When were first ice fishing hub tents introduced???

[tracedef]

Doing some research for a project and wondering ball park when the first hub tents like clams, eskimos, etc. were introduced to the market..... any feedback appreciated.

[zcm_82]

I dunno about first introduced, but suitcases were pretty dominant in the late 90s into the mid 2000s. I was pretty surprised when I got back into the market for a portable 4-5 years ago and the suitcases were almost extinct.

[filetandrelease]

 
 I’m guessing somewhere around 2005-2006 hubs aren’t real popular in my area

[Ronnie D]

Just imo , but McGill bought eagle claw & Shappell around 2010 & marketing a duffle bag / much cheaper to make abroad shanty was a no brainer. I prefer the Shappell 3000 & p/u every one I find to fab into stabbin cabins.
The other group doing the same are growers of hippie lettuce, they're great for vegging seedlings. ( or so I'm told)
cough-cough

[ice rod fan]

I bought my first hub style house at the st.paul ice show in the late 90's.It was called "the ice cube" it was made by double bull archery( i believe they were in Colorado)

[ice dawg]

Eskimo claims to have put the first popup ice shelters on the ice in 2006 when they brought out their Quickfish shelters. Interesting question.

[zcm_82]

 I’m guessing somewhere around 2005-2006 hubs aren’t real popular in my area

I used one for one season between my old portble and the DX I have
now... and I hated it. It's pretty much always windy here, and it sucked to put up and take down in the wind. I also just like having a floor to keep my feet and all my stuff off the ice/slush/snow.

[Whytie]

I bought my first hub style house at the st.paul ice show in the late 90's.It was called "the ice cube" it was made by double bull archery( i believe they were in Colorado)

I'm with ice rod fan, had a eastman ice cube back in 2007 here in Saskatchewan. not too many guys had one only portable shacks at the time were the briefcase ones.

[FishingCowboy]

First one I ever saw was in 1987 on Georgetown Lake, Montana. Was with a Boy Scout Troop who went yearly to the lake for a Ski and Fish Campout (Discovery Ski Basin was close by and allowed everyone something to do). We had a scout leader who work for Ma Bell Telephone as a Lineman. He got ahold of two old popup repair shelters they used for repairing lines in bad weather. They were going to toss them away. They were yellow and white with fiberglass poles; the hub connection points where steel. We patched them up with needle and thread. We used them for 4 or 5 seasons. They were a bit heavy, but we loved the crap out of them compared to sitting out in the wind on buckets. That was way before any came out in a commercially produced capacity.... wish I had a picture of them to share.....

[ice dawg]

First one I ever saw was in 1987 on Georgetown Lake, Montana. Was with a Boy Scout Troop who went yearly to the lake for a Ski and Fish Campout (Discovery Ski Basin was close by and allowed everyone something to do). We had a scout leader who work for Ma Bell Telephone as a Lineman. He got ahold of two old popup repair shelters they used for repairing lines in bad weather. They were going to toss them away. They were yellow and white with fiberglass poles; the hub connection points where steel. We patched them up with needle and thread. We used them for 4 or 5 seasons. They were a bit heavy, but we loved the crap out of them compared to sitting out in the wind on buckets. That was way before any came out in a commercially produced capacity.... wish I had a picture of them to share.....

  I spent many years splicing telephone cables in a 10'x10' white popup tent. We called them "hurry tents" because they set up fast. I suppose we started using them in late eighties or early nineties.

[Rebelss]

And here I thought those Ma Bell guys were down there fishing for alleygators....

[ran7ger]

 I bought my Eastman ice cube in 2005 or 6 up here from the fishin hole in saskatoon.  Had so many guys come over wondering what in the hell I was fishing in.  Then a couple years later I had the first icegator in Canada (to my knowledge) and got the same reaction.

    Ahhhh, the good old days!

[thomasthepikehunter]

My memory might be clouded, but I recall a bunch of hub fish houses coming on the market at once. I think in this case it was the egg, not the chicken. I think it was double bull hunting ground blinds that first really started the hub style craze, and then the fishing market used the idea for their shelters. I have a hard time believing Eskimo was the first to do it. It's possible, but back then Eskimo was basically an ice auger company. They didn't make shelters and gear like they do today. Well technically they still don't, but they have China put their name on stuff now.

It is a very good question. When I was a little kid fish houses mostly had floors. There have been flip over style houses around for quite a while, but they didn't really explode in popularity until a bit later. The crazy thing was that people seem to have forgotten the different variations of them. There were the so-called suitcase style houses that everyone remembers, Canvas Craft was a gold standard for us since they were, and still are built not too far from where I grew up. They were kind of the gold standard that eventually became the suitcase fish house everyone copied. There were others besides Canvas Craft, but their names escape me now. They were similar, but there were different ways the poles set up.

One style you only rarely see now, and usually only as home built is the Ontario style fish house (we used to call them flip-ups), which was a hard floor with two hinged hard sides, and some kind of fabric as walls. You flipped up the hard sides and put in your spreader poles to keep them up. The fabric kept everything taught. These style houses must have been 1/4 or 1/3rd the houses you saw when I was a kid. You could buy them, but I can not think of a major manufacturer who made them. The only one I can recall I am not certain the name. I want to say Winonah brand, I think they were made in Winona, MN. I could be completely wrong on that.

There were a bunch of variations of both. Some were built on skis so they were kind of a lightweight pop up skid house. Some were barely tents. You rarely saw fish houses without floors though, other than the flip over sled attached style shelters. It's funny to consider that today, a house with a floor is a novelty, and I think a lot of that has to do with the adoption of hub houses. It's kind of sad too. It's mostly just a bunch of Chinese junk hub houses. Chinese junk flip overs. A few good flip overs. Canvas Craft still makes suitcase houses, but my lord has the cost of them got out of hand and then some.

[slipperybob]

Eastman hunting blinds converted eventually into Ice Cube fish shelters. 80's-90's era

[Rebelss]

I remember the Winona ones, and the Canvas Craft shacks were pretty popular, until lighter and cheaper ones came around. They were pretty pricey; even back then. Think the earliest I saw were the Super Shaks, made in Marquette, Mi., I think. They had the rounded canvas top.

[zcm_82]

I had an Ins-Tent made in Cloquet that I inherited from the old man as a hand me down. I remember him buying that in the late 80s/early 90s when I was a kid, but I wouldn't really call it a hub.

That was sort of a unique animal. It was a tent, but it had an external folding metal frame that the tent was permanently attached to, and a floor. Worked great unless you were trying to set it up solo on a windy day, there was really no way to anchor it before it was set up. It took a few sailing trips across the ice over the years until frame ended up too bent up to use anymore.

[thomasthepikehunter]

I'm sure Canvas Craft was always expensive, but I think my dad told me he had his built built in the early 90's for like $200. With inflation, today that would be about $450. They aren't that today though, last I checked the same basic 5x8 canvas craft is closer to $800. I think the insulated fabric ones are now over $1000. I don't even think you can get the kit of fabric and poles (build your own base) for under $500.

I'm just going to keep fixing the mouse holes in mine. They got it pretty good this year.

[ice dawg]

My first flipover was a two person model made in Minnesota by Shoremaster Fabrics. It wasn't very tall and you either had to flip it up to get in or out, or it had a door in the back. If you came in through the door you had to step into the tub which was very slippery.

[thomasthepikehunter]

Yeah, and finally they started putting the doors on the front, but they put them dead center where everything like your heater or flasher was sitting. I don't know why it took them so long to figure out that maybe doors on the sides were the way to go.  The only problem I'm seeing with them today is so many have gotten so huge that they weigh as much as a Canvas Craft, and I'm sure some are even heavier. You still have the benefit of easier short moves, but at the same time a flip over is basically useless for an overnight trip, and nothing compares to a suitcase style house for a hunting tent. Other than a wall tent, but I've never seen a wall tent on the ice.

[bart]

This video might help the progression of ice fishing shanties...

[Iceassin]

This video might help the progression of ice fishing shanties...

Nice video Bart   

[filetandrelease]

 Thanks Bart , I owned 2 of those ,seen 1 of others , brings back memories

[thomasthepikehunter]

I never knew they were called the Luma tent. Brings back good memories though.

I'm glad people now have low cost hub houses to choose, but we have lost so many quality designs it makes me sad. I should find myself a tig welder and build my own luma tent.

[slipperybob]

yeah some of those old design ones would still work just as well.  Plus many of them had wider doors. 

[walley_eye]

My first ice tent up here in Winnipeg Canada was a Woods ice tent sold at Canadian Tire I think. It was before popups became a thing.

You had to set up metal poles that crossed at the top, throw the tent over the top and pull it down over and tie it to the poles. It had snow flaps, a window and full door. This was before the Eastman ice cube which I also still have and still use.