonomics, and field testing for durability and function.
“I am attracted to design for function and use. After designing tooIs, I moved to STX Lacrosse, designing protective gear for STX and Nike. It was a good blend of taking what I learned from designing durable tools and translating that into sports. This led to a balance of developing softgoods in combination with designing hardgoods. Through that time, I learned a lot, most importantly, learning to listen to elite athletes and the things they wanted. Eventually, my love of the outdoors led me to Orvis, bringing the design background here and creating product I’m passionate about.”
Jesse Haller
Jesse is not only a product developer for Orvis but oversees the entire field testing protocol for Orvis outdoor. Jesse has spent the better part of his life fly fishing, growing up in the Driftless region of Wisconsin and then guiding in Colorado and Vermont before joining Orvis.
“Whether fishing personally or guiding, I really gravitated toward understanding usability and function, and finding those little things that make a big difference. Why did they put those here? Little nuances of why things work and make things easier. This was always interesting to me. Things that work best are those things you don’t think about. It lets you focus on what you’re doing. We want anglers to be dry and warm, all the tools to work, and everything seamless.”