Poff Straps was started by Bobby Poff around 2001.
Bobby quickly found a need for a comfortable strap that would last a lifetime. Having worked leather since he was 12 he decided to make his own. After some prompting from friends at the Rocky Grass Bluegrass Festival he got one of his straps into the hands of a well know dobro player who told him if he liked the strap he would play it on stage. During the headline show that night Bobby saw his strap and he knew he was onto something.
In 2021 after 20 years and multiple shoulder injuries, Bobby left his full-time “day” job to pursue a new business venture with his son Wyatt. Working mostly out of state this necessitated stepping away from making straps. It was around this time Marta, Bobby’s oldest daughter, started to take over the strap making business and formed a new company, Bluegrass Gear, to make Poff Straps as well as Maulik Slides (made by Marta’s husband, David).
Coming from a musical family, Marta started playing music at the age of five, taking piano lessons from her paternal grandmother. She began playing bass out of necessity at the age of twelve when her dad’s duo was looking to expand to a trio. When she was thirteen her grandpa showed her his 1937 Gibson F4 mandolin (which would later come to be known as Gus) and said she could have it if she learned to play it. By the next day, she had learned “Arkansas Traveler,” and had been playing ever since. Marta is one of the leather workers behind Poff Straps, where she applies her love of music to create beautiful, handmade instrument accessories.
Marta’s husband, David has always loved music and built his first musical instrument, a mountain dulcimer, when he was about fourteen. Since then he has built several other projects, including a “level guitar” (a stringed instrument made out of a construction level that is amplified by transmitting to a radio), a fish lute (as you might imagine, a fish-shaped lute), several electric guitars, several more dulcimers, and at least two mandolins. He is the designer of Maulik Slides. David is also the director of the local makerspace, Maker Space 307, where he can nerd about to his nerdy heart’s content.
Marta and David make their home in Riverton, Wyoming. They have two children, too many dogs (three), and live surrounded by much of their family.