A common formula is that for every pound of body weight, there should be one square inch of snowshoe surface (14.5 cm2/kg) per snowshoe to adequately support the wearer.
However, the "traditional" webbed snowshoe as we know it today had direct origins to North American indigenous people, e.g., the Huron, Cree, and so forth.
Supposedly, they can see a mouse from 250 feet [75 m] away, and a snowshoe hare at 1,000 feet [300 m] —farther than the length of three football fields.”
Despite their great diversity in form, snowshoes were, in fact, one of the few cultural elements common to all tribes that lived where the winters were snowy, in particular, the Northern regions.
However, contrary to popular perception, the Inuit did not use their snowshoes much since they did most of their foot travel in winter over sea ice or on the tundra, where snow does not pile up deeply.
In 1690, after a French-Indian raiding party attacked a British settlement near what is today Schenectady, New York, the British took to snowshoes and pursued the attackers for almost 50 miles (80 km), ultimately recovering both people and goods taken by their attackers.