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Natural Perspectives

Stio Chief Product Officer, Kelly Hill Reflects on Mountain Communities and Natural Product Inspiration

By Stio

For Kelly Hill, Stio chief product officer, her environment and her work are completely and inspiringly intertwined. Migrating to Jackson from Montana, Kelly adopted a community that blended a small-town feel with a world-class charge. It’s the continual influences from mountain athletes, outdoor landscapes and active reflection that has informed the product lines she has shaped since our brand’s inception. For her, it’s both natural moments and careful observation that provides clarity and insight into evolutions, innovations and adaptations of our products.

From short vertical hikes and crisp Nordic skis to waking up in a camper way off the grid, it's the time outside that allows her space to process dialog, strategize direction and shape the lines to match the mountain life. “If I want a color palette, I can just do a mental snap. If I want to understand products, I can just think about what I'm doing and what's working. If I'm thinking who's the audience, who's the customer, I just look around and there are these people that are surrounding me doing the same things and engaged in the same activities. So, it's not really effort, it's just the answer,” Kelly says. “What I always come back to is that it's just right in front of me. There's so much in this place that is inspiring that just literally, in the moment, it's all in front of you. Just pausing to take it in is what's so important because you can be out there and not pay attention.”

We sat down with Kelly to learn more about how getting active outside informs her outlook, how living in a mountain town inspires her and why she is focused on raising her kids with a connection to nature.

How did you land in Jackson and what brought you to town?

I always laugh thinking about this. I moved to Jackson in 2001, and at that time town was definitely a little different. The ratios were still mostly men, not as many women, and at the same time it was still a resort location, so everyone moved here to ski.

I moved in September of 2001, actually a week before 9/11. But I started meeting people and I am an exception. I moved to Jackson for a job, not to ski. I was working at the Gap in Montana and was ready for a life change, so I moved to cover a maternity leave and had this short-term contract basically.

I could just cover the leave and then return home if I wanted or stick around. I had to carry us through that first winter, so I was here for the ski season and started skiing more, and then I got my first taste of summer. And summer in Jackson Hole is incredible, so that's what kept me here and I have been here ever since.

Looking back, there's some nostalgia to what Jackson was, but in your view, what makes living in a mountain town different?

When I was at the Gap it was the basics shop, if you needed socks or t-shirts, that's where you went. So fast forward to today, I still see those same customers in the grocery store and I still can smile and nod. I still remember two daughters coming in when they were in elementary school looking for their new outfits. In some cases, in many cases, those kids now have kids of their own and then the moms are grandmas. I love that rhythm of the local beat and running into the same faces.

It's a wave on a road. If you're the only two cars passing, you're waving to that person. If you're out on the dike walking, you're greeting them. I have always lived in communities like that, so interconnectedness is a present for me in my life. But, I realize that when I leave Jackson, that is not the case. You don't always make eye contact and smile and acknowledge passersby.

I definitely think there's a simplicity that comes with living in mountain spaces that I really appreciate and resisted when I first moved. I had all the behaviors of mall shopping and going to Target, and without access to all those places, you find different ways to spend your time. You might just read a book or go walk around the block instead of meandering from shop to shop, so you end up needing less overtime. Everything that you acquire you want to have meaning and value and function; you don't want to create space for clutter so it is a very simple space that I really have grown to love.

“In this community, and this is still true today, there is still that drive and that grind, but it’s just very different. It’s intrinsic.”

How do you think your influences are different living in Jackson than from when you were in Montana?

I thought I would leave and want a big city and want the complexities and the fast pace and the grind that you imagine a professional career lending itself to. And what I found was in this community, and this is still true today, there is still that drive and that grind, but it's just very different. It's intrinsic. It's like PRs. It's balancing work and life. You want to have a two-sport day and then you're also surrounded by people that bang ten-hour workdays and do amazing things.

So, what I appreciate in the contrast is by starting in Montana where I thought it was so small, and I grew up in Billings, which we call the metropolis of Montana, and moving to something even smaller, I've found that I was more challenged here than I ever would have been in a bigger space. I think it would have been easier to hide in a city, and in this community, I found it was important for me to explore what I wanted to do with my time, how good I wanted to be at whatever it was I was doing, and then really push myself to excel in different ways than I would have found otherwise.

Why is it so important for you to live and work close to nature, having daily contact with the environment around you?

I like the contrast of spaces. I really appreciate walking, running, biking, hiking, whatever my activity is, and getting outside. But what I will never do is just go walk around the neighborhood. And with Jackson being Jackson, I don't ever have to. I can go up. I can get vertical. I can sweat in no time at all. There are several peaks on the outskirts of town and you can imagine yourself there in 30 minutes or 40 minutes.

It helps reinforce the idea, that if I didn't live here, would I look at that obstacle and find it insurmountable? But because I'm here, I understand how to break it down and tackle it and charge. That practice, that ability to persevere and push and grind, is a really important connection to this place, the vertical if you will.

I love, again, the contrast. I sit at a desk and I can work for hours and I find that rewarding. I like work. I love my job. And then, because I can balance it with a really high-quality connection outside, I feel recharged every time I come back inside.

I connect a lot. I talk a lot all day, every day. So, in my personal life, I'm not nearly as chatty. I find silence to be comforting, and nature affords me that. I definitely value the connection and want to make sure that I can afford my kids that. That's a really important thing to me.

Even if it's just playing cards at a picnic table, being outside and not in front of a screen or inside your head too much, I think it's a really important bond to build. You have to start it early to really have it embedded in everything that you do.

“I can see the red and green leaf that’s so bright and poppy against the gravelly brown dirt path of the trail. I’ll stop for those moments because they just are so powerful. ”

When you're out in those surroundings and you feel that silence, how does it influence your creative process?

I almost always digest color. I can see the red and green leaf that's so bright and poppy against the gravelly brown dirt path of the trail. I'll stop for those moments because they just are so powerful. Or, when the sun is hitting the hillside in just a certain way it turns from this dull tone to a bright, bold clear note of yellow. I think that those color influences are so, so important.

I also think connecting what you're doing with what you're wearing and why is another really important thing. Obviously, not everything requires a specialized piece of clothing to perform. But, if you have great options that can move you through places and spaces, whether they're indoor, outdoor or ideally both, you are so much more likely to engage, stay out there and get out there again because you had a great experience.

I think a lot about what people are wearing, what am I seeing out on the trail, what am I experiencing in my skin, in my clothes, what am I seeing, what am I smelling, all those things I take in on each of those journeys.

What are your favorite activities to do outside in Jackson?

I love hiking, love it, and I’m a much better short and sweet hiker. I’m not like an eight-hour epic hiker, but I really love hiking. I don’t run and I find the incline to be just the right mix of challenge and can elevate my heart rate. I feel productive when I get to the top of something. So, I love that.

“I want to have my eyes up, my ears open, and my senses at the ready to bring in anything that’s presenting itself.”

Can you describe any specific creative inspirations you've had while in outdoor spaces?

I think what I always come back to is that it's just right in front of me. There's so much in this place that is inspiring that just literally, in the moment, is all in front of you. Pausing to take it in is what's so important because you can be out there and not pay attention.

I typically don't have headphones in because I want to hear the sounds. I want to have my eyes up, my ears open, and my senses at the ready to bring in anything that's presenting itself. I think that is the reinforcement, it's all right in front of me. It's just right there.

The simplicity of it all?

Totally. Because if I want a color palette, I can just do a mental snap. If I want to understand products, I can think about what I'm doing and what's working. If I'm thinking about who's the audience, who's the customer, I just look around and there are people surrounding us or surrounding me doing the same things, engaged in the same activities. So, it's not really effort. It's just the answer. If you keep coming back to that guiding light of "we're here and we know why we're here," that's what people want from the brand. As long as we can really, authentically deliver that, then it's all right there.

Can you describe one thing in nature that you feel is just the perfect evolutionary design, something that you always appreciate?

I always love leaves. I don't know when that started, but I love the classic aspen leaf picture when they go from the green to the different faded colors. I don't limit myself to aspen leaves, but I think that leaves are so cool. I love their ability to change the way that they function, the shedding of water, the capturing of light.

My husband makes fun of me because we do not have a single living plant in the house, not one. That's because there are lots of them outside. So, we don't need to bring the outside in, but we do have a bunch of twigs. I have branches. That's the decor of choice for me, and unfortunately, they’re always brown and they're not alive, but I love it. And I think for me, those branches are the connection to the leaves that I love so much.

Why is it important for you to raise your kids close to nature?

So many reasons. As a brand, we talk about being caretakers and I think that I need to raise caretakers. This place that we live may not exist if we're not thinking about what we're doing, how we're building and how we're growing. I think raising caretakers is so valuable from a mental point of view. Sharing the need to protect our environment and preserve the places we play. And that protection doesn't mean just conservation. It means the thoughtful application of whatever it is we want to do here. So, I think making sure that my kids value place is super, super important, and then creating this idea that we have to care for it is really important. Not only the nature of plants and geography but also the wildlife and understanding where we put roads.

I don't know if you've been following 399, but 399 is the famous grizzly bear. She has four cubs and she has been up in the Tetons all her life. That's her habitat, and suddenly for the last month or so, she's been down in the valley.

And it's super intense, right, because there's livestock, but there's also garbage cans, humans and cars. What happens if they get habituated or it's dark and they're crossing the street? The wildlife aspect is super important as well. It informs development, infrastructure, spending and all those big lofty things that are in the adult world. I want my kids to have an appreciation for nature and all the things under that umbrella.

“One of our core tenets is the idea of one tool, many uses, and keeping things simple.”

On the product side, can you tell me how Stio’s perspective and your design are inspired by the natural world?

We talk a lot about our place, specifically Jackson Hole, and we explored a couple of years back the conceptual theme of mountaineering and the idea of the people that were born here, the people that migrated here. Ninety-seven percent of our land is public, three percent is private, what does that do to the access? We talk a lot about public spaces being the level set, you might go hike next to a millionaire or billionaire, but you're out in public lands and you equal all of a sudden.

We do explore where we are and try to use that to inform almost all the decisions. One of our core tenets is the idea of one tool, many uses, and keeping things simple. I think what our brand does so well is to marry function and silhouette, and they don't have to be mutually exclusive ideas. You don't need a clunky silhouette to have function, and you can, of course, embrace function and have a really elegant silhouette. Something that makes someone feel good, look great, and is durable, can stick around season after season.

If we think about Darwinism and survival of the fittest, the things that are built to last will last, and we want to be a part of that. We love thinking about the structures that nature is telling us about. We love thinking about animals and the features they have to stay outside in the weather, storms and through winter. So, there's a lot that goes into the way that Stio interprets nature into product.

What lessons from the natural world have you tried to inject into the product design at Stio?

As an example, layering is a great one, right? If you think about sheep, we'll use sheep because of their wool. They have skin that is pretty burly and durable, but it's covered in fiber. Each of those fibers, each of those little fuzzy fibers has a function and the form of it keeps the animal warm and clean. As you get to the outer surface it’s doing something very different than what it is doing right next to the skin.

I also think about drying. For example, ducks, I use down a lot. We see that down works for the duck and they're outside all the time, but when they get wet, they're weak. So, how do we address that? That's where synthetics come in from an insulation point of view.

There are, of course, some challenges within the outdoor space and creating plastic products, creating more polyester, etc. So, I think the idea of recycling and understanding that there is a finite amount of space highlights why we have to create more demand for recycling. I like connecting those ideas to the product as well.

We can take garbage out of the earth and put it into a jacket, so let's do that. Let's be a part of the pipeline that creates demand, but we're small. We're so small. We're nowhere near the impact or influence of some of the billion-dollar brands in our industry, but we know every little bit that we can do is worth doing. When it makes sense for the product, let's try to take landfill out of the earth and put it in a product.

Last question here, if you could thank nature for one thing, what would it be?

I think it would be water. The water, the water cycle, empowers so much of what we do and how we enjoy it. I love lakes. Rivers are so fantastic. The snow and enjoying everything from making a snowman to throwing a snowball to skiing. I think it would be water.