Hi guys! Happy Friday!

I got a new phone this week, and it inspired a much-needed camera roll cleanout. 52,700 photos seems excessive, no?  What started as a lot of deleting turned into a fun walk down memory lane, so I thought I’d drop some of the gems that have never seen the light of day.

Along with some practical findings — a reminder of great outfits I’d forgotten about — this scroll also resurfaced weird, delightful throwbacks from the set of Dickinson, a vintage photo of my grandparents I’m obsessed with, bts from a music video that never came out, and the time I accidentally found myself in a British tabloid dressed in a catsuit. As they say, a picture's worth a thousand words, but here you’ll get the contextual what, when, and why behind them. Think of it as a mini show-and-tell before I perma-delete or throw ‘em on a hard drive.

Photo by Molly Matalon for WSJ. Magazine

Hi! Okay, first things first, I'd love to know the story of how you started Outdoor Voices. I read you have a background in fashion design and come from a family of entrepreneurs, but I'd love to know how this idea and concept came together for you.

I grew up in Boulder, Colorado, which is my home base now...Have you been here before?

Never!

It's cool. The city is at the base of the Flatirons, which are these mountains that people hike multiple times a day. It's a super outdoorsy, nature-centric place where people hike, bike, and kayak as literally their mode of transportation. Ever since I was a tiny kid, this recreational world and the ‘Doing Things’ philosophy have been what I've known.  

Then I decided to move to New York for college. I went to Parsons. But going from an outdoorsy place where I played sports with a team and had practice to keep me active, to art school in New York, I quickly didn't recognize myself anymore. By my second year, I was like, okay, I have to find a way to sweat and make endorphins and be active. I tapped back into my need to find happiness and really myself, through movement. 

I recognized that there was an opportunity for a [clothing] brand to really free fitness from performance. To take the athlete, performance-centered brand and flip it on its head and prioritize getting people moving for the fun of it—with friends, with smiles, with dogs.

So I started OV at 23, grew it to over 100 million in eight years, and then I left...I don't know if you're familiar, but it was a big PR moment. So now, five years later, I get to rejoin and get this chapter two.

What would you say brought you back?

‘Doing Things’ is so in me. It's really the purpose: that movement can be an antidote to so much of the physical and mental negativity that we all experience. What we were able to create in the first inning is so alive and well that I knew if I could find the right construct and partners for this second version, it definitely felt like a pursuit worth reactivating.

A step back for whatever reason — good, bad, or indifferent — can help you realign with your original purpose. I've been a fan of Outdoor Voices forever, and this version feels like a positive revamp that really has your stamp on it, so that's exciting. Quickly, how did you come up with the name Outdoor Voices?

I initially worked with a friend in school called Matt, who was a graphic designer. We were sitting at a beer garden in New York one day, and he just came up with it. We call it OV, but credit to him on the name. It felt expansive and bigger than yourself, like being in nature.

What's your favorite part about being an entrepreneur? I feel like it takes a certain type of purpose that thrives in some chaos — is that you? Where do you think that comes from?

Ha! I am the queen of chaos with my kids and everything. I don't think I have a choice. I love having a vision and taking it from zero to one. I've been a builder forever; that’s just in my nature. I have a lot of energy, so I have to put it to good use. 

You briefly spoke about the name and Outdoor Voices feeling bigger than us; there definitely is an 'us' — it feels like a community. That's been my goal and keyword when building Beau Society; I wanted it to feel like a community. Do you have any advice for running a business that is first and foremost a community? 

I've spent a lot of time playbooking the community aspect of what worked with OV. I don't know if you're familiar, but I also have a company called Try Your Best, which is a community engagement and rewards platform for the best consumer brands. I made a tool that I wished I'd had in the first inning of Outdoor Voices to really orchestrate and engage with people in this close way. That's what I see the best brands having: a community as a moat. 

There are four themes. It's a little formulaic, but this is how I think about it:

1.    Very clear articulation of your purpose and reason for being. With Outdoor Voices, it's 'Get the world moving,' and people connect to that.

2.    Ritual for activation. So both online and offline, or IRL, consistent drumbeats of these moments where you're convening with your community, allowing them to meet one another—that's really where the strength comes. An Outdoor Voices version is all our local events, which get amplified on social and feel big.

3.    Connection. Creating a hub where these fans can connect over their shared love for what you've built. A flywheel really takes off when you're able to do that.

4.    Rewarding superfans, the most obsessed, and loyal customers for their contributions and loyalty over time.

Those four things are how I think about the magic of community really becoming the core part of business.

That makes so much sense. I am also very formulaic when it comes to this stuff, so it's fun to hear you break it down that way. We launched Beau Society a little over a year ago, but I'm technically several years into it, and I'm geeking out talking to another female founder right now. There’s such a big world behind everything that you do and everything that I've been doing that people don't see, but it's so exciting to dig into it.

So I'd love to talk about the new OV Hike collection. You've mentioned where you grew up and being outside, but I'd love to hear you talk about the inspiration.

It's funny, a lot of people ask about our competitors and talk about a 'saturated space,' and I think in a lot of ways, leggings are saturated. Of course, we have leggings, which may be foundational for your lifestyle, but where we're playing quite creatively, and really what can salt the senses in an inspiring way for people are these activity-specific capsules. A few weeks ago, we launched the Equestrian capsule, and it did amazingly well. I think it's just fun — and we've always done this to an extent — to lean into hero activities that you're not necessarily seeing Nike sponsor. Like, the niche and specific one that other [brands] won't touch. 

For example, many years ago, we merchandised a collection for dog walking. Reddit had a conniption over it, which ultimately was quite funny to me. But I like to go activity-specific. This is actually our first hike-specific collection, and it's fun to pay homage to the hero styles from Patagonia, for instance.

"The cool thing — and why OV turning back on feels right for people — is that I'm designing products for myself and my friends."

Do you find that these are activities that you're personally interested in right now, or do you have a running list that you pull from?

I'm very instinctive. The cool thing — and why OV turning back on feels right for people — is that I'm designing products for myself and my friends. I have a very clear POV about what we like, and that's a good compass. In each of these capsules, we're very much trying to introduce styles that surprise people. For instance, the Cowgirl Jean and the Ride Pant—these wouldn't be what a traditional activewear brand makes. In this Hike collection, we have a Hiking Jean — that will come out in the second drop — but in concept, I was thinking about Santa Fe and turquoise. Some styles are like, Made you look! Or, is that for real!?

I'm a big vintage clothing girl, and I read — on Wikipedia, so this might be completely inaccurate — that you have some background in vintage clothing. Is that true?

Well, I made my own clothes for school. I've always been into clothes. My mom and aunt are twins, and they had a resortwear company that they ran for 30 years. It was a family business. I was always like, I don't want to deal with apparel and inventory and that type of thing. But here we are.

All the imagery for this collection feels candid. How did you create these visuals?

Documentary production is something I think about a lot. With the assets, it was like, How do we find people who actually do these things? Tavia, one of the girls in the images, is an adventure girl. She happened to be going to Switzerland, so we sent her some OV looks and let her capture them on her own. Now more than ever, leaning into real people who are experts in what they do just feels ownerable and correct for us. 

It's such an amazing way to help create the brand identity. It's not a model trying to re-enact a story that they've never played in their life.

Right, that's what most brands do, and that's fine; maybe people don't know that difference. But it's definitely something we're highly conscious of.

Our models are Tavia Bonetti, who's awesome and has her own fashion line. There's a girl called Emi Matsushima who's outdoors all the time, and she took OV to the Sierra Nevadas. Then the third model is a friend of ours from LA who just happened to be going to the mountains. They were all just wearing OV and sending back snaps—which feels like a pretty fun way to do it.

It feels like those three women you just mentioned might be the answer to this question, but is there an OV girl?

I don't know if we coined this, but it feels like we did: the Recreationalist. It's a Renaissance girl who's curious and interested in trying a lot of things. I'm very big on the beginner's mindset and a willingness to try something new that you might end up being deeply committed to. I think it's also this attraction to the ‘Doing Things’ mindset.

I know I'm feeling better when I'm active, but I'm not obsessing over how I look. I like what I wear, but it's not about having sex appeal at the gym. In that, we've focused on reactivating the original millennial woman, maybe a mom, like myself, but then also starting to introduce Gen Z into this ‘Doing Things’ philosophy. It's more of a mindset than a specific demo, but she's like the cool recreationalist into active things. 

"I'm very big on the beginner's mindset and a willingness to try something new that you might end up being deeply committed to."

I love that mindset. What are your favorite pieces from this collection? What do I need?

The RecTrek Zip Pants with the stripe of color are very cool. Then the Waffle Long-Sleeve, which we have a lot of mineral blues and greens. I think the combo of technical synthetic — because there is a proper place for synthetic materials — mixed with cotton and merino natural fibers is really what this collection does well. I think that where activewear and sportswear are going is a big deal: It's not just a stretchy spandex top and bottom all the time, it’s more interesting pieces. This Candy Fleece is awesome, too. [Ed. Note: Ty is wearing the blue Candy Fleece on our Zoom call.]

The last thing I'll say about this collection and this chapter for Outdoor Voices is that it felt like, in the first innings, to be taken seriously as an activewear brand with clothes meant to sweat in, we had to just make the stretchy top and bottom. Now, it might be my maturing or just a sign of the times, but I feel so comfortable outfitting the whole recreational lifestyle. It has become such a fun place to play. 

It must feel amazing to get to that place of confidence. You mentioned that it could be a lot of things, but I think you do kind of grow into that—you don't come out with it right out the gate. 

Being kicked out of the company I started was definitely a gift, as hard as it was to see initially. 

What does your day-to-day look like now?

My main focus is on TYB, which, if you haven't checked it out, you should; it might be an interesting tool for you. I'm technically a software tech CEO. I joke, I went from soft wear to software. I spend time between SF and Boulder. My teams in SF. That's where my main focus is, and then OV is like a creative outlet cherry on top. We've been able to reconvene a lot of the original creative team, and so it feels easy in just the right way for me. Also, I have kids...do you have kids? Not yet? 

I do not have kids, but let's talk about that. How do you juggle family time with your work?

I'm really good at prioritizing. I just have a running list of my three most important things that I’ll spend time on. They change in real time,  but that's the key for me. 

Do you find that your kids inspire you in TYB or OV?

It's interesting, so my daughter Sunny is five years old, and they've never heard of Outdoor Voices. In our first video, when I rejoined, I led with them. Sunny was asking 'What is Outdoor Voices?' I thought it was quite cool, generationally, to have the opportunity to introduce them. 

But I take them to work and integrate them. I think it's cool for them, I hope, to see someone really committed to doing a great job and building things that matter. 

Do you find any full-circle moments, growing up with a mom and aunt in the fashion design world, and now introducing your kids to that world through OV? 

My mom and aunt are very into color, so I found myself being very tuned into color, like fuchsia, from a young age. Sunny has picked that up. Actually, we have a piece coming out in February that she did the doodles for. It's going to be very cute. We're introducing the first kid-size exercise dress. It's been very cool to feed off that youthful energy.

Besides this amazing collection, what else is inspiring you lately? 

This is a little separate, but the idea of female founders is exciting me! Seeing a lot of people like myself who got knocked off the horse — Audrey Gelman et certera, who also got brutally taken down — to reemerge and have another shot…I hope that reawakens an interest in girls wanting to build businesses and brands. Hopefully, that turns things back on. I think about that a lot and the role I play in representing that. 

Also, animals and pets. I have 15 suddenly. I have three horses, a mini pony, and chickens. It’s totally insane. I think I have a problem. But that seems to be where I'm tapping into the peace within all the chaos.

That’s my dream. Ty, I cannot thank you enough. I know you have so much going on with this collection and your kids and family, but this is so exciting for me. 

Everything OV Hike rocks (no pun intended), but I pulled my favorite pieces here to help you shop.

TO WATCH: The trailer for Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost. Can’t wait for this to come out.

TO EAT: A high-protein, high-fiber breakfast.

TO LISTEN TO: New Olivia Dean album! Been listening to “Man I Need” on repeat in the car.

TO REMEMBER: “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”― Jane Goodall

Love, 

Hailee (Beau)

Highlighting your comments on the previous week’s issue. Today, we hear Falon’s response to Sharing my camera roll before I delete some pics.

“Loved this issue. There's definitely something special about scrolling deep down into your photo album. I'm impressed that you reflect back on past looks with such grace and admiration. So many of us, myself included, look back and cringe at what was or what is now. We compare ourselves to others so often, but sometimes it's just as harmful to compare ourselves to our past selves. Refreshing to see you embrace every version of Hailee! I need to start embracing every version of Falon!” -Falon

Thanks for reading!!

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