Our Story

“Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought.” -Albert Sent-Gyorgi

Hair stylists and barbers know that cutting hair hour after hour with arms raised takes its toll on a person’s shoulders, elbows and wrists.

Bigfork, Montana barber Dennis Soucie and his stepson, hair stylist Gary White started thinking about shears several years ago.  They asked themselves the question, “What if there was a way to reconfigure cutting shears so a hair-cutter’s arm could be lowered and still get the job done?”

The two men, inventors at heart, began tinkering with different ideas to see if they could make that happen. They gleaned information by talking to stylists and barbers they knew, and at various trade shows they would attend. They realized that over the years, although shears had improved, they still weren’t ergonomically correct. Soucie had been inventing things since he was a child.  Even at a young age he would take things apart, to see how they worked.  If there was a need he saw, he thought to himself, “I can make that.”

With Soucie taking the lead, together the duo developed shears equipped with a a swivel thumb ring that slides back and forth, allowing the cutter to position the shears with minimal shoulder, elbow and wrist movement.  The main manipulation of the shear originates from the thumb.

The two men applied for a patent on the specialized shears in June of 2012, and also set about getting a prototype of their invention into the hands of barbers and stylists in Kalispell, Montana to test market.  The response was very positive.  One stylist, who now only uses the Slider Shear, was asked the question, “How did you know these were right for you?”  Her response, “When I tried to go back to my old, traditional shears, I couldn’t use them.  They just didn’t feel right.”

The freedom the thumb has for flexible positioning eliminates soreness and strain in the thumb muscles.

Long time stylist and product educator Annie Grive says, “Since using the slider shear I no longer have to massage my thumb at night”

The time is now, for you, too to experience the Slider Shear, and to experience for yourself the difference these shears can make in your professional career!

Below is an article from the Flathead Journal Business section where the Slider’s story is featured!