March 24, 2025 • 43 mins
Marley and Ellen sit down with Ashley Rankin, founder of Shredly, to discuss how her brand is redefining women's mountain bike and activewear apparel through inclusive sizing, vibrant designs, and a commitment to sustainability.
We explore Shredly's mission, the challenges of entrepreneurship, and the impact of creating a welcoming community for all women in cycling.
Note! While Marley is sponsored by Shredly, this episode is not! Shredly aligns with our mission of creating and fostering an inclusive bike community—and that is super cool.
Highlights:
(02:28) Ashley's journey from high-end couture to high-function cycling fashion
(05:21) Why Ashley founded Shredly
(09:17) Challenges and triumphs when building a business
(12:49) Sustainability and size inclusivity
(21:12) When Marley met Shredly
(24:05) Empowerment through representation
(31:34) Building a community and a movement
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ellen (00:00):
Hey friends, Ellen here.
(00:01):
Just a note ahead of thisepisode with Shredly.
A lot of you know that Marley is sponsoredby Shredly, but this episode is not.
We were just excited to talkto Ashley about how she and her
brand are changing the industry,one piece of clothing at a time.
None of this is intended to bean endorsement or a commercial.
She's just super cool and has a greatreason to have created her brand, and
we wanted to bring that to the world.
Enjoy.
(00:24):
Welcome to All Bodies On Bikes, thepodcast where all bodies are good bodies.
All bikes are good bikes,and all rides are celebrated.
All bodies on bikes is a movementto create and foster a radically
inclusive bike community.
So join your host.
I'm Ellen.
And I'm Marley.
As we explore the complexities of thebiking world, help us break down barriers
and create the world that we want to see.
(00:45):
And don't forget that allbodies really mean to all
bodies, not just larger bodies.
But bodies of all sizes, ages, races,abilities, genders, sexualities and
beyond, come along for the ride.
How are you, Marley?
Marley (01:05):
I am really good.
How are you, Ellen?
Ellen (01:07):
I'm good.
I am digging this hat lookthat you've got going on.
Marley (01:10):
Thank you.
It's mainly, it is, it's a corduroy hat.
It's just, it's very well timedbecause it's actually our guest today.
So it's for people listening on the radio.
It's a Shredly hat and we are
Ellen (01:22):
is a podcast.
Marley (01:25):
it's a podcast, but there's visual elements
Ellen (01:27):
you said the radio.
Marley (01:28):
Oh, okay.
Ellen (01:29):
Like, You're showing our age.
Marley (01:34):
whatever.
If it's coming throughspeakers to me, it's the radio.
Ellen (01:37):
radio.
Okay.
Marley (01:38):
Yeah.
Well, anyway, if you're listeningto it, you can't see my hat.
If you're watching us on YouTube, youcan see my hat and you'll see that it
says Shredly, which I think a lot offolks know that I am sponsored by them,
they are my apparel sponsor, and I lovewearing them and talking about them.
But today we have the founder andthe CEO with us on the podcast today,
which I am super excited about.
(01:59):
So I figured it was appropriateto wear my Shredly hat.
Ellen (02:02):
absolutely.
Plus it looks super fly.
Marley (02:04):
Thank you!
Everything that I wear from themmakes me look super fly and we'll
get into this, but literally Inever felt cute on a bicycle until
I started wearing Shredly clothes.
Ellen (02:12):
Oh, I love that that's like momentous for you.
Marley (02:16):
Yeah, and Ashley and I can, we can talk about how we met and like,
how this all started, but I'm actuallymore interested in like the company
story, but it is an interesting story.
Before we get too far down thisrabbit hole, let me read her
bio and then we'll bring her in.
Although Ashley grew up in themountains of Colorado, she used
to dream of living in a big cityas a high end fashion designer.
After a design internship in Florence,Italy, she realized two things.
(02:38):
She simultaneously neverwanted to leave Italy.
And she belonged in the mountains.
Not only did Ashley end up back in themountains, but she found herself dreaming
of beautiful bike shorts instead ofevening wear, which led to the founding
of Shredly, meaning Ashley now believesshe, she was always meant to do.
Shredly is a women's mountain bikeand active wear apparel company
(02:59):
that's redefining the way we thinkabout gear, blending functionality,
comfort, and bold expressive style.
Born out of Ashley Rankin's passionfor the outdoors and her frustration
with the lack of options for women incycling apparel, Shredly has become
a leader in creating inclusive, highperformance gear that empowers women
of all shapes, sizes, and stylesto hit the trails with confidence.
(03:20):
From their vibrant patterns totheir commitment to sustainability
and inclusivity, Shredly isproving that adventure can, and
should, look as good as it feels.
Welcome to the show, Ashley!
Ashley (03:31):
Hi, thanks so much for having me.
I'm so excited to be here.
Marley (03:34):
Yeah I'm excited to dig into this because I think a lot of us have
heard of Shredly or, we've seen it andpeople wearing it or they've seen it
on my Instagram, but I'm excited tohear about how this all came about and
some of the nuts and bolts behind it.
So thanks for joining us.
Ashley (03:47):
Yeah, thanks.
I'm excited to get into ittoo, especially with you.
Ellen (03:51):
have one clarifying question.
Did you stay in Italy?
Ashley (03:56):
I did not.
I did not.
So I'm from Colorado and Iwent back to Colorado after.
After Italy.
Ellen (04:04):
Oh, right.
Ashley (04:05):
but I've been back to Italy since, actually twice,
so it's one of my favorite.
I could keep going there all the time.
I want to see so many places in the world,but I'm never bummed to go back to Italy.
Ellen (04:16):
Yes.
That's my feelings on Italy, too.
Marley (04:19):
yeah, I've actually never been to Italy.
I've been all around and like Italyis on my bucket list of places to go.
Ashley (04:24):
it's just, it really is magical.
There's like those placesthat you see in the movies.
And they create this certainfeel, and you're like, Oh,
it'd be so dreamy to go there.
And sometimes you go to those places, andyou're like, Yeah, that was in the movies.
You go there, and you feel like youimagine you would in the movies.
Ellen (04:40):
And it's
Ashley (04:41):
I want to go with you, Marley.
Ellen (04:43):
difficult to find bad pasta.
That was, like, I was so scaredthat I was going to do it wrong,
and I don't think you can.
Ashley (04:48):
Oh, no.
And that and even table wine,which is like not branded.
It's a very different experience todrink wine there than it is here.
Table wine is great.
The whole, everything in Italy is better.
Marley (04:58):
Oh, I believe it.
Well, we're not here to talkabout Italy, unfortunately.
Although
Ashley (05:02):
need to have a separate one for
Marley (05:04):
I think this ties really into our conversation.
So you were doing a design intern, adesign internship, is that correct?
In Florence.
How did you go from wanting to dolike evening wear and I imagine like
couture to designing mountain bikeapparel and really transforming the
women's cycling apparel industry?
Ashley (05:20):
Oh, well, thank you for saying that.
Yeah, it's really funny becauseI had no interest in outerwear.
I wanted to be a designersince I was little.
I knew I always wantedto be a fashion designer.
And I grew up in Colorado, and I lived ina rural part of Colorado, and I could not
wait to Leave the, I loved the mountains,but I couldn't wait to be in the city.
And I wanted to live in acity and an apartment, take
(05:43):
an elevator to my apartment.
I had this idea of what I reallywanted and it was to design
evening wear and high end couture.
And I used to, I didn't reallymake clothes from scratch, but I
would take clothes that I ownedand I would embellish them.
So I would take denim and buythis cool fringe, like with beads
and put it around the bottom.
So I was always into thesebeautiful embellishments.
(06:04):
And I even went all theway through college.
I got a degree in appareldesign and production, and I
was not interested in outerwear.
But I grew up mountain bikingand skiing and doing all of these
things that just was not the sideof design that I wanted to go into.
And it wasn't until I actually cameback from Italy and went back to
the mountains because I just, I hadthis moment in Italy where I knew I
(06:28):
wanted to stay, and I'd fallen so inlove with the culture and the life.
But I was in Switzerland, and I wason a mountain, and I could see really
far, and I just felt like home.
And then I missed home,and I was really homesick.
And so I knew, okay.
There are parts of me that arejust ingrained of me that I
had to leave to understand howmuch a part of me they were.
And one of that was like being innature and having clean air to breathe.
(06:52):
And, even the parks in Italyare beautiful, but it's not
the same as being outside.
And so I did feel like very torn.
And I went back to Colorado and.
knew that living in the mountains wouldnot really give me the path to the design
life that I had dreamed and imagined.
And even then I was like, I'm reallyjust not interested in going to outdoor.
(07:14):
It doesn't really satisfy it for me,but I started riding a ton and would
start to see these visions of the kindsof shorts and apparel that I wanted
to be riding in that didn't exist.
And then I'd see other reallycool things in like homeware.
Like I'd see a really beautifulpillow or a really cool.
Shower curtain and be like, why can't wehave cute shorts that have that pattern?
(07:37):
And so it really just came fromlike being a user of the product
that didn't exist and then having mydesign world and my, passions collide.
And then I started to seethings that I wanted and I
couldn't stop thinking about it.
So it really just came to meand then was pulled from me.
And I had never started a business.
I wasn't an entrepreneur.
I didn't even want to be an entrepreneur.
(07:58):
I just wanted to make cuteshorts for me and my friends.
And we started talking aboutwhat those cute shorts would be.
My one friend who was aprofessional rider at the time
really wanted the comfort aspect.
And my other friend had her own ideasabout the fabric that she wanted.
And then I had the ideasabout the style that I wanted.
And we Put everything together todesign what was our perfect short.
And I asked them if they wanted to startthis business with me and they both
(08:21):
had their own career paths and theywere like, no, but you should do it.
And so I had a full time joband one thing led to another.
And then I realized well, Iam going to start a brand, but
I don't know how to do that.
So mine was always very product based.
Okay, well, I only need abrand name because I have to
put something on the shorts.
But how do I get these shorts made?
And it was really just one littlething after another of how I bring
(08:42):
these shorts into the world thatled to the creation of Shredly.
Marley (08:46):
What year was that?
Ashley (08:48):
So we had this brainstorming thing in 2011, 2010, like in that time period.
And it wasn't until 2012 that Iactually launched our first Kickstarter.
Cause I was just doingall of this on the side.
I had a full time job through it all.
So I would work on it at nightsand in the week on the weekends.
And it took me a while, to get things.
(09:08):
To get things going.
Marley (09:10):
To be fair, you still work on this nights and weekends.
I get a lot of late night emails from you.
Ashley (09:15):
I do.
I do.
One thing to know about being anentrepreneur is that you think you might
have like more control over your schedule,which you do, but you work all the time.
There's no, there's never off hours.
Marley (09:26):
Yeah.
I was looking around on Reddit beforethis because it's helpful to know what
the world is talking about Shredly.
And everybody sings your praises.
I obviously sing your praises, butfor the quality, for how they fit,
how do you balance all three of those?
Fit what am I talking about?
Help me out, Ellen.
Performance and design.
Ellen (09:44):
and design.
Marley (09:45):
There we go.
Silence.
Ashley (09:53):
So we started in Colorado our manufacturing was all in the States for
the first ten years and Being a user ofthe product and coming from wanting to
design high end apparel and also whenI started this I was working in luxury
real estate So I had just learned todo things with a very high standard.
And I think all of those thingsshaped what I thought was really
(10:16):
important about the business.
And in my original business plan,if you look back, and I think we
even had a graphic on our website,it was this Venn diagram of.
Style, comfort, and performance.
And they all, combined to make Shredly.
And so I just knew from the beginning,like those were the key things.
And I really startedwith a value based model.
(10:37):
So we didn't start with a retail pricepoint that we had to meet and then
build the product backwards from there.
We started with what is theideal product that we need?
And it came to shape.
The product built itself and quality wasjust inherent in it because it was one
of our core values, like the performancepiece of it, the comfort piece of it.
Like you can't really source cheapfabric that's not comfortable.
(11:00):
So it's just because of the principlesthat we knew, that were core to Shredly.
It meant that qualityproducts were part of that.
So balancing it all is actually notthat hard because something doesn't look
beautiful to me if it's not quality.
And so I think just part of the aestheticreally sets the standard for the product.
And so it doesn't, thereare certain times where.
(11:22):
The feel of a fabricdoesn't feel quite right.
It doesn't feel like a quality fabric.
And so I think that it's just throughoutthe design process, it's knowing what
Shredly is and then sourcing things thatkind of meet that standard and so it
all, if one thing is off, you don't feellike you're ticking all three boxes.
Exactly.
Marley (11:41):
And I love that staying true to your values really helps make
sure that your quality standardsare met, which is super, super cool.
Ellen (11:48):
It's a bit of keeping the customer in mind at the core of
it to you didn't want to wearshorts that felt bad or looked bad.
That was the whole point.
Ashley (11:56):
And one of the things that I was talking about, one of my
friends point of view from the fabricwas it's like the fabric so loud
and crunchy, can we find somethingthat's softer and more comfortable?
And that's a huge, thatwas the comfort piece.
And that's what product at thistime, which I know you might touch
on this, Marley, if we go backto 2010 what bike apparel looks
(12:17):
like, especially for women, it was.
drastically different than it is today.
It was like 15, 20 yearsbehind street style.
Like you look at pictures of whatwe're wearing 10 years ago, and it
looks like it was 20, 25 years ago.
And things were just in a verydifferent place than they are now.
And we definitely had a piece of kind ofshaping that at a time when the market
(12:39):
was really hungry for something likethat, something new and different and very
focused on the women's side of things.
Marley (12:48):
Very cool.
One of the things that Shredly isalso known for that I imagine is
challenging to balance is sustainability.
I was looking at your website and Ithink I read something like 97 percent of
Products are made with recycled materials.
How do you incorporate sustainability?
And I imagine like that is not aneasy thing to do, especially with
manufacturing and you've got alarge number of skews and it's a lot
Ashley (13:10):
Yeah, it is a lot.
So we are proud that 93 percentof, all of our goods right now are
made from recycled materials, andthere's a couple of different ways
that you can approach sustainability,which I learned so much about.
So having centralizedproduction is one of them.
So like when we hadeverything made in the States.
And our, so our factory, our warehouse,everything was in the states.
(13:31):
You didn't have to transportit all over the place.
And there's some great savingsthere in terms of sustainability.
As you diversify your supply chain,then it's decentralizing and.
All of your raw materials, right?
So you can tackle it acouple different ways.
And it is it's hard.
It's really hard because it's notas easy as saying, okay, we're going
(13:52):
to source all sustainable materialsbecause you have to think about it
throughout your entire supply chain.
So what we do is wheneverwe have a choice.
Some things we don't have a choice at oursize, which is a little bit frustrating,
but whenever we have a choice, so isthere a fabric that you can source
that's more sustainable than another,then we'll always make that choice.
(14:12):
And so it is, it's a really hard thing tobalance because it affects your margins.
It affects the retail price pointthat people are willing to pay and
sustainability is really importantto people, but if is the consumer
willing to pay more for it, not always.
And so when you're alreadyoffering a premium product, it is.
Something that is always a challenge,but it's always top of mind.
So we really just stay true toour guiding light is what is our
(14:36):
goal and how do we get there?
And we're not perfect by any means.
We'd like to get to a hundredpercent recycled material but
that's not the only thing.
Then it's your supply chain and it'swhere things are moving and coming
from all of your packaging materials.
And so there's a lot of different elementsto it, and I'm glad that we started
(14:57):
with that because I think if you don'tstart there and it's not core to your
business, it's always a very hard thing tojustify when it comes to the bottom line
because it's a shift from where you are.
So we actually, before it became thecool thing to do in the industry, we
switched over to recycled material.
And so that was about five years ago.
So we had already made this big shift.
(15:19):
And decided to move awayfrom non recycled materials.
So that has definitely made it alot easier because we were doing
that sooner than a lot of otherbrands and, the supply chain 1st
of all knows everybody wants this.
So it's becoming more readilyavailable, but it is also a profit
channel across the supply chain.
There's just a lot ofdifferent things to weigh.
(15:41):
And as a small business, you don'talways have efficiencies of scale.
So you have to do the bestyou can and always look for
opportunities to keep improving.
Ellen (15:50):
yeah, I think another one of the places that you've been leading
the industry is with size inclusion.
And why was that something that youwanted to bring into play as well?
Ashley (16:00):
I feel like there's this been this paradigm shift in just the last
couple of years where that conversationis more forefront for a lot of brands.
We didn't do it from ainclusivity point of view.
We did it because we had customersthat we were not meeting their needs.
So I, the word inclusion means a lotand we use it often to convey a point.
(16:21):
We try to not tout that inclusionis our goal because I think that for
the people we are not meeting, thatdoes not feel inclusive to them.
And there's always going to be peoplethat are falling outside of that.
And so our goal is to just be anauthentic brand that caters to women.
That's our customer.
Women come in all shapes and sizes.
And so if there's a demandfor our product, we should be
(16:44):
striving to meet that demand.
And by just doing that, youare not being exclusive.
So for me, inclusion is just notintentionally being exclusive.
Some brands goal is to just hit acertain target and they cannot get
approval for expanding their SKU count.
One of the beautiful thingsabout being a small brand.
(17:07):
There's tons of challengesis that I'm in charge.
I get to make that decision.
Is there always aprofitability case for it?
No, but we find thosevalues in other ways.
For instance, we might not sell asmany sizes on the fringe, which means
like outside of your bell curve.
If you're watching rightnow, I'm making a bell curve.
(17:27):
So we sell the most of the mediansizes, like most brands do.
Marley (17:31):
And let's get specific real quick.
Shredly makes everything froma size 0 to a 24, correct?
Ashley (17:36):
double zero to
Marley (17:37):
Double 0 to a 24.
Both on the small end of thingsand on the bigger end of things.
Just so folks know when we'retalking about sizes, that's
what we're talking about.
Ellen (17:44):
And I'll chime in too, if you're not a retail person, SKU, which you've
maybe heard a couple times already,is S K U, and it's basically how
many different items you are selling.
Ashley (17:53):
Yes, both good distinctions.
Good job.
So normally you sellthe most of your median.
So your middle sizes, likefour, six, eight, 10, that's
what we sell the most of.
And then your fringe sizes, whichare the smaller sizes and the larger
sizes you don't sell as much of.
But what I've told Marley before is thatwe find that people come to our brand.
(18:14):
That are medium size because wesell the fringe sizes and they feel
that's really important and theywant to support a brand that offers.
Sizes for women of all shapes and sizes.
And so really, again, if we go back toour core values, when we first started,
I'm on the, I'm on the smaller side.
I'm on the fringe and we didn't makemy size because we couldn't make, we
(18:37):
couldn't launch with that many sizes.
The first year we launched was zero to 12.
I knew that's not where we would stop.
That's just where we needed to start.
And then we added.
Double zero.
And we went to 16, I think,and then 18 and then 24.
And who really led that forus were the vocal customers.
Some of them angry, someof them kind, like I know.
(18:57):
And if you haven't worked in the industry.
You don't know some of the thingsbehind the scenes that, that steer this.
Like for example, the first factories thatwe worked with have a long cutting table.
They lay your fabric out onthe table and then they cut all
of the sizes from that length.
If they have to lay your fabricout more than one time, it costs
(19:18):
you double the cutting fees.
And so literally you can onlyfit so many sizes in that width
and then they stack your fabric.
And so it all comes down to a puzzlepiece of how they fit things together.
So when some companies say that'snot cost effective, they're not wrong
because this does change your production.
It changes the number of bins you need atthe warehouse and they charge you per bin.
(19:41):
So Ellen, when you said skew, if you addanother size in two colors, That's two
different SKUs because it's a bin per SKU.
So per size, per color, per style.
So you can imagine thatif you're paying, yes.
And if you only have one unit thatyou're storing in that bin, there comes
a point in time when you're payingmore to store that item than you are
(20:04):
making in your margin selling that item.
So there are all these things toconsider and you have to weigh.
You have to weigh, is it purelylike a monetary decision or for
us, it's a value based decision.
And so that goes back to just know, Iknew when I started Shredly that I wanted
to start a brand of multi use apparelfor women, which meant they could use it
for mountain biking, but all the otherthings that most mountain bikers do, and
(20:27):
I knew that for it to be a true, likewomen's brand that it needed to cater
to women of all shapes and sizes, and.
Then, so these decisions were easy for me.
It was just a matter of finding factoriesthat would work with us and figuring
out how we can work within the systemthat we cannot change short of having
our own warehouse, short of havingour own cutting room, how do we work
(20:47):
within the realm of what's possible?
And it's always possible.
It just comes at a cost.
Or a reality, some of those for us isjust a reality and we don't view it as
a cost that we're trying to get rid of.
We're just trying to work around it.
Ellen (20:59):
Yeah, Marley, I saw your face light the heck up when we started talking
about size inclusivity and how Shardley'slike attack attacking it, if you will.
So I wanted to just giveyou a chance to chime in
Marley (21:10):
Yeah, well,
Ellen (21:11):
to you.
Marley (21:12):
I think my Shredley origin story is really fun.
So I went to.
If folks have been following me fora long time, you know that I have not
been a mountain biker for a long time.
It's really just been in the pastcouple years that I've started
getting into mountain biking.
And in 20, was it, I think it was 2022,I was invited to RoamFest in Knoxville.
RoamFest is a Women, trans, femme,it's a femme mountain bike festival.
(21:34):
And they had one in Knoxville, Tennesseethat year, and I was on a panel I think
they showed our film or something,but Shredly was there as an exhibitor.
And I remember walking by and Ashleycalled me over and was like, Hi,
I'm really excited to meet you.
You got to try on our clothes.
And I was like, I don't thinkyou're going to have anything that
fits me, because that had been myexperience with so many other brands.
I think I was around a size20 at the time, maybe a 22 a
(21:55):
little bigger than I am now.
And I was like, very skeptical,and she was like, No, come back
after whatever you're doing, andI want you to try some stuff on.
Because if you've seen Shredly at events,they have this beautiful trailer that
has a fitting room inside of it withtons of different styles and sizes.
And so I was like, Okay.
And so I went back and I tried stuffon and I don't think I cried, but I
(22:18):
think I wanted to cry because it fit.
And I had never hadthat experience before.
And at the time I was, I had adifferent apparel sponsor, but the
conversation started between me andAshley and it has never stopped.
And since last year, 2023 I'vebeen sponsored by Shreddly
as my apparel partner.
And we've done some really coolstuff, which I think we'll get into.
(22:39):
But maybe we shouldjust talk about it now.
We released the Marley capsulecollection last year based all
around this manatee which we cantell that story if we want to.
And we're doing it again thisyear, which is super exciting.
Ashley (22:51):
Yeah.
And it's super cool for me too,because, well, I have to talk about
the story that Marley just told.
So when she came into the trailer,not only did she get to try on a pair
of shorts that fit, but she got topick between different inseam lengths.
She got to pick between different colors.
And I vividly remember her being like,wait, there's more that I can pick from.
Like I have choices.
(23:12):
And I think that's one ofthe biggest things that we
hear from women of all sizes.
Like I have choices I can pick frominseams and colors and waistband styles.
And that just.
That did not exist, which kind of blewmy mind when I first started researching
what are the options out there?
It I was like, whatare, what am I missing?
Like, why are there not more options?
(23:32):
Why are there not all of these thingsthat we take so much pride in doing?
Ellen (23:37):
Thought of when you mentioned how far behind the industry was like 10
years ago is like you could get blackand white or you could get black the
Ashley (23:47):
or black,
Ellen (23:48):
yeah and it's like
Ashley (23:48):
say black?
Oh,
Ellen (23:56):
there wasn't the selection if you wanted the quality or if
you were just getting into it.
There wasn't that good mix of stuff.
I can only imagine that's exacerbated forif you are not one of those average sizes.
Marley (24:05):
I think one of the other things that I love about Shreddly
in the size inclusion realm is it'snot just in the products, but in
your marketing, in your ambassadors,in your photography on the website.
And when I do consulting for companies onsize inclusion I, that's basically what
I'm educating them to do or preachingat them to do is Hey, You have to show
real bodies wearing this stuff becauseif we don't see ourselves represented
(24:28):
in your marketing or on your website,we're not going to buy your stuff.
And it's funny talking about Redditearlier, I just pulled out this
quote that somebody had put in.
Somebody wrote, Oh my God, lookingthrough more of the website and
they show plus size with cellulite.
I could cry.
That's so empowering.
And a little crying face emoji.
And I'm like, that's probably my picture.
Just thinking about that.
So
Ellen (24:47):
so empowering, Marley.
You're not even trying.
Look at you go.
Marley (24:50):
just standing there, cute, with my cellulite.
Ellen (24:53):
Yes.
We just got off a callwith Emily Chapel, right?
And that was part of it is justseeing yourself represented
in a normal situation.
It's not that you've been selected tobe the token fat person on this website.
You are just in it.
And you're part of.
This scene, you're part of Shredly.
You are not the person that they said, Oh,cool, could we get you in three different
(25:13):
poses so that we can be inclusive?
It is, we've designed it for you,with you, in this exact instance,
to make it something that youare so proud and eager to wear.
There's, there is empowerment.
I think there's, within fashion even,it's fashion, Wanting to look good almost
gets like this bad rap of you are too
Marley (25:30):
Your vein.
Ellen (25:31):
you're vain, or it's too girly like, whatever, it's been,
like, associated with a vapid sortof mindset, but no like, how you feel
about how you look impacts your day.
And this can have such a bigimpact to the cycling world and
people feeling comfortable, whichis one of the barriers of people
getting out and getting on a bike.
If you feel like you aren't goingto be yourself in these clothes,
(25:54):
you are not going to show up asyour authentic self at that ride.
Ashley (25:57):
It's so true.
You totally nailed it.
And it's hard to explain topeople that don't get it.
And I don't know that men have thesame like rush when you put something
on that just makes you feel cool.
And like the pattern excitesyou and the colors excites you.
Sometimes you squeal like there are alot of squeals that come from the trailer
because there's just this emotionalside to apparel that not everybody has.
(26:20):
And some women could care less.
And there's nothing wrong with that,but it's not just about vanity.
It is like very confidence inspiring.
And I remember we got we have hada number of people share this with
us, but I remember early on, Igot an email from a woman who was
in like her fifties or sixties.
And she said, I'm a new mountain biker.
Like I'm really intimidated, but I can'ttell you how much confidence I have
(26:43):
just in my living room wearing thisapparel because it makes me feel good.
And that's.
what it's all about.
And so you can't really explainthat till you've experienced it.
But just knowing that we'regiving that confidence to people
is really inspiring for us.
And it's so nice when people take thetime to share those stories with us
because it's honestly something thatI Like I knew how excited I got when I
(27:06):
saw a pattern that made me really happy.
And Oh my gosh, I want thoseto be a pair of shorts.
And then they turn into a pair of shorts.
So I'm like, Oh my gosh,look at how great they are.
But to hear it coming from other people,I could not have tried to create that
part of the culture of our community.
If I had tried, it justauthentically came with the brand.
And I've realized now how powerful thatis for other people besides just me.
Marley (27:27):
Yeah.
I can attest to it.
That black jumpsuit, I putthat on and I feel like I am
like the queen of the world.
I've worn it for like probablyfive different keynote speeches.
I've worn it mountain biking.
I've worn it all over the place.
Ellen (27:39):
Didn't you wear that to the event when you were here in KC?
Wasn't that the same one?
Marley (27:43):
I believe so.
Yeah.
Ellen (27:44):
You did.
You felt like a mil You putit on and you were just like,
This is like a second skin.
You were so comfortable in
Marley (27:50):
Yeah, exactly.
So I'm curious about any criticalfeedback you've received as a brand
over the years and how that has forcedyou to improve things or change things.
What has that side of things been like?
Ashley (28:01):
Yeah, it's we actually did very early on and it was devastating
at first because I don't think anybodyknows the blood, sweat and tears that
go on behind the scenes and how hardit is to start a business and then
to have somebody so casually feellike they can just shit all over it.
And then, and so it took mesome time to mature into being
open to that and using that.
(28:24):
So now I view it completely differentlythan I did in the beginning.
In the beginning, it was like, Oh mygosh, if they knew how hard I was working.
And then to just be so shutdown by things that aren't true.
Like I remember our first marketingcampaign, I had seen this super
cool, high top tennis shoe ad,and it was like high fashion.
And there were women that were justwearing black briefs and it was all
(28:45):
from behind and they weren't wearingtops and everything was in black and
white, except for the tennis shoes.
And I thought that it was so cool.
And it was the type of edgy.
Marketing that I wanted to do for thebrand so different from everything else,
like all the sameness in the market.
And so we mimicked that because we alsogot our samples in the dead of winter.
Like we could not gomountain biking anywhere.
(29:05):
And I gathered my friends, likewhoever were available to come
do this photo shoot with us.
And we did the same thing.
So the shorts were in color, buteverything else was in black and white.
And for the most part, everybodythought that it was like fun and edgy,
but there was this woman from Alaska.
Who said that we were objectifying womenand it was just like so soul crushing
(29:25):
because I found that to be empoweringlet's just this is all about the shorts
We're making this campaign all about theshorts and i've learned so much since
then but it was really disheartening thatShe viewed me as like the enemy And that
I wasn't for women and that I was not,respecting women by using this campaign.
So, that was the very first onethat was really hard, but I had
(29:47):
to learn very quickly that yourbiggest critics can help you.
A lot, because they help you be better.
They make your product better.
They make you aware of gaps in themarket that you're not hitting.
And it is why we listen so much toour customers that, or even I would
say probably not our customers,but the people we want to be our
customers that are our critics.
(30:07):
My goal is to win them over.
Like, how do we use what they're saying?
For good to steer the directionof our product so that, if we can
win this person over, we are doinga really good job at our job.
And so I, it was really hard at1st, but now it's like my team.
We all joke.
We have multiple personalities.
There's a customer carepersonality and you like.
(30:28):
Put on this one persona whenthere's somebody that's not happy
and you can separate yourselffrom taking it personally.
And so as a designer, when I hearcritical feedback, I go into design
mode of okay, that's a problem that nowI'm going to solve instead of taking it
really personally and dwelling on it.
And so I've gotten better atusing that to our advantage.
Ellen (30:49):
I feel
Marley (30:49):
That's so hard.
Ellen (30:51):
two categories is this a problem, or is this an opinion
Ashley (30:53):
you're so right, because some of it's just noise.
In some people, there is no ever solvingit or making it happy, and so you do
have to be able to decipher betweenthat, and that's a good distinction.
Ellen (31:03):
Yeah.
Okay.
Ashley (31:19):
time people.
We have a handful of really keycontractors that we work with,
but in terms of just full timein house, we're three people, so
that includes me and two other.
other people who are like my stars.
I'm really lucky to have anamazing small scrappy team.
Marley (31:33):
I love that.
I love that.
And this is going to sound socheesy when I say it, Shredly
is more than an apparel brand.
It really has become a movementwithin the mountain biking community.
You host multiple retreats throughout theyears and really build up this community.
How do you see your role, Shredley's rolein the women's mountain biking community?
Ashley (31:54):
Yeah, that's a great question that again, if I go back
to when I first started Shudley,I would have never guessed.
Like it was all about the product.
But once I started to realize howimportant our community was not only for
us and the brand but for the people inthat community like it is People have
found a place to belong in Shredly andthat is like very emotional for me and
(32:15):
so thinking about I think there's justso When it comes to retail when it comes
to consumerism I think that people reallywant to believe in the brands that they
support and So for us, we really wantto lean into that community piece of it.
Yes, we are making products, butthere's so much more than that.
(32:35):
And then all the things that we do withthe products are so communal based.
Like cycling is such a community sport.
You can do it individually,which is great, but it really it
just creates its own community.
So really leaning into that.
I think creating community outside ofcycling, well, number one, our goal.
Is to be the number onewomen's cycling brand.
So to grow outside of mountain bikeand kind of do what we've done for
(32:57):
mountain bike in these other disciplines,
Marley (32:59):
Which as a gravel girly, I am very excited about.
Ashley (33:02):
which Marley has been we have a product that's launching this spring.
That was, it's because of Marley.
She's helping us launch that product.
So that will be exciting.
But really just looking, okay,what's the opportunity and
great in the cycling world.
And then outside of cycling, how canwe bring others into our community?
We have tons of women who love ourshorts that don't even ride, and I
(33:23):
don't want them to feel excluded, likethey're not part of our community.
So just creating this generalcommunity around Shredly and then all
of these little sub communities ishow I envisioned the future of it.
And that includes things outsideof a product, which is experiences.
Like you talked about Marley.
We have.
Found that we host retreats that allowall of these really amazing customers and
(33:45):
people who are actually new to shortlyto come and get together and have this
magical experience and focus on theirskills and just explore themselves as
either a mountain biker or someone, thatjust wants to be part of the community.
And big picture, what does it looklike if you are a brand that really
focuses on community and then one ofthe things that you offer is products?
(34:05):
is an exciting way for us tolook at how we want to position
ourselves in the future.
Marley (34:09):
Oh man, it just, it makes me like excited to think about how
like I've played a part in that.
I.
I think when we were at sea otter lastyear when we released the first Marley
capsule collection, just people comingup and saying, Oh my God, I'm so excited
that you guys are working together andnot to toot my own horn, but it's been
really cool to interact with folks who,either didn't know about Shredley before
(34:32):
we started working together and I'veintroduced them to the brand or people
who were longtime fans of Shredleywho were like, Oh, I love them even
more now because of our partnership.
And it's just, it's cool.
Ashley (34:42):
Yeah, I totally agree.
And one of my favorite things aboutworking events with Marley, is she
just calls people out that are walkingby and doing what she did at first
oh, I bet they don't have my size.
She'll see someone look out ofthe corner of their eye and be
like, I bet we have your size!
And she'll call them over.
And so Marley brings somany people into the fold.
And what I loved about being atSeattle with Marley was All the
(35:03):
people that came to fangirl on her,
Ellen (35:06):
Okay.
Ashley (35:06):
they were, it was amazing because they were all bodies,
different sizes, different shapes.
And it was amazing to me thatpeople just they want to support
a brand that offers all sizes.
They want to support Marleyfor her mission of just making
people feel like they belong.
And so we do, we have so muchsynergy there and it's such a
magical partnership that I lovethat people appreciate that they see
(35:28):
where a natural fit for each other.
Cause I totally agree.
Marley (35:31):
Yeah.
It's, it sounds funny that I'm likeheckling people of we've got your size.
Like I'm a carnival caller, but it is likeas a fat woman, as a bigger bodied person,
I know that look in somebody's eyes whenyou look and you see the booth and you're
like, Oh, that stuff is really cool,but I'm sure they don't have my size.
And you can just, you canread it on people's faces.
When we were at Sea Otter, we wrote on thesign, like sizes, double zero through 24.
(35:52):
And try not to be pushy aboutit, but really letting folks know
that Yes, we really do have yoursize and it's, it will likely fit.
And I don't think we had anybodycome through that we didn't have
something that would work forthem, which was incredibly cool.
Ashley (36:04):
And I don't know if I told you Marley, but we have this amazing
email after from a woman who said I'mnot your average cyclist, my body's
built, not like your lean cyclist.
And I had so much fun at the Shedley boothand you made me feel like I belonged.
You made me feel like I was.
Kind of an insider.
And I was really nervous toeven go to see Otter by myself.
Cause I felt like I was a poser and thefact that we can make somebody feel like
(36:28):
they belong, like that's so powerful.
Not every brand can do that authentically.
So I'm super grateful thatwe are able to do that for
Marley (36:35):
Yeah it's such a cool thing.
Well, I can't, you say you're buzzing?
Ellen (36:39):
So it's warm fuzzies.
Marley (36:40):
we're buzzing.
We gotta get you in someShredly stuff, Ellen.
I think you would love it.
And they do make Littles and yourkiddo would look incredibly cute
in some dinosaur print stuff.
Ellen (36:50):
Oh my god, I'm going.
I'll go right now.
Marley (36:52):
Ta da!
Ellen (36:53):
You guys finish this.
I'm going to do some e shopping.
Marley (36:56):
Perfect.
Well, wrapping up we talkedabout shorts a lot but Shredly
makes all sorts of stuff now.
So can you talk about that alittle bit and maybe where the
future of the brand is going?
Silence.
Ashley (37:35):
and our shorts seamlessly transition off the bike.
And so other products thatkind of help fill those gaps.
Has been really fun to design,which actually allows me to focus
on some of my creativity originally,that wasn't so outdoor focused.
So really being able to bring somestyle into lifestyle products.
So you'll see more of thatfrom us, but also finding
ways to make cycling more fun.
(37:57):
So shorts is not a new thing.
You can't reinvent the wheelof shorts all the time.
Yes, you can bring fresh new patterns andcolors, but what else can we do to make
cycling more fun.
And that's, those are theproducts that we're focusing on.
Those are the products thatare selling really well.
So like our biker sham with thescalloped edge very different
in the space, very unique.
And then our romper is an example.
(38:17):
Like how do we make cycling more fun?
Who doesn't want towear a romper on a bike?
And one thing that I can tease rightnow that we're launching this spring is
Again, like using your critics to makeyour products better Some people were
straight up angry when we launched theromper like about how they were going
to pee And so we have figured out a waythat they can pee and they don't have
(38:38):
to take the top off So that's a hint
Ellen (38:42):
To be fair, revolutionary for rompers.
We have now transcended cycling.
Ashley (38:49):
Exactly.
I know.
Totally.
I'm so super excited about that.
So really, and also always just keepingtop of mind, like, how can we use this
in many ways, solve the problems thatwe have in cycling, make really great
product for cycling, but then how dowe get bonus points if you can use
it for more things than just cycling?
Like Marley, you were talking aboutthe jumpsuit, the black jumpsuit.
(39:11):
I'm wearing it right now.
We know tons of people wear it for date.
Yeah.
Like date nights.
So how, like how amazing if youcan make products for cycling that
people are wearing for date night.
That really excites me as a designer.
And so I feel like there's always thatchallenge of like, how creative can I get
with this without losing any functionality
Marley (39:29):
Yeah.
Well, my last question, and Idon't know if Ellen has any more,
but and I feel like Guy Raz.
Do you have a question?
Listen to how I built this on NPR.
Yeah.
I feel like Guy Raz as I askedthis, but for other folks who might,
see a need in their community andOh, I'm going to start a business.
Ashley did this incredible thing.
What would your advice be to them?
Ashley (39:47):
Oh, my gosh.
I have so much advice for them.
First of all, I think, doyou ever watch shark tank?
Marley (39:52):
Occasionally.
Ashley (39:53):
Okay.
So if you watch that and you cananswer a lot of those questions,
like I can just imagine Mr.
Wonderful being like,it's too easy to rip off.
Don't do it.
You really have to ask yourselvesthose questions because I do see a
lot of people that so badly want tostart a business in a certain space.
But I think the product has to be pulledfrom the market So if it's not solving
a problem in the market and if someoneelse is already doing it Then I really
(40:15):
challenge those people like really besuper thoughtful if you were to start
a kickstarter campaign, do you thinkit would be successful and we that was
like our first litmus test Was that,
we are asking the public to supportthis product and if our project is not
successful, I think that means something.
So have a few litmus tests so thatyou can test the space because
(40:36):
it is hard to start a business.
It is not easy.
You will not get a lot of sleep.
Money will always be hard tofigure out your financing.
And so your product hasto be really strong.
And then you have to have tonsof passion to, to get through
all of those ebbs and flows.
And so I, that is maybe a littlebit vague, but I cannot stress how
important I feel like that is to really,you have to have the killer product.
Marley (41:00):
I think that is perfect advice.
It all starts with the product.
Ellen (41:04):
Yeah, well, and having a way to know, it's like, when do you cut
and run or when do you keep going?
Yeah I don't have anything to add Marley.
Thank you for bringing me into this otherthan Yes, these rompers are hella cute
and it's like I already wanted one Butthen the one I'm looking at has little
embroidery on the back pocket first of allhas a back pocket Second of all has very
(41:26):
cute embroidery on the back pocket that Iam probably gonna have to go by and third
of all this website on the front pageThe picture that you chose for a bike,
like behind the bike, go into this stuff.
It's a woman coming down a mountain bikingbridge and she is almost like at 180
degree angle and it's just a badass photo.
(41:47):
So I'm, if you go to Shredly's websitefor nothing else than that photo,
it's well worth it because it feelsempowering and I don't mountain bike.
So it's, I think it's just a good way ofshowing that you're here because there's.
Marley said, like it's more of a movement.
It's more about making sure peoplefeel good on what they're doing and
how, like when they want to do it.
Yay.
(42:07):
I'm very pleased to have been,I didn't really look at much of
Shredly before we did this call.
So, sorry, don't tell Marley.
I didn't do my homework, but
Ashley (42:19):
Look at that real life conversion.
Everyone is witnessing this.
Ellen (42:22):
exactly, but it's it's fun and it's flirty and it's, it looks
like something I want to wear.
Ashley (42:27):
That's
Marley (42:28):
And it's durable.
I have taken a couple of spillsand tumbles in my gear and it
is durable, which is great andgreat customer support team.
Thank you so much, Ashley.
Thanks for our partnership andthanks for coming on the podcast.
I can't believe wehaven't done this sooner.
Ashley (42:39):
Oh my gosh.
I know.
Thank you so much for having me.
I have to give my team a shout outbecause Alan, the things that you were
appreciating on the website, that'sCanberra, the customer care team
that you gave a shout out to Marley.
That's Megan.
So a shout out to them because theydefinitely help make all the magic.
And thank you so much for having me.
I'm so honored to be here.
Ellen (42:59):
Thank you.
Marley (42:59):
Thank you.
Yay.
Hey friends, Ellen here.
(00:01):
Just a note ahead of thisepisode with Shredly.
A lot of you know that Marley is sponsoredby Shredly, but this episode is not.
We were just excited to talkto Ashley about how she and her
brand are changing the industry,one piece of clothing at a time.
None of this is intended to bean endorsement or a commercial.
She's just super cool and has a greatreason to have created her brand, and
we wanted to bring that to the world.
Enjoy.
(00:24):
Welcome to All Bodies On Bikes, thepodcast where all bodies are good bodies.
All bikes are good bikes,and all rides are celebrated.
All bodies on bikes is a movementto create and foster a radically
inclusive bike community.
So join your host.
I'm Ellen.
And I'm Marley.
As we explore the complexities of thebiking world, help us break down barriers
and create the world that we want to see.
(00:45):
And don't forget that allbodies really mean to all
bodies, not just larger bodies.
But bodies of all sizes, ages, races,abilities, genders, sexualities and
beyond, come along for the ride.
How are you, Marley?
Marley (01:05):
I am really good.
How are you, Ellen?
Ellen (01:07):
I'm good.
I am digging this hat lookthat you've got going on.
Marley (01:10):
Thank you.
It's mainly, it is, it's a corduroy hat.
It's just, it's very well timedbecause it's actually our guest today.
So it's for people listening on the radio.
It's a Shredly hat and we are
Ellen (01:22):
is a podcast.
Marley (01:25):
it's a podcast, but there's visual elements
Ellen (01:27):
you said the radio.
Marley (01:28):
Oh, okay.
Ellen (01:29):
Like, You're showing our age.
Marley (01:34):
whatever.
If it's coming throughspeakers to me, it's the radio.
Ellen (01:37):
radio.
Okay.
Marley (01:38):
Yeah.
Well, anyway, if you're listeningto it, you can't see my hat.
If you're watching us on YouTube, youcan see my hat and you'll see that it
says Shredly, which I think a lot offolks know that I am sponsored by them,
they are my apparel sponsor, and I lovewearing them and talking about them.
But today we have the founder andthe CEO with us on the podcast today,
which I am super excited about.
(01:59):
So I figured it was appropriateto wear my Shredly hat.
Ellen (02:02):
absolutely.
Plus it looks super fly.
Marley (02:04):
Thank you!
Everything that I wear from themmakes me look super fly and we'll
get into this, but literally Inever felt cute on a bicycle until
I started wearing Shredly clothes.
Ellen (02:12):
Oh, I love that that's like momentous for you.
Marley (02:16):
Yeah, and Ashley and I can, we can talk about how we met and like,
how this all started, but I'm actuallymore interested in like the company
story, but it is an interesting story.
Before we get too far down thisrabbit hole, let me read her
bio and then we'll bring her in.
Although Ashley grew up in themountains of Colorado, she used
to dream of living in a big cityas a high end fashion designer.
After a design internship in Florence,Italy, she realized two things.
(02:38):
She simultaneously neverwanted to leave Italy.
And she belonged in the mountains.
Not only did Ashley end up back in themountains, but she found herself dreaming
of beautiful bike shorts instead ofevening wear, which led to the founding
of Shredly, meaning Ashley now believesshe, she was always meant to do.
Shredly is a women's mountain bikeand active wear apparel company
(02:59):
that's redefining the way we thinkabout gear, blending functionality,
comfort, and bold expressive style.
Born out of Ashley Rankin's passionfor the outdoors and her frustration
with the lack of options for women incycling apparel, Shredly has become
a leader in creating inclusive, highperformance gear that empowers women
of all shapes, sizes, and stylesto hit the trails with confidence.
(03:20):
From their vibrant patterns totheir commitment to sustainability
and inclusivity, Shredly isproving that adventure can, and
should, look as good as it feels.
Welcome to the show, Ashley!
Ashley (03:31):
Hi, thanks so much for having me.
I'm so excited to be here.
Marley (03:34):
Yeah I'm excited to dig into this because I think a lot of us have
heard of Shredly or, we've seen it andpeople wearing it or they've seen it
on my Instagram, but I'm excited tohear about how this all came about and
some of the nuts and bolts behind it.
So thanks for joining us.
Ashley (03:47):
Yeah, thanks.
I'm excited to get into ittoo, especially with you.
Ellen (03:51):
have one clarifying question.
Did you stay in Italy?
Ashley (03:56):
I did not.
I did not.
So I'm from Colorado and Iwent back to Colorado after.
After Italy.
Ellen (04:04):
Oh, right.
Ashley (04:05):
but I've been back to Italy since, actually twice,
so it's one of my favorite.
I could keep going there all the time.
I want to see so many places in the world,but I'm never bummed to go back to Italy.
Ellen (04:16):
Yes.
That's my feelings on Italy, too.
Marley (04:19):
yeah, I've actually never been to Italy.
I've been all around and like Italyis on my bucket list of places to go.
Ashley (04:24):
it's just, it really is magical.
There's like those placesthat you see in the movies.
And they create this certainfeel, and you're like, Oh,
it'd be so dreamy to go there.
And sometimes you go to those places, andyou're like, Yeah, that was in the movies.
You go there, and you feel like youimagine you would in the movies.
Ellen (04:40):
And it's
Ashley (04:41):
I want to go with you, Marley.
Ellen (04:43):
difficult to find bad pasta.
That was, like, I was so scaredthat I was going to do it wrong,
and I don't think you can.
Ashley (04:48):
Oh, no.
And that and even table wine,which is like not branded.
It's a very different experience todrink wine there than it is here.
Table wine is great.
The whole, everything in Italy is better.
Marley (04:58):
Oh, I believe it.
Well, we're not here to talkabout Italy, unfortunately.
Although
Ashley (05:02):
need to have a separate one for
Marley (05:04):
I think this ties really into our conversation.
So you were doing a design intern, adesign internship, is that correct?
In Florence.
How did you go from wanting to dolike evening wear and I imagine like
couture to designing mountain bikeapparel and really transforming the
women's cycling apparel industry?
Ashley (05:20):
Oh, well, thank you for saying that.
Yeah, it's really funny becauseI had no interest in outerwear.
I wanted to be a designersince I was little.
I knew I always wantedto be a fashion designer.
And I grew up in Colorado, and I lived ina rural part of Colorado, and I could not
wait to Leave the, I loved the mountains,but I couldn't wait to be in the city.
And I wanted to live in acity and an apartment, take
(05:43):
an elevator to my apartment.
I had this idea of what I reallywanted and it was to design
evening wear and high end couture.
And I used to, I didn't reallymake clothes from scratch, but I
would take clothes that I ownedand I would embellish them.
So I would take denim and buythis cool fringe, like with beads
and put it around the bottom.
So I was always into thesebeautiful embellishments.
(06:04):
And I even went all theway through college.
I got a degree in appareldesign and production, and I
was not interested in outerwear.
But I grew up mountain bikingand skiing and doing all of these
things that just was not the sideof design that I wanted to go into.
And it wasn't until I actually cameback from Italy and went back to
the mountains because I just, I hadthis moment in Italy where I knew I
(06:28):
wanted to stay, and I'd fallen so inlove with the culture and the life.
But I was in Switzerland, and I wason a mountain, and I could see really
far, and I just felt like home.
And then I missed home,and I was really homesick.
And so I knew, okay.
There are parts of me that arejust ingrained of me that I
had to leave to understand howmuch a part of me they were.
And one of that was like being innature and having clean air to breathe.
(06:52):
And, even the parks in Italyare beautiful, but it's not
the same as being outside.
And so I did feel like very torn.
And I went back to Colorado and.
knew that living in the mountains wouldnot really give me the path to the design
life that I had dreamed and imagined.
And even then I was like, I'm reallyjust not interested in going to outdoor.
(07:14):
It doesn't really satisfy it for me,but I started riding a ton and would
start to see these visions of the kindsof shorts and apparel that I wanted
to be riding in that didn't exist.
And then I'd see other reallycool things in like homeware.
Like I'd see a really beautifulpillow or a really cool.
Shower curtain and be like, why can't wehave cute shorts that have that pattern?
(07:37):
And so it really just came fromlike being a user of the product
that didn't exist and then having mydesign world and my, passions collide.
And then I started to seethings that I wanted and I
couldn't stop thinking about it.
So it really just came to meand then was pulled from me.
And I had never started a business.
I wasn't an entrepreneur.
I didn't even want to be an entrepreneur.
(07:58):
I just wanted to make cuteshorts for me and my friends.
And we started talking aboutwhat those cute shorts would be.
My one friend who was aprofessional rider at the time
really wanted the comfort aspect.
And my other friend had her own ideasabout the fabric that she wanted.
And then I had the ideasabout the style that I wanted.
And we Put everything together todesign what was our perfect short.
And I asked them if they wanted to startthis business with me and they both
(08:21):
had their own career paths and theywere like, no, but you should do it.
And so I had a full time joband one thing led to another.
And then I realized well, Iam going to start a brand, but
I don't know how to do that.
So mine was always very product based.
Okay, well, I only need abrand name because I have to
put something on the shorts.
But how do I get these shorts made?
And it was really just one littlething after another of how I bring
(08:42):
these shorts into the world thatled to the creation of Shredly.
Marley (08:46):
What year was that?
Ashley (08:48):
So we had this brainstorming thing in 2011, 2010, like in that time period.
And it wasn't until 2012 that Iactually launched our first Kickstarter.
Cause I was just doingall of this on the side.
I had a full time job through it all.
So I would work on it at nightsand in the week on the weekends.
And it took me a while, to get things.
(09:08):
To get things going.
Marley (09:10):
To be fair, you still work on this nights and weekends.
I get a lot of late night emails from you.
Ashley (09:15):
I do.
I do.
One thing to know about being anentrepreneur is that you think you might
have like more control over your schedule,which you do, but you work all the time.
There's no, there's never off hours.
Marley (09:26):
Yeah.
I was looking around on Reddit beforethis because it's helpful to know what
the world is talking about Shredly.
And everybody sings your praises.
I obviously sing your praises, butfor the quality, for how they fit,
how do you balance all three of those?
Fit what am I talking about?
Help me out, Ellen.
Performance and design.
Ellen (09:44):
and design.
Marley (09:45):
There we go.
Silence.
Ashley (09:53):
So we started in Colorado our manufacturing was all in the States for
the first ten years and Being a user ofthe product and coming from wanting to
design high end apparel and also whenI started this I was working in luxury
real estate So I had just learned todo things with a very high standard.
And I think all of those thingsshaped what I thought was really
(10:16):
important about the business.
And in my original business plan,if you look back, and I think we
even had a graphic on our website,it was this Venn diagram of.
Style, comfort, and performance.
And they all, combined to make Shredly.
And so I just knew from the beginning,like those were the key things.
And I really startedwith a value based model.
(10:37):
So we didn't start with a retail pricepoint that we had to meet and then
build the product backwards from there.
We started with what is theideal product that we need?
And it came to shape.
The product built itself and quality wasjust inherent in it because it was one
of our core values, like the performancepiece of it, the comfort piece of it.
Like you can't really source cheapfabric that's not comfortable.
(11:00):
So it's just because of the principlesthat we knew, that were core to Shredly.
It meant that qualityproducts were part of that.
So balancing it all is actually notthat hard because something doesn't look
beautiful to me if it's not quality.
And so I think just part of the aestheticreally sets the standard for the product.
And so it doesn't, thereare certain times where.
(11:22):
The feel of a fabricdoesn't feel quite right.
It doesn't feel like a quality fabric.
And so I think that it's just throughoutthe design process, it's knowing what
Shredly is and then sourcing things thatkind of meet that standard and so it
all, if one thing is off, you don't feellike you're ticking all three boxes.
Exactly.
Marley (11:41):
And I love that staying true to your values really helps make
sure that your quality standardsare met, which is super, super cool.
Ellen (11:48):
It's a bit of keeping the customer in mind at the core of
it to you didn't want to wearshorts that felt bad or looked bad.
That was the whole point.
Ashley (11:56):
And one of the things that I was talking about, one of my
friends point of view from the fabricwas it's like the fabric so loud
and crunchy, can we find somethingthat's softer and more comfortable?
And that's a huge, thatwas the comfort piece.
And that's what product at thistime, which I know you might touch
on this, Marley, if we go backto 2010 what bike apparel looks
(12:17):
like, especially for women, it was.
drastically different than it is today.
It was like 15, 20 yearsbehind street style.
Like you look at pictures of whatwe're wearing 10 years ago, and it
looks like it was 20, 25 years ago.
And things were just in a verydifferent place than they are now.
And we definitely had a piece of kind ofshaping that at a time when the market
(12:39):
was really hungry for something likethat, something new and different and very
focused on the women's side of things.
Marley (12:48):
Very cool.
One of the things that Shredly isalso known for that I imagine is
challenging to balance is sustainability.
I was looking at your website and Ithink I read something like 97 percent of
Products are made with recycled materials.
How do you incorporate sustainability?
And I imagine like that is not aneasy thing to do, especially with
manufacturing and you've got alarge number of skews and it's a lot
Ashley (13:10):
Yeah, it is a lot.
So we are proud that 93 percentof, all of our goods right now are
made from recycled materials, andthere's a couple of different ways
that you can approach sustainability,which I learned so much about.
So having centralizedproduction is one of them.
So like when we hadeverything made in the States.
And our, so our factory, our warehouse,everything was in the states.
(13:31):
You didn't have to transportit all over the place.
And there's some great savingsthere in terms of sustainability.
As you diversify your supply chain,then it's decentralizing and.
All of your raw materials, right?
So you can tackle it acouple different ways.
And it is it's hard.
It's really hard because it's notas easy as saying, okay, we're going
(13:52):
to source all sustainable materialsbecause you have to think about it
throughout your entire supply chain.
So what we do is wheneverwe have a choice.
Some things we don't have a choice at oursize, which is a little bit frustrating,
but whenever we have a choice, so isthere a fabric that you can source
that's more sustainable than another,then we'll always make that choice.
(14:12):
And so it is, it's a really hard thing tobalance because it affects your margins.
It affects the retail price pointthat people are willing to pay and
sustainability is really importantto people, but if is the consumer
willing to pay more for it, not always.
And so when you're alreadyoffering a premium product, it is.
Something that is always a challenge,but it's always top of mind.
So we really just stay true toour guiding light is what is our
(14:36):
goal and how do we get there?
And we're not perfect by any means.
We'd like to get to a hundredpercent recycled material but
that's not the only thing.
Then it's your supply chain and it'swhere things are moving and coming
from all of your packaging materials.
And so there's a lot of different elementsto it, and I'm glad that we started
(14:57):
with that because I think if you don'tstart there and it's not core to your
business, it's always a very hard thing tojustify when it comes to the bottom line
because it's a shift from where you are.
So we actually, before it became thecool thing to do in the industry, we
switched over to recycled material.
And so that was about five years ago.
So we had already made this big shift.
(15:19):
And decided to move awayfrom non recycled materials.
So that has definitely made it alot easier because we were doing
that sooner than a lot of otherbrands and, the supply chain 1st
of all knows everybody wants this.
So it's becoming more readilyavailable, but it is also a profit
channel across the supply chain.
There's just a lot ofdifferent things to weigh.
(15:41):
And as a small business, you don'talways have efficiencies of scale.
So you have to do the bestyou can and always look for
opportunities to keep improving.
Ellen (15:50):
yeah, I think another one of the places that you've been leading
the industry is with size inclusion.
And why was that something that youwanted to bring into play as well?
Ashley (16:00):
I feel like there's this been this paradigm shift in just the last
couple of years where that conversationis more forefront for a lot of brands.
We didn't do it from ainclusivity point of view.
We did it because we had customersthat we were not meeting their needs.
So I, the word inclusion means a lotand we use it often to convey a point.
(16:21):
We try to not tout that inclusionis our goal because I think that for
the people we are not meeting, thatdoes not feel inclusive to them.
And there's always going to be peoplethat are falling outside of that.
And so our goal is to just be anauthentic brand that caters to women.
That's our customer.
Women come in all shapes and sizes.
And so if there's a demandfor our product, we should be
(16:44):
striving to meet that demand.
And by just doing that, youare not being exclusive.
So for me, inclusion is just notintentionally being exclusive.
Some brands goal is to just hit acertain target and they cannot get
approval for expanding their SKU count.
One of the beautiful thingsabout being a small brand.
(17:07):
There's tons of challengesis that I'm in charge.
I get to make that decision.
Is there always aprofitability case for it?
No, but we find thosevalues in other ways.
For instance, we might not sell asmany sizes on the fringe, which means
like outside of your bell curve.
If you're watching rightnow, I'm making a bell curve.
(17:27):
So we sell the most of the mediansizes, like most brands do.
Marley (17:31):
And let's get specific real quick.
Shredly makes everything froma size 0 to a 24, correct?
Ashley (17:36):
double zero to
Marley (17:37):
Double 0 to a 24.
Both on the small end of thingsand on the bigger end of things.
Just so folks know when we'retalking about sizes, that's
what we're talking about.
Ellen (17:44):
And I'll chime in too, if you're not a retail person, SKU, which you've
maybe heard a couple times already,is S K U, and it's basically how
many different items you are selling.
Ashley (17:53):
Yes, both good distinctions.
Good job.
So normally you sellthe most of your median.
So your middle sizes, likefour, six, eight, 10, that's
what we sell the most of.
And then your fringe sizes, whichare the smaller sizes and the larger
sizes you don't sell as much of.
But what I've told Marley before is thatwe find that people come to our brand.
(18:14):
That are medium size because wesell the fringe sizes and they feel
that's really important and theywant to support a brand that offers.
Sizes for women of all shapes and sizes.
And so really, again, if we go back toour core values, when we first started,
I'm on the, I'm on the smaller side.
I'm on the fringe and we didn't makemy size because we couldn't make, we
(18:37):
couldn't launch with that many sizes.
The first year we launched was zero to 12.
I knew that's not where we would stop.
That's just where we needed to start.
And then we added.
Double zero.
And we went to 16, I think,and then 18 and then 24.
And who really led that forus were the vocal customers.
Some of them angry, someof them kind, like I know.
(18:57):
And if you haven't worked in the industry.
You don't know some of the thingsbehind the scenes that, that steer this.
Like for example, the first factories thatwe worked with have a long cutting table.
They lay your fabric out onthe table and then they cut all
of the sizes from that length.
If they have to lay your fabricout more than one time, it costs
(19:18):
you double the cutting fees.
And so literally you can onlyfit so many sizes in that width
and then they stack your fabric.
And so it all comes down to a puzzlepiece of how they fit things together.
So when some companies say that'snot cost effective, they're not wrong
because this does change your production.
It changes the number of bins you need atthe warehouse and they charge you per bin.
(19:41):
So Ellen, when you said skew, if you addanother size in two colors, That's two
different SKUs because it's a bin per SKU.
So per size, per color, per style.
So you can imagine thatif you're paying, yes.
And if you only have one unit thatyou're storing in that bin, there comes
a point in time when you're payingmore to store that item than you are
(20:04):
making in your margin selling that item.
So there are all these things toconsider and you have to weigh.
You have to weigh, is it purelylike a monetary decision or for
us, it's a value based decision.
And so that goes back to just know, Iknew when I started Shredly that I wanted
to start a brand of multi use apparelfor women, which meant they could use it
for mountain biking, but all the otherthings that most mountain bikers do, and
(20:27):
I knew that for it to be a true, likewomen's brand that it needed to cater
to women of all shapes and sizes, and.
Then, so these decisions were easy for me.
It was just a matter of finding factoriesthat would work with us and figuring
out how we can work within the systemthat we cannot change short of having
our own warehouse, short of havingour own cutting room, how do we work
(20:47):
within the realm of what's possible?
And it's always possible.
It just comes at a cost.
Or a reality, some of those for us isjust a reality and we don't view it as
a cost that we're trying to get rid of.
We're just trying to work around it.
Ellen (20:59):
Yeah, Marley, I saw your face light the heck up when we started talking
about size inclusivity and how Shardley'slike attack attacking it, if you will.
So I wanted to just giveyou a chance to chime in
Marley (21:10):
Yeah, well,
Ellen (21:11):
to you.
Marley (21:12):
I think my Shredley origin story is really fun.
So I went to.
If folks have been following me fora long time, you know that I have not
been a mountain biker for a long time.
It's really just been in the pastcouple years that I've started
getting into mountain biking.
And in 20, was it, I think it was 2022,I was invited to RoamFest in Knoxville.
RoamFest is a Women, trans, femme,it's a femme mountain bike festival.
(21:34):
And they had one in Knoxville, Tennesseethat year, and I was on a panel I think
they showed our film or something,but Shredly was there as an exhibitor.
And I remember walking by and Ashleycalled me over and was like, Hi,
I'm really excited to meet you.
You got to try on our clothes.
And I was like, I don't thinkyou're going to have anything that
fits me, because that had been myexperience with so many other brands.
I think I was around a size20 at the time, maybe a 22 a
(21:55):
little bigger than I am now.
And I was like, very skeptical,and she was like, No, come back
after whatever you're doing, andI want you to try some stuff on.
Because if you've seen Shredly at events,they have this beautiful trailer that
has a fitting room inside of it withtons of different styles and sizes.
And so I was like, Okay.
And so I went back and I tried stuffon and I don't think I cried, but I
(22:18):
think I wanted to cry because it fit.
And I had never hadthat experience before.
And at the time I was, I had adifferent apparel sponsor, but the
conversation started between me andAshley and it has never stopped.
And since last year, 2023 I'vebeen sponsored by Shreddly
as my apparel partner.
And we've done some really coolstuff, which I think we'll get into.
(22:39):
But maybe we shouldjust talk about it now.
We released the Marley capsulecollection last year based all
around this manatee which we cantell that story if we want to.
And we're doing it again thisyear, which is super exciting.
Ashley (22:51):
Yeah.
And it's super cool for me too,because, well, I have to talk about
the story that Marley just told.
So when she came into the trailer,not only did she get to try on a pair
of shorts that fit, but she got topick between different inseam lengths.
She got to pick between different colors.
And I vividly remember her being like,wait, there's more that I can pick from.
Like I have choices.
(23:12):
And I think that's one ofthe biggest things that we
hear from women of all sizes.
Like I have choices I can pick frominseams and colors and waistband styles.
And that just.
That did not exist, which kind of blewmy mind when I first started researching
what are the options out there?
It I was like, whatare, what am I missing?
Like, why are there not more options?
(23:32):
Why are there not all of these thingsthat we take so much pride in doing?
Ellen (23:37):
Thought of when you mentioned how far behind the industry was like 10
years ago is like you could get blackand white or you could get black the
Ashley (23:47):
or black,
Ellen (23:48):
yeah and it's like
Ashley (23:48):
say black?
Oh,
Ellen (23:56):
there wasn't the selection if you wanted the quality or if
you were just getting into it.
There wasn't that good mix of stuff.
I can only imagine that's exacerbated forif you are not one of those average sizes.
Marley (24:05):
I think one of the other things that I love about Shreddly
in the size inclusion realm is it'snot just in the products, but in
your marketing, in your ambassadors,in your photography on the website.
And when I do consulting for companies onsize inclusion I, that's basically what
I'm educating them to do or preachingat them to do is Hey, You have to show
real bodies wearing this stuff becauseif we don't see ourselves represented
(24:28):
in your marketing or on your website,we're not going to buy your stuff.
And it's funny talking about Redditearlier, I just pulled out this
quote that somebody had put in.
Somebody wrote, Oh my God, lookingthrough more of the website and
they show plus size with cellulite.
I could cry.
That's so empowering.
And a little crying face emoji.
And I'm like, that's probably my picture.
Just thinking about that.
So
Ellen (24:47):
so empowering, Marley.
You're not even trying.
Look at you go.
Marley (24:50):
just standing there, cute, with my cellulite.
Ellen (24:53):
Yes.
We just got off a callwith Emily Chapel, right?
And that was part of it is justseeing yourself represented
in a normal situation.
It's not that you've been selected tobe the token fat person on this website.
You are just in it.
And you're part of.
This scene, you're part of Shredly.
You are not the person that they said, Oh,cool, could we get you in three different
(25:13):
poses so that we can be inclusive?
It is, we've designed it for you,with you, in this exact instance,
to make it something that youare so proud and eager to wear.
There's, there is empowerment.
I think there's, within fashion even,it's fashion, Wanting to look good almost
gets like this bad rap of you are too
Marley (25:30):
Your vein.
Ellen (25:31):
you're vain, or it's too girly like, whatever, it's been,
like, associated with a vapid sortof mindset, but no like, how you feel
about how you look impacts your day.
And this can have such a bigimpact to the cycling world and
people feeling comfortable, whichis one of the barriers of people
getting out and getting on a bike.
If you feel like you aren't goingto be yourself in these clothes,
(25:54):
you are not going to show up asyour authentic self at that ride.
Ashley (25:57):
It's so true.
You totally nailed it.
And it's hard to explain topeople that don't get it.
And I don't know that men have thesame like rush when you put something
on that just makes you feel cool.
And like the pattern excitesyou and the colors excites you.
Sometimes you squeal like there are alot of squeals that come from the trailer
because there's just this emotionalside to apparel that not everybody has.
(26:20):
And some women could care less.
And there's nothing wrong with that,but it's not just about vanity.
It is like very confidence inspiring.
And I remember we got we have hada number of people share this with
us, but I remember early on, Igot an email from a woman who was
in like her fifties or sixties.
And she said, I'm a new mountain biker.
Like I'm really intimidated, but I can'ttell you how much confidence I have
(26:43):
just in my living room wearing thisapparel because it makes me feel good.
And that's.
what it's all about.
And so you can't really explainthat till you've experienced it.
But just knowing that we'regiving that confidence to people
is really inspiring for us.
And it's so nice when people take thetime to share those stories with us
because it's honestly something thatI Like I knew how excited I got when I
(27:06):
saw a pattern that made me really happy.
And Oh my gosh, I want thoseto be a pair of shorts.
And then they turn into a pair of shorts.
So I'm like, Oh my gosh,look at how great they are.
But to hear it coming from other people,I could not have tried to create that
part of the culture of our community.
If I had tried, it justauthentically came with the brand.
And I've realized now how powerful thatis for other people besides just me.
Marley (27:27):
Yeah.
I can attest to it.
That black jumpsuit, I putthat on and I feel like I am
like the queen of the world.
I've worn it for like probablyfive different keynote speeches.
I've worn it mountain biking.
I've worn it all over the place.
Ellen (27:39):
Didn't you wear that to the event when you were here in KC?
Wasn't that the same one?
Marley (27:43):
I believe so.
Yeah.
Ellen (27:44):
You did.
You felt like a mil You putit on and you were just like,
This is like a second skin.
You were so comfortable in
Marley (27:50):
Yeah, exactly.
So I'm curious about any criticalfeedback you've received as a brand
over the years and how that has forcedyou to improve things or change things.
What has that side of things been like?
Ashley (28:01):
Yeah, it's we actually did very early on and it was devastating
at first because I don't think anybodyknows the blood, sweat and tears that
go on behind the scenes and how hardit is to start a business and then
to have somebody so casually feellike they can just shit all over it.
And then, and so it took mesome time to mature into being
open to that and using that.
(28:24):
So now I view it completely differentlythan I did in the beginning.
In the beginning, it was like, Oh mygosh, if they knew how hard I was working.
And then to just be so shutdown by things that aren't true.
Like I remember our first marketingcampaign, I had seen this super
cool, high top tennis shoe ad,and it was like high fashion.
And there were women that were justwearing black briefs and it was all
(28:45):
from behind and they weren't wearingtops and everything was in black and
white, except for the tennis shoes.
And I thought that it was so cool.
And it was the type of edgy.
Marketing that I wanted to do for thebrand so different from everything else,
like all the sameness in the market.
And so we mimicked that because we alsogot our samples in the dead of winter.
Like we could not gomountain biking anywhere.
(29:05):
And I gathered my friends, likewhoever were available to come
do this photo shoot with us.
And we did the same thing.
So the shorts were in color, buteverything else was in black and white.
And for the most part, everybodythought that it was like fun and edgy,
but there was this woman from Alaska.
Who said that we were objectifying womenand it was just like so soul crushing
(29:25):
because I found that to be empoweringlet's just this is all about the shorts
We're making this campaign all about theshorts and i've learned so much since
then but it was really disheartening thatShe viewed me as like the enemy And that
I wasn't for women and that I was not,respecting women by using this campaign.
So, that was the very first onethat was really hard, but I had
(29:47):
to learn very quickly that yourbiggest critics can help you.
A lot, because they help you be better.
They make your product better.
They make you aware of gaps in themarket that you're not hitting.
And it is why we listen so much toour customers that, or even I would
say probably not our customers,but the people we want to be our
customers that are our critics.
(30:07):
My goal is to win them over.
Like, how do we use what they're saying?
For good to steer the directionof our product so that, if we can
win this person over, we are doinga really good job at our job.
And so I, it was really hard at1st, but now it's like my team.
We all joke.
We have multiple personalities.
There's a customer carepersonality and you like.
(30:28):
Put on this one persona whenthere's somebody that's not happy
and you can separate yourselffrom taking it personally.
And so as a designer, when I hearcritical feedback, I go into design
mode of okay, that's a problem that nowI'm going to solve instead of taking it
really personally and dwelling on it.
And so I've gotten better atusing that to our advantage.
Ellen (30:49):
I feel
Marley (30:49):
That's so hard.
Ellen (30:51):
two categories is this a problem, or is this an opinion
Ashley (30:53):
you're so right, because some of it's just noise.
In some people, there is no ever solvingit or making it happy, and so you do
have to be able to decipher betweenthat, and that's a good distinction.
Ellen (31:03):
Yeah.
Okay.
Ashley (31:19):
time people.
We have a handful of really keycontractors that we work with,
but in terms of just full timein house, we're three people, so
that includes me and two other.
other people who are like my stars.
I'm really lucky to have anamazing small scrappy team.
Marley (31:33):
I love that.
I love that.
And this is going to sound socheesy when I say it, Shredly
is more than an apparel brand.
It really has become a movementwithin the mountain biking community.
You host multiple retreats throughout theyears and really build up this community.
How do you see your role, Shredley's rolein the women's mountain biking community?
Ashley (31:54):
Yeah, that's a great question that again, if I go back
to when I first started Shudley,I would have never guessed.
Like it was all about the product.
But once I started to realize howimportant our community was not only for
us and the brand but for the people inthat community like it is People have
found a place to belong in Shredly andthat is like very emotional for me and
(32:15):
so thinking about I think there's justso When it comes to retail when it comes
to consumerism I think that people reallywant to believe in the brands that they
support and So for us, we really wantto lean into that community piece of it.
Yes, we are making products, butthere's so much more than that.
(32:35):
And then all the things that we do withthe products are so communal based.
Like cycling is such a community sport.
You can do it individually,which is great, but it really it
just creates its own community.
So really leaning into that.
I think creating community outside ofcycling, well, number one, our goal.
Is to be the number onewomen's cycling brand.
So to grow outside of mountain bikeand kind of do what we've done for
(32:57):
mountain bike in these other disciplines,
Marley (32:59):
Which as a gravel girly, I am very excited about.
Ashley (33:02):
which Marley has been we have a product that's launching this spring.
That was, it's because of Marley.
She's helping us launch that product.
So that will be exciting.
But really just looking, okay,what's the opportunity and
great in the cycling world.
And then outside of cycling, how canwe bring others into our community?
We have tons of women who love ourshorts that don't even ride, and I
(33:23):
don't want them to feel excluded, likethey're not part of our community.
So just creating this generalcommunity around Shredly and then all
of these little sub communities ishow I envisioned the future of it.
And that includes things outsideof a product, which is experiences.
Like you talked about Marley.
We have.
Found that we host retreats that allowall of these really amazing customers and
(33:45):
people who are actually new to shortlyto come and get together and have this
magical experience and focus on theirskills and just explore themselves as
either a mountain biker or someone, thatjust wants to be part of the community.
And big picture, what does it looklike if you are a brand that really
focuses on community and then one ofthe things that you offer is products?
(34:05):
is an exciting way for us tolook at how we want to position
ourselves in the future.
Marley (34:09):
Oh man, it just, it makes me like excited to think about how
like I've played a part in that.
I.
I think when we were at sea otter lastyear when we released the first Marley
capsule collection, just people comingup and saying, Oh my God, I'm so excited
that you guys are working together andnot to toot my own horn, but it's been
really cool to interact with folks who,either didn't know about Shredley before
(34:32):
we started working together and I'veintroduced them to the brand or people
who were longtime fans of Shredleywho were like, Oh, I love them even
more now because of our partnership.
And it's just, it's cool.
Ashley (34:42):
Yeah, I totally agree.
And one of my favorite things aboutworking events with Marley, is she
just calls people out that are walkingby and doing what she did at first
oh, I bet they don't have my size.
She'll see someone look out ofthe corner of their eye and be
like, I bet we have your size!
And she'll call them over.
And so Marley brings somany people into the fold.
And what I loved about being atSeattle with Marley was All the
(35:03):
people that came to fangirl on her,
Ellen (35:06):
Okay.
Ashley (35:06):
they were, it was amazing because they were all bodies,
different sizes, different shapes.
And it was amazing to me thatpeople just they want to support
a brand that offers all sizes.
They want to support Marleyfor her mission of just making
people feel like they belong.
And so we do, we have so muchsynergy there and it's such a
magical partnership that I lovethat people appreciate that they see
(35:28):
where a natural fit for each other.
Cause I totally agree.
Marley (35:31):
Yeah.
It's, it sounds funny that I'm likeheckling people of we've got your size.
Like I'm a carnival caller, but it is likeas a fat woman, as a bigger bodied person,
I know that look in somebody's eyes whenyou look and you see the booth and you're
like, Oh, that stuff is really cool,but I'm sure they don't have my size.
And you can just, you canread it on people's faces.
When we were at Sea Otter, we wrote on thesign, like sizes, double zero through 24.
(35:52):
And try not to be pushy aboutit, but really letting folks know
that Yes, we really do have yoursize and it's, it will likely fit.
And I don't think we had anybodycome through that we didn't have
something that would work forthem, which was incredibly cool.
Ashley (36:04):
And I don't know if I told you Marley, but we have this amazing
email after from a woman who said I'mnot your average cyclist, my body's
built, not like your lean cyclist.
And I had so much fun at the Shedley boothand you made me feel like I belonged.
You made me feel like I was.
Kind of an insider.
And I was really nervous toeven go to see Otter by myself.
Cause I felt like I was a poser and thefact that we can make somebody feel like
(36:28):
they belong, like that's so powerful.
Not every brand can do that authentically.
So I'm super grateful thatwe are able to do that for
Marley (36:35):
Yeah it's such a cool thing.
Well, I can't, you say you're buzzing?
Ellen (36:39):
So it's warm fuzzies.
Marley (36:40):
we're buzzing.
We gotta get you in someShredly stuff, Ellen.
I think you would love it.
And they do make Littles and yourkiddo would look incredibly cute
in some dinosaur print stuff.
Ellen (36:50):
Oh my god, I'm going.
I'll go right now.
Marley (36:52):
Ta da!
Ellen (36:53):
You guys finish this.
I'm going to do some e shopping.
Marley (36:56):
Perfect.
Well, wrapping up we talkedabout shorts a lot but Shredly
makes all sorts of stuff now.
So can you talk about that alittle bit and maybe where the
future of the brand is going?
Silence.
Ashley (37:35):
and our shorts seamlessly transition off the bike.
And so other products thatkind of help fill those gaps.
Has been really fun to design,which actually allows me to focus
on some of my creativity originally,that wasn't so outdoor focused.
So really being able to bring somestyle into lifestyle products.
So you'll see more of thatfrom us, but also finding
ways to make cycling more fun.
(37:57):
So shorts is not a new thing.
You can't reinvent the wheelof shorts all the time.
Yes, you can bring fresh new patterns andcolors, but what else can we do to make
cycling more fun.
And that's, those are theproducts that we're focusing on.
Those are the products thatare selling really well.
So like our biker sham with thescalloped edge very different
in the space, very unique.
And then our romper is an example.
(38:17):
Like how do we make cycling more fun?
Who doesn't want towear a romper on a bike?
And one thing that I can tease rightnow that we're launching this spring is
Again, like using your critics to makeyour products better Some people were
straight up angry when we launched theromper like about how they were going
to pee And so we have figured out a waythat they can pee and they don't have
(38:38):
to take the top off So that's a hint
Ellen (38:42):
To be fair, revolutionary for rompers.
We have now transcended cycling.
Ashley (38:49):
Exactly.
I know.
Totally.
I'm so super excited about that.
So really, and also always just keepingtop of mind, like, how can we use this
in many ways, solve the problems thatwe have in cycling, make really great
product for cycling, but then how dowe get bonus points if you can use
it for more things than just cycling?
Like Marley, you were talking aboutthe jumpsuit, the black jumpsuit.
(39:11):
I'm wearing it right now.
We know tons of people wear it for date.
Yeah.
Like date nights.
So how, like how amazing if youcan make products for cycling that
people are wearing for date night.
That really excites me as a designer.
And so I feel like there's always thatchallenge of like, how creative can I get
with this without losing any functionality
Marley (39:29):
Yeah.
Well, my last question, and Idon't know if Ellen has any more,
but and I feel like Guy Raz.
Do you have a question?
Listen to how I built this on NPR.
Yeah.
I feel like Guy Raz as I askedthis, but for other folks who might,
see a need in their community andOh, I'm going to start a business.
Ashley did this incredible thing.
What would your advice be to them?
Ashley (39:47):
Oh, my gosh.
I have so much advice for them.
First of all, I think, doyou ever watch shark tank?
Marley (39:52):
Occasionally.
Ashley (39:53):
Okay.
So if you watch that and you cananswer a lot of those questions,
like I can just imagine Mr.
Wonderful being like,it's too easy to rip off.
Don't do it.
You really have to ask yourselvesthose questions because I do see a
lot of people that so badly want tostart a business in a certain space.
But I think the product has to be pulledfrom the market So if it's not solving
a problem in the market and if someoneelse is already doing it Then I really
(40:15):
challenge those people like really besuper thoughtful if you were to start
a kickstarter campaign, do you thinkit would be successful and we that was
like our first litmus test Was that,
we are asking the public to supportthis product and if our project is not
successful, I think that means something.
So have a few litmus tests so thatyou can test the space because
(40:36):
it is hard to start a business.
It is not easy.
You will not get a lot of sleep.
Money will always be hard tofigure out your financing.
And so your product hasto be really strong.
And then you have to have tonsof passion to, to get through
all of those ebbs and flows.
And so I, that is maybe a littlebit vague, but I cannot stress how
important I feel like that is to really,you have to have the killer product.
Marley (41:00):
I think that is perfect advice.
It all starts with the product.
Ellen (41:04):
Yeah, well, and having a way to know, it's like, when do you cut
and run or when do you keep going?
Yeah I don't have anything to add Marley.
Thank you for bringing me into this otherthan Yes, these rompers are hella cute
and it's like I already wanted one Butthen the one I'm looking at has little
embroidery on the back pocket first of allhas a back pocket Second of all has very
(41:26):
cute embroidery on the back pocket that Iam probably gonna have to go by and third
of all this website on the front pageThe picture that you chose for a bike,
like behind the bike, go into this stuff.
It's a woman coming down a mountain bikingbridge and she is almost like at 180
degree angle and it's just a badass photo.
(41:47):
So I'm, if you go to Shredly's websitefor nothing else than that photo,
it's well worth it because it feelsempowering and I don't mountain bike.
So it's, I think it's just a good way ofshowing that you're here because there's.
Marley said, like it's more of a movement.
It's more about making sure peoplefeel good on what they're doing and
how, like when they want to do it.
Yay.
(42:07):
I'm very pleased to have been,I didn't really look at much of
Shredly before we did this call.
So, sorry, don't tell Marley.
I didn't do my homework, but
Ashley (42:19):
Look at that real life conversion.
Everyone is witnessing this.
Ellen (42:22):
exactly, but it's it's fun and it's flirty and it's, it looks
like something I want to wear.
Ashley (42:27):
That's
Marley (42:28):
And it's durable.
I have taken a couple of spillsand tumbles in my gear and it
is durable, which is great andgreat customer support team.
Thank you so much, Ashley.
Thanks for our partnership andthanks for coming on the podcast.
I can't believe wehaven't done this sooner.
Ashley (42:39):
Oh my gosh.
I know.
Thank you so much for having me.
I have to give my team a shout outbecause Alan, the things that you were
appreciating on the website, that'sCanberra, the customer care team
that you gave a shout out to Marley.
That's Megan.
So a shout out to them because theydefinitely help make all the magic.
And thank you so much for having me.
I'm so honored to be here.
Ellen (42:59):
Thank you.
Marley (42:59):
Thank you.
Yay.
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