One year after winning the prestigious Moosejaw Mountaineering Outdoor Industry Accelerator in July
of 2021, SheFly Apparel launched their Go There™ Pant in-store and online with Moosejaw in June of
2022.
Last week, female-founded outdoor clothing startup SheFly Apparel launched their Go There™ Pant in Moosejaw Mountaineering stores nationwide and online. Led by co-founders Georgia Grace Edwards and Charlotte Massey, SheFly Apparel is a women’s apparel brand on a mission to provide products that make the outdoors more accessible for all. Their Go There™ Pant features a second, patented zipper (in addition to a traditional zipper) that allows everyone to ‘answer nature’s call’ and relieve themselves in the outdoors with comfort and safety.
In June of 2021, Georgia Grace took a 2-month leave of absence from her economic consulting job while Charlotte juggled her full-time advertising job to represent SheFly at the Moosejaw Outdoor Accelerator – a highly competitive 8-week intensive business mentoring program for early-stage outdoor recreation companies located in Gunnison and overseen by the ICELab at Western Colorado University. Recent college graduates, both women were hesitant to leave behind stable jobs and strong communities in the middle of the pandemic.
“We started SheFly from our college dorm rooms in 2018,” explains Edwards, “so when Charlotte and I found ourselves moving back into a dorm room to work on SheFly three years later, we were like, ‘Uh-oh…This is either a really good sign, or a really concerning one.’” That leap of faith paid off. At the end of the program, SheFly won the $50,000 debt track supported by First Southwest Community Fund at the Greater Colorado Pitch Series, which the bank chose to double, in addition to another $50,000 low-interest loan awarded by Greenline Ventures, who was impressed by SheFly’s pitch. In early January 2022, SheFly officially announced the establishment of their Gunnison, Colorado headquarters. The City of Gunnison provided $75,000 in support of SheFly and the Economic Development Commission (EDC) increased the Strategic Fund incentive to $156,000 to secure SheFly’s headquarters – a rare move that demonstrated the State’s high level of interest in the company.
Today, SheFly boasts a team of 6 full-time employees (and 4 amazing interns), has gone viral on TikTok, and, most importantly, is shipping out Go There™ pants to customers across America for the first time in two years, since their initial factory was put out of business overnight as COVID-19 began smashing global supply chains in March of 2020.
“Running a startup based on a random, far-fetched idea you came up with in college is wild. Seeing that startup featured on the homepage of the second largest outdoor retailer in the country is even wilder,” Edwards reflects. She continues, “The SheFly Team is feeling incredibly grateful for the people who made this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity possible for us, and for the people who encouraged us to go for it one crazy, short year ago. We wouldn’t be where we are today – geographically, economically, or mentally – without Moosejaw.”
Massey agrees, “From being accepted into the Accelerator to launching in stores nationwide, Moosejaw has been an integral part of SheFly’s success and mission to build a more inclusive and accessible outdoors, one zipper at a time. We couldn’t ask for a better first wholesale retail partner.”
SheFly Go There™ Pants are currently available for sale online at SheFly Apparel, online at Moosejaw, and in select Moosejaw retail locations.
About SheFly Apparel:
SheFly Apparel is a women’s apparel brand on a mission to ensure that everyone can relieve themselves outdoors with comfort and safety. Inspired by co-founder Georgia Grace’s experience struggling to pee while working as a glacier guide in Alaska, SheFly’s all-women founding team from Middlebury College in Vermont created pants that are actually designed with women’s anatomy in mind. Now, SheFly is helping people everywhere “go” on the go and envisions a world where one day, people of all genders can feel comfortable, safe, and confident while spending time outdoors — whether at work or at play.
