Meet the Maker: SnapPad Jack Pads are a Game Changer for RVs
This company found a way to make "shoes" for RVs—even if it wasn't part of the plan.
Image Caption: Photo Credit: SnapPad
Devon Wilson and his brothers were not thinking about the RV industry 12 years ago. A family of habitual entrepreneurs from Calgary, Alberta, they were busy with other projects. Wilson, himself, had just designed an ergonomic bucket handle—something he hoped would reduce injuries for construction workers.
But over a family dinner, Wilson’s dad, who in the early ’90s helped develop an RV leveling system, pitched an idea: With the industry growing, what if they developed a stabilizing system for RV leveling jacks? Wilson was vexed. “When he brought that up, I was sort of annoyed,” he says. “We were all working on other products in other businesses.”
Still, despite no one in the family being an RVer, they brainstormed ways to build a permanent jackpad that could mechanically attach to a rig’s leveling feet. They created prototypes with magnets and adhesives before pivoting to a simpler design: a pad that attaches via a rubber lip around the leveling feet—something designed to stay in place even as a rig travels down the road. Plus, utilizing recycled rubber, it was sustainable.
They called it SnapPad.
Photo Credit: SnapPad
After a year of development, the family reached out to a Grand Design owner’s group and asked them to test the product. What they heard—overwhelmingly positive feedback—convinced them to go to market.
And even if Wilson was initially skeptical, it was the right call. Over the past decade, SnapPad has grown from a family project to a business with 25 full-time employees, two manufacturing plants (in Indiana and Alabama), and products at more than 1,000 dealerships across North America. They’ve even broken into markets in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Qatar. Along the way, they’ve recycled more than 5 million pounds of rubber.
Of course, growth hasn’t been strictly linear. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Wilson says, “Demand exploded and the supply chain collapsed” across the industry. And while SnapPad felt those impacts, the company was fortunate to have all of its manufacturing in North America—something that also helped them avoid the pain inflicted by recent tariffs.
Today, SnapPad is in frequent communication with RVers—many of whom have informed the evolution of the company’s offerings, like the SnapPad TJ, which fits onto a trailer’s tongue jack, as well as a pad that bolts onto truck-camper jacks.
“All of the other products we’ve made came from people requesting them,” Wilson says. “RVers are happy to talk to us. They’re passionate. They’re a quality group of people.”
This article originally appeared in Wildsam magazine. For more Wildsam content, sign up for our newsletter.
