I began looking forward to this conversation as soon as it dropped on my calendar. Stephen Sullivan and Stio Inspire Connection with the Outdoors through their values and beautifully made outdoor products. We talk about the inspiration for Stio, his outdoor pursuits, and how their Pine Cone logo came to life.
What was your first exposure to the outdoors?
We packed our stuff up and moved to Colorado and I had been a big hockey and soccer player when I was a kid. There was no hockey in Grand Junction, which I never let my mom live down. Now both my boys are hockey players and I ended up coaching them later in life, but I got into skiing and so, you know, I think skiing was probably my first real kind of entry into the outdoor community and the outdoor world.
How about your beginnings in the outdoor business or the outdoor industry side of things?
That's actually a little tied to my Uncle Joe as well. So his girlfriend at the time, whose name was Betsy Clark. She opened what has gotta be one of the first true outdoor specialty stores in the country. I mean, there might have been 50 or a hundred of 'em at the time, but she opened a store called Lewis and Clark in Grand Junction. When I was 12, I got a job in the back room. I've always been a pretty handy kid and kind of knew how to put stuff together. And so I got a job actually mounting cross-country skis for her, which led to me going out on the sales floor.
What was the inspiration for Cloudveil?
The real inspiration behind that was I had a friend who is still a guide, was an I F M G A guide who had gone over to live in Chamonix for a winter in the early nineties. And he came back and brought me a pair of pants that were made of a
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