Our Story
We’re Shawn and Kendra Gillis and we design and build walking sticks and canes using all sorts of beautiful woods. Shawn is the doer of the team; the one who rolls up his sleeves, designs, and builds stuff. Kendra is the thinker of the team; the one who crunches numbers and dreams stuff up. As you can imagine, we drive each other crazy … errrrrr … I mean, we balance each other well.
In all seriousness, ever since we met working on consulting projects and case studies in business school we knew we made a good team. We felt more creative, more productive, and definitely more successful and fulfilled when we put our heads together to tackle a project. But that’s not the best part! Working together was fun and rewarding, but we very quickly realized that we loved doing everything together! We fell in love. And in 2014, we decided to become a team for life.
Our dream when we got married was to be able to work together in every way, building our careers and our personal lives together. This became especially important after having our three darling babies. We wanted to both be able to experience our kids and our family as much as possible while still having flourishing careers where we felt like we were learning and helping people.
It’s taken a lot of work, a lot of hard decisions, a lot of mistakes, and a lot of patience, but we made it to a point where we were able to follow our dream and work together full time through Gillis Canes, LLC. in February 2018 and we haven’t looked back. This felt like the biggest risk we had ever taken, but over the years we saw the pieces fall into place and little by little it became more and more evident that this was where we were being lead. And years later, we look back knowing this was a pivotal decision in our journey of living life to the fullest.
Watch this video to hear Shawn tell his story and see him in action!
Why canes?
Shawn, the craftsman and owner of Gillis Canes LLC, began making walking sticks as a young boy with woods he found close to home. At first he was mostly just trying to teach himself how to use woodworking tools like hand planes and files and loved designing and combining beautiful shapes with beautiful woods. He never considered selling them, even when they were piling up in his closet. It was just for the woodwork.
Originally, Shawn saw himself going into the corporate world upon graduating from business school. He enjoyed management and as he progressed through school, realized more and more that he was really good at it. However, in hindsight, he was also always looking for ways to work with his hands. He couldn’t sit at his computer all day and night, he would go crazy! So all that time through college he made walking sticks and canes as his creative, hands-on outlet.
It wasn’t until he graduated without any leads on a job and needed something to fill the gap (and pay for that engagement ring he was aching to buy!) that he started thinking seriously about selling canes. He had an etsy shop, but wasn’t very active. That summer 2013, Shawn and Kendra started intentionally working to build a cane business on Etsy, which we originally named Walking With Wood, and it’s been growing ever since.
As the shop grew, Shawn also grew in his woodworking skills. He (quite miraculously considering his only real woodworking experience was self-taught) became a Cabinet Maker at L & J G Stickley and learned SO much about the craft. He was doing woodworking all the time and loving it. However, Kendra and the kids were not loving it. Shawn was spending too much time either at Stickley in the shop or at home in the shop building canes for etsy. Why couldn’t he just give up on canes? It wasn’t like he wasn’t getting his “working-with-my-hands” fix – that’s all he did.
We quickly realized that cane making had become much more than a hobby for Shawn to learn his way around wood and woodworking tools. We were connecting with and building relationships with really interesting people. We were blessed to hear people’s stories of why they wanted a cane and how Shawn’s work was helping them navigate through their difficult journeys. Shawn was challenged to create more and more unique pieces for collectors and art enthusiasts.
Our cane company became an amazing platform where we were able to connect our love of wood to our love for people. I am proud of the work I do because it’s more than just a beautiful piece of wood or a useful walking aid. It’s my way of entering into your story and building you something that helps you walk through whatever circumstance you face. I use wood as a way to walk with you.
OUr Mission
It is our goal to make walking sticks and canes that are comfortable, beautiful and personal. We want our pieces to help move you to experience life to its fullest, whether by physically helping you move or mentally overcoming your circumstances. We understand that most people aren’t rejoicing in needing to use a cane, so we are trying to make it better by adding some character and beauty to the experience. We do this by creating unique, quality pieces that bridge the gap between art and practicality using the most beautiful of earth’s natural materials we can find. We want to share this wonderful beauty with you. Our craftsmanship, design, and materials come together to create pieces of artwork that take you wherever life leads.
Thank you for your support! Please contact us if you have any questions.