Women-led Startup Shefly Apparel Wins 2022 Outdoor Retailer Innovation Award

Female-founded outdoor clothing startup SheFly Apparel has won an Outdoor Retailer Innovation award for their Go There Pant. Led by co-founders Georgia Grace Edwards and Charlotte Massey, SheFly Apparel is a women’s apparel brand on a mission to provide products that make the outdoors more accessible for all. Their Go There™ Pant features a second, patented zipper (in addition to a traditional zipper) that allows everyone to ‘answer nature’s call’ and relieve themselves in the outdoors with comfort and safety. 

“Congratulations to all of this year’s finalists and winners of the Outdoor Retailer Innovation Awards,“ said Marisa Nicholson, Outdoor Retailer Senior Vice President and Show Director. “It was amazing to be back together in-person to celebrate the incredible work happening across the industry to help more people discover the joys of nature. These innovators found solutions and are inspiring others to both get outside and to keep thinking of creative ways we can all make an impact.”

This award was particularly meaningful for the SheFly team, who started attending the Outdoor Retailer show as college students, volunteering with other companies in order to get free access passes to the event. 

“We skipped class to fly to Denver, crashed on friend’s couches, and asked other brands to let us volunteer for them so we could get into the convention center and tell anyone who would listen about our zipper design idea. We were tiny fish in a huge pond, but we found early support and encouragement in a community of people committed to creating a more inclusive outdoor industry,” said Charlotte Massey, Co-Founder of SheFly. “Going from passing out handwritten business cards while wearing other brands’ pants with a DIY zipper sewn in, to being ushered on stage to receive one of the biggest awards in the industry was a testament to the brand we’re building and the change we are all creating together.” 

“It’s not every day you see your startup’s name appear on a list alongside so many established industry idols — from Smartwool and Oakley to Outside and YKK,” said Georgia Grace Edwards, fellow SheFly Co-Founder. “To be selected as a Finalist among the crowd of applicants was an honor; to be selected as a Winner is an absolute distinction we’re still pinching ourselves to believe.”

This has been an exceptional year for SheFly Apparel. In Spring 2021, they were chosen for the Moosejaw Accelerator, a highly competitive 8-week intensive business mentoring program for early-stage outdoor recreation companies, located in Gunnison and overseen by the ICELab at Western Colorado University. At the end of the program, SheFly won the $50,000 debt track supported by First Southwest Community Fund at the Greater Colorado Pitch Series. 

SheFly was then selected for the MassChallenge Accelerator, a global innovation accelerator program, where the team secured a Diamond Award in November 2021. This prestigious award, granted to only three startups among the 229 participating in the program, includes  a $100,000 equity-free cash prize. Additional information on the other MassChallenge winners can be found here. 

In early January 2022, SheFly officially announced the establishment of their Gunnison, Colorado. The town of Gunnison provided $75,000 in support of SheFly and the Economic Development Commission (EDC) increased the Strategic Fund incentive to $156,000 to secure SheFly’s headquarters – a rare move that demonstrated the commission’s high level of interest in the company.

SheFly Go There Pants are currently available for pre-sale with a shipping date of late spring 2022.

SheFly Apparel is a women’s apparel brand on a mission to ensure that everyone can relieve themselves outdoors with comfort and safety. Inspired by co-founder Georgia Grace’s experience struggling to pee while working as a glacier guide in Alaska, SheFly’s all-women founding team from Middlebury College in Vermont created pants that are actually designed with women’s anatomy in mind. Now SheFly is helping people everywhere “go” on the go and envisions a world where one day, people of all genders can feel comfortable, safe, and confident while spending time outdoors — whether at work or at play.