Dispatches
Guyot Designs Summary I
August 31, 2009
The idea suddenly 
came to Josh Guyot in 2001 as he drove back from a trip to Lake Tahoe with his wife, Sloan. As Josh explains it, the couple was rounding a corner, or hitting a bump, and water effortlessly splashed out of his Nalgene bottle and landed in his lap. Trained in industrial design, Josh whipped out his notebook and sketched a solution to his liquid woes- the SplashGuard. After proposing the water bottle mouthpiece to several outdoor equipment retailers, Josh and Sloan had a bite- Eastern Mountain Sports wanted 40,000 SplashGuards as soon as possible. Thus Guyot Designs was born.
Similar to the simple style of the SplashGuard, Guyot Designs fashions sleek outdoors products that are reusable, durable, and can be incorporated into the household. Next came the Gription, a detachable handle/ spout control that fits most wide-mouthed bottles. Then the Fireflye, a device that serves as a lid and a LED light. And the latest products: Squishy Bowls, silicone based bowls that are easy to clean and compactable, and the TapGuard, an iodine filter that encourages consumers to use tap water instead of bottled water. Today, Guyot Designs’ products are sold nationally at several outdoor retail stores, such as REI, EMS, and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
As Guyot Designs’ mission statement reads, “Ideas are treated with dignity and enthusiasm while people and the environment are treated with reverence.” This ethic seeps deeply into the work atmosphere, as Melissa Raftery, Vice President of Logistics and Sales, described to me her other job. In light of her productivity during the year, each summer Melissa has been able to take a few weeks off to work with Pacific Discovery, a small group adventure tour company. Furthermore, Guyot Designs takes a total team approach to productivity by hiring only local staff who multitask and support one another’s efforts.
