Sitting in a comfortable leather chair in the new boardroom at Salus Marine Wear in Waterloo, ON, surrounded by displays of colourful and beautifully-made lifejackets and PFDs, you might pause to wonder how Steve Wagner originally got his company started.

Did he foresee the market for high-end technical sporting goods in the marine industry? Or was it his dream to establish a new Canadian manufacturing company? What drove him forward in his quest?