{"id":729660,"date":"2026-06-11T11:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/729660\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T11:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:40:09","slug":"after-decades-of-innovation-brps-design-studio-continues-to-think-outside-the-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/729660\/","title":{"rendered":"After decades of innovation, BRP\u2019s design studio continues to think outside the box"},"content":{"rendered":"

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BRP chief design officer Denys Lapointe holding the award in front of his team at the 2025 Red Dot Design Awards.Courtesy of manufacturer<\/p>\n

Walking into BRP\u2019s design studio in rural Quebec brings to mind the more famous studios in the mobility business: Ferrari Centro Stile, Aston Martin at Gaydon, and BMW Group design headquarters in Munich. <\/p>\n

At the entrance is a giant glass wall overflowing with awards from around the world, the accumulated evidence of a company that has made design central to its identity.<\/p>\n

But design isn\u2019t just about aesthetics, the main goal is to make products more practical and versatile. That\u2019s how the global manufacturer has been able to create and reinvent products that have shaped the way people move across snow, water, dirt and pavement.<\/p>\n

However, as BRP continues to lead in so many areas of design, the combination of the electric transition and tariffs are putting its finances under strain. <\/p>\n

Ski-Doo was the original breakthrough, launched in 1959 and destined to become one of the defining Canadian products of the postwar era. Sea-Doo followed in 1968, initially ahead of its time, then later revived into a dominant force in personal watercraft. Can-Am arrived in the early 1970s and quickly made its name in motocross, where the Quebec company took on much larger rivals Honda, Suzuki and Husqvarna, and won. <\/p>\n

Different products, different decades, same instinct: BRP has long been at its best when it rethinks an existing category rather than joining it.<\/p>\n

\u201cDesign is not an afterthought,\u201d said Denys Lapointe, BRP\u2019s chief design officer, during a tour of the facility last year. He would know; he has deep roots in the company. His father, Sam, was the company\u2019s original design chief. For all of its international reach, there is still something personal about the BRP culture in Valcourt. It\u2019s as though ideas are passed from one generation to the next rather than shuffled through a corporate organizational chart.<\/p>\n

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The Can-Am Canyon Redrock has a higher road clearance, chunkier tires and suspension tuned for straying off the asphalt.Mark Richardson\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Lapointe described the company\u2019s design philosophy in three parts: innovative product architecture, functionality and emotional appeal. The first point is the most revealing. BRP does not simply ask how to make a product better looking or easier to use. It asks whether the underlying architecture can be rethought altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way to defend against a new paradigm that makes us obsolete is to create it ourselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That helps explain why the firm\u2019s recent products feel more considered than merely styled. It also helps explain why the company was named Red Dot Design Team of the Year 2025, the first Canadian company to receive the honour. It was a reminder that the awards wall is a work in progress.<\/p>\n

One of the clearest examples is the Sea-Doo Switch. Pontoon boats are practical, but are rarely accused of being inventive. BRP studied the segment and came at it from a different angle. <\/p>\n

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The Sea-Doo Switch is a pontoon boat with a modular layout so seats can be moved around the deck or removed and snapped onto a base on the dock.Courtesy of manufacturer<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat inspired us was the Lego system,\u201d Lapointe said. The Switch\u2019s modular layout was the result: seating that can be moved around the deck, reconfigured for different uses and, in one neat flourish, lifted out and snapped onto a base on the dock. \u201cThe purpose of the seats as well is to be able to use it on your dock while you\u2019re not using it on the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2018s classic BRP. The company did not simply design a better-looking pontoon. It looked at how people actually use the boat \u2013 and the space around it \u2013 and built flexibility into the experience. The industry noticed. The Switch has already been part of BRP\u2019s award-winning run, which is another way of saying the idea resonated beyond Valcourt.<\/p>\n

Just as telling, when BRP moved to sell parts of its broader marine business, it excluded Sea-Doo personal watercraft, Sea-Doo Switch pontoons and jet propulsion systems. <\/p>\n

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The Can-Am Maverick, a side-by-side UTV.Courtesy of manufacturer<\/p>\n

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The Can-Am Outlander ATV.Courtesy of manufacturer<\/p>\n

The same thinking can be seen across Can-Am\u2019s off-road lineup, where modular attachments and accessories have become an important part of the ownership experience. The design work is not just about appearance. It\u2019s about usefulness: making the machine easier to load, easier to adapt and easier to live with.<\/p>\n

Electric motorcycles are a tougher situation, not because they lack design conviction, but because of other limitations. The Can-Am Pulse and Can-Am Origin are handsome, well-resolved machines; they, too, have won design awards. But the usual electric-motorcycle questions have not gone away. It is more challenging to put an expensive, heavy battery on a motorcycle, which already uses little fuel, than a car. And when you do, range is limited. The audience is still emerging.<\/p>\n

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The Can-Am Pulse and OriginCourtesy of manufacturer<\/p>\n

Lapointe was plainspoken about the brief. \u201cWe created something that\u2019s for urban and maybe suburban use,\u201d he said. That is the right answer and probably the only honest one. BRP was not trying to build a universal replacement for a gasoline motorcycle. It was designing a product for a rider with a shorter commute.<\/p>\n

Even so, the commercial headwinds are real. BRP\u2019s recent results showed just how difficult the electric vehicle transition has been. <\/p>\n

The company reported a healthy fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2026, with revenue up 6.8 per cent over the previous year (to $8.443-billion) and net income was up sharply to $340-million from $64.6-million.<\/p>\n

However, BRP also absorbed a roughly $230-million impairment charge related to its EV business and light mobility unit. Translation: The market didn\u2019t develop as planned and those assets won\u2019t generate the returns originally expected. <\/p>\n

Further headwinds were announced in mid April: BRP suspended its FY2027 guidance after U.S. tariff changes threatened at least a $500-million hit this year, sending its shares plummeting. It\u2019s a major blow for a company that prides itself on smart business decisions and smart design.<\/p>\n

But this is part of what makes BRP worth watching. This is not a company trading on nostalgia or wrapping itself in the fleur-de-lis. It still competes the hard way \u2013 with ideas, discipline and with a willingness to question the template. From a small town in Quebec, BRP continues to act like the next good idea might start right here.<\/p>\n

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The popular Sea-Doo lineup will soon be boosted by all-electric models, set to be launched later this year.Courtesy of manufacturer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: BRP chief design officer Denys Lapointe holding the award in front of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75,2922,30296],"class_list":["post-729660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-noastack","tag-ordid10000"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}