About

We are a bilocation brand that can simultaneously be found in Bend, Oregon and Ventura, CA. This phenomenon allows for concurrent exploration of Northwest powder, winter waves, and summers on Mt. Hood. We aim to make the world's best traction products and magical mittens, while enjoying every minute of running this company/movement/thing we call Crab Grab.  We love what we do, and thank you for your support!

-The Strouts

Our Staff

Preston Strout

Title Undecided: Husband, owner, product design, production, sporadic marketing, toe nail fungus, word writer, often lost at sea, breakfast maker.

Dawn Strout

Lord Business: Wife, owner, CEO type business stuff, whip cracking, cancer survivor, artist, professional wood turner, dinner maker.

Andrew (AK) Kelly

VP of Sails: Family, global sales coordination, Korean born, Maryland raised, currently Oregonian, nicest man you'll ever meet, world class napper, and the fearless leader of the Soy Sauce Nation.

Peanut

The Original Office Dog: Rest In Peace girl! Your shedding, sleeping, fetching, swimming, eating, pooping, barking, and love will be forever missed.

Esteban

Office Dog 2.0: Found on the streets of Mexico. Smuggled into the USA. Oh man. Wait until you get a load of this guy... 

Dallas

Customer Experience Manager: Legendary service, exchange master, warranty wizard, answers to life's biggest questions. Ruthlessly reliable. Possible conspiracy theorist. 

Ami

Graphic Designer (but better): Finnish pixel pushing style master, human coffee processing plant, mid-90's pro model haver, web designer, artist, and general problem solver.

Six Questions with Preston

1. Who owns this company?

Crab Grab is owned by my wife Dawn and I, that gets a ton of help along the way from AK, Ami, Dallas and our amazing sales reps, distributors, team riders, photographers etc. Dawn and I are a great balance, and none of this would have been possible without her being so organized and professional. I still have the mind of a 14-year-old, but I also have the back and knees of a 75 year-old so it all averages out to whatever the hell age I'm supposed to be.

2. Why was Crab Grab started?

Back in 2010 when I was running HCSC, I wanted to make a product that inspired riders to kind of “refocus” snowboard tricks on style. The days of really tweaking unique grabs somehow got replaced with just grabbing mute and spin-corking till you land; so that's where our original Grab Rails came from. Seeing them on your board is a great reminder of how amazing a simple poked out grab can feel. Other traction type stuff was a natural extension of this, so Scott Stevens and Jesse Burtner became our first two team riders. We all were spending our summers up on Mt. Hood, and the brand and products were all born out of this environment. By summer 2011 we had our first prototypes, and the rest is history. Or at least it will be someday.

3. What do you hope Crab Grab inspires?

I think the level of modern pro snowboarding is so hard to relate to for most people. It's absolutely incredible where things have progressed to, and fun to watch, but it's very difficult to go emulate. You don't really go to your local mountain and chuck triple corks, but catching a few feet of air off a bump and grabbing your snowboard makes sense to anyone. I love the fact that Crab Grab can inspire snowboarders new and old to have fun enjoying the simple, stylish, creative fun that is the foundation of snowboarding.

4. How come so many riders use Crab Grab?

We're very fortunate to have so many amazing riders supporting our brand. Every time I see crab grab on someone's board, or our mittens on their hands I feel so honored and lucky. Aside from making really functional products, I think that traction is such a small category for most larger brands, that it becomes a heinous afterthought. Over the years, the term "stomp pad" itself became synonymous with something crappy you'd see on a rental board, and nobody used them anymore. Nowadays, we provide a well thought out offering and riders are once again experiencing the benefits of well designed traction.

5. When did you start making mittens?

We knew from the beginning that we would eventually make mitts. I mean, come on, our logo is a claw and we make products for grabbing, so mittens always felt like a logical extension of what we are focused on. We worked on prototypes for a few seasons and then released our original line in the Fall of 2015 with the Punch, Snuggler, Slush and Man Hands. Since that time we've evolved and relentlessly improved our line to offer a full range of claw covers to keep your hands warm, dry, and grippy.

6. Why does Esteban never take a dump in the yard?

Good lord who knows. For the life of me I'll never understand why we need to take that guy on a 20 minute walk for him to take a crap.