Thirty-six years ago, on December 6, 1989, I rolled into Jackson, Wyoming in a cream yellow 1970 VW Bug loaded with every possession I owned—skis, bikes, a climbing rack, fly rods—and never turned back.

I didn't come from money, so I spent my first six years in the valley scratching out a living: bartender, ski instructor, hack carpenter, landscaper, painter, ski tech, outdoor retail buyer. Between jobs, I logged countless days in the Tetons, on our rivers and out on the trails. A day job at a local outdoor shop pulled me into the Jackson Hole mountain community, where I climbed, skied, and fished with some of the best in town—several now legendary guides and lifelong friends. It was damn near idyllic for a guy in his twenties. But my ambitions went beyond sharing mountain epics.

In 1995, a friend from a previous European guiding stint brought me a pair of Schoeller® stretch-woven climbing pants. I wore them nonstop for a year, and it planted a seed. After two years of digging deep into textile and apparel construction, a good friend and I started an outdoor apparel company, Cloudveil. We built a small, pioneering brand with a committed following. After a great ten-year run, we lost the driver's seat, and the company lost its way with it. I tried to buy it back and was left standing at the altar. So, with an eighteen-month sabbatical in my back pocket, I waited it out—and saddled back up.

That was fifteen years ago. Since then, Stio has scaled far beyond the original business plan, fueled by a passionate team united around one vision, and humbled by the response to our unconventional thinking. We’ve built a loyal following of customers who believe our mountain perspective makes a difference. We haven't been perfect, and not every product has resonated, but every day we strive to do the right thing and get a little better. Most importantly, we’ve stayed true to our roots: products that blend technical function with mountain style, made ethically, responsibly and sustainably.

As we charge into the middle of our second decade, we're still building on that original vision in areas like recycled materials, organic fabrics, PFAS-free construction and lifecycle design. We’ve weathered a pandemic, extreme weather, tariffs and more. We've backed causes protecting our most treasured places and expanding access to them, and started directly sharing our sustainability journey with customers.

Fifteen years in, that's still what keeps it meaningful. Not just the gear, though we obsess over every detail of it. It's the people, starting with our own team, who show up every day to build this with grit and craft, and often with less glory than they deserve. And it’s you, our customers, who've taken our designs into every situation we imagined, and plenty we never could have. You've made everything we build better.

To everyone who's been part of this from the start, and everyone who's joined along the way: Thank you. 

Fifteen years deep, and we're just getting warmed up.

Here's to the next chapter. See you out there.

Cheers and good health,

Sulli