Gunnison’s outdoor industry gains momentum

SheFly moves to town, Blister and Western tackle product testing


After years of talk about attracting outdoor industry companies, big and tangible changes are afoot in Gunnison that could further establish the city as a hub for a growing sector that, according to the state office of economic development, brings in about $10 billion in Colorado annually.

On Jan. 5, SheFly Apparel, a women’s outdoor clothing brand from Vermont, announced that it was moving its company headquarters to Gunnison. The company will begin hiring staff in February.

SheFly’s pants, designed by women, feature a concealed second zipper that extends from the first, allowing the wearer to unzip and relieve themselves without exposing skin to the elements, offering privacy “on the trail, in the woods or anywhere else nature may call,” the SheFly website says. 

In addition to receiving financial support from the state, SheFly also received a $75,000 grant from the City of Gunnison in September as the company fielded competing offers from locations in Washington and Vermont. In return for city funding, the small start-up agreed to move to Gunnison with the intent of creating 12 primary jobs with a minimum wage of $50,000 within the community by 2026. 

Gunnison Mayor Diego Plata said SheFly went into “uncharted territory” when the business made the grant request, but believes they will bring the money the city invested back into the community. 

“I think Western has a real opportunity to then keep some of its alumni here with high-paying jobs, rather than losing them to other markets once they graduate as a result of what will hopefully become a much more diversified and robust economy,” Plata said.  

Last spring, SheFly was one of four companies selected to participate in the ICELab’s Moosejaw Outdoor Accelerator, a competitive eight-week mentoring program, designed to help entrepreneurs build and connect their companies with the outdoor recreation industry. The ICELab is located on the Western Colorado University campus and is part of the Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP), an entity funded by the county’s lodging tax.

The ICELab’s mission is “to create more high paying jobs in Gunnison County,” said ICELab Director David Assad. “And we think that’s exactly what these will be.”

SheFly will offer jobs in the areas of marketing and design, which, Assad said, are the kind of jobs needed to keep the valley’s economy moving.

“The ICELab and our mentor network put a lot of time and effort into making this place feel like home and showing that this place does have resources for the outdoor industry companies,” Assad said. “What we’re trying to build is an environment that we would describe as an outdoor industry hub. That will benefit the local outdoor industry companies, which we have many of already — PACT Outdoors, Campfire Ranch, Romp Skis and Matchstick Productions — as well as any newcomers like SheFly.”

SheFly Co-founder and CEO Georgia Grace Edwards moved to Gunnison in May. When she isn’t working, she is excited to keep diving into all the things the Gunnison Valley has to offer, trying mountain biking and backcountry skiing for the first time. 

“It feels good to finally be able to announce our move and share the love that we have for this place with a wider audience,” Edwards said. 

The company, which previously only offered black pants, is releasing new colors, each named for a different place that’s been important to the SheFly journey, Edwards said. “Juneau Jade,” is a nod to the Mendenhall Glacier, where Edwards thought of the idea and “Champlain Teal” is a reference to Champlain Lake in Vermont, where the founders built the business while at Middlebury College. 

“We’ve renamed our original colorway ‘Black Canyon’ in honor of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison where we’re entering a new phase of business, and welcoming a growing team,” she said.

SheFly’s small current team will be operating out of the ICELab’s co-working space for the near future and plans to start accepting applications for job postings in February. The company’s goal is to hire 50% of its workforce locally. 

“To not offer a remote setting is kind of unheard of if major companies are letting people work from anywhere,” Edwards said. “It’ll be hard for startups to have the kind of sway to demand that employees move. But the Gunnison-Crested Butte Valley is a dream location for anyone working in the outdoor industry and anyone wanting to spend more time outside in general, so we’re excited to show it off and recruit where we can. Each of our job descriptions will mention a preference for living in Gunnison and being part of the awesome community here.” 

Western looks to gear manufacturing, testing

Earlier this month, Blister, a Crested Butte-based product review publication, announced a partnership with the Paul M. Rady School of Computer Science and Engineering at Western. And at the Gunnison City Council meeting on Tuesday, council members endorsed the idea of a new building on campus devoted to gear manufacturing.

Blister’s mission is to produce in-depth and useful reviews of outdoor sports equipment and was born from a frustration with the lack of honest information about gear. The new partnership, “Blister Labs,” will allow Blister reviewers to work with the engineering faculty and students to marry their qualitative experiences on the mountain or on the trail to quantitative analysis in the laboratory at the Rady School, according to a press release from Blister founder Jonathan Ellsworth.  

Blister Labs will be working with TAPP to bring engineers and designers from across the outdoor industry to Western to meet with students, faculty and Blister reviewers about product and material testing, and potential ways to improve it. 

“As a result, people from around the world that are passionate about the outdoors will have unprecedented access to new tests and data from an independent party to help them better understand what they are, and aren’t getting from the gear they invest in, from expensive bike parts, technical apparel and ski equipment,” Ellsworth wrote. 

Blister Labs testing will include comparing durability and stiffness of bike wheels, producing more consumer-friendly apparel ratings for water resistance and breathability and working to standardize the flex ratings of ski boots.

This program is the first of its kind, with the goal of attracting some of the “best and brightest minds” that are interested in getting into the outdoor industry, said TAPP Marketing Director Andrew Sandstrom.

“Our hope is in the future that possibly new or innovative manufacturing techniques or products begin to come out of this project,” Sandstrom said. “And we could, in the future, see more outdoor industry companies actually basing themselves here in Gunnison County.” 

In collaboration with TAPP, Western is pursuing a competitive $10 million grant from the federal government to help establish an “outdoor product manufacturing innovation center.” The facility would create an incubator space with a focus on outdoor industry products and light manufacturing, one that could support partnerships like Blister Labs and build on programs within the Rady School and Western’s outdoor industry masters in business administration.

The manufacturing center would be built on land owned by the university foundation near Georgia Avenue and Escalante Drive and would be a “landmark building” between the university and Gunnison Rising, according to City Manager Russ Forrest. 

City council formally endorsed the idea Tuesday. Plata wrote in a letter of support on behalf of the city that the project “builds on the natural outdoor appeal of the valley to address an urgent need in our community — the need for a diversity of well-paying jobs.” 

“In Gunnison, we have done some of the early work of building our culture of entrepreneurship and innovation with the successful incubator and accelerator programs at the ICELab,” Plata wrote. “In our work with outdoor industry startups, we have identified that a light manufacturing cooperative for those first production runs is the next step in building our innovation ecosystem to support rural entrepreneurs creating new products.”

(Bella Biondini can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or bella@gunnisontimes.com.)

 

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