episode 15: RAQUEL VÉLEZ, ENTREPRENEUR & FOUNDER OF ALPINE PARROT

8 Dec 2022
Photo credits go to Sarah Sherman and Raquel Vélez
In this episode I talk with Raquel Vélez, outdoor apparel entrepreneur and founder of Alpine Parrot who was named one of Outside Magazine's Outsider of the Year 2021. Raquel shared how her love for the sport of skiing, which she only picked up in her late twenties, was the catalyst for her entrepreneurial journey into the world of outdoor apparel. Though she always knew she'd start her own company some day, doing so in the outdoor industry was not on her radar. Let alone the apparel industry. Raquel openly shared the challenges and difficulties she's face in a still "male and pale" sector but also what has made a difference in succeeding. Much of her great advice isn't only for the outdoor apparel industry but for anyone considering an entrepreneurial journey.

BEST PLACE TO FOLLOW RAQUEL AND LEARN MORE ABOUT HER:

www.alpineparrot.com

​SHOWNOTES

* Music by Olexy from Pixabay
* Features in this podcast: Raquel Vélez* Mentioned in this episode:* Complete our Audience Poll and help us get to know you, the listener, better.

​TRANSCRIPT

I'm Charlaine Jannerfeldt and you're listening to about that outdoor job.

"A few months later I was in New Zealand presenting at a tech conference and I was so burnt out. And I was so tired and all I wanted to do was go outside and hang out and go hiking and, and I turned to my husband and I was just like, I just wanna make pants. I wanna go make clothes for people like me so we can go outside. So that there are no more barriers for us to have fun and relax cause I love being outside. It is so calming and so nurturing. And he was like, "Okay". And I'm sure to this day he is kind of a little bit like "I can't believe I said okay so easily" because I took it and ran."

This is Raquel Vélez, outdoor entrepreneur and founder of Alpine Parrot, an outdoor apparel company that caters specifically to bigger bodies. She was named one of Outside Magazine's Outsider of the Year 2021. If you told 12 year old Raquel she'd one day be starting her own company, she'd have affirmed "Of course I am". If you told her she'd be a leader in the outdoor apparel space, she'd have called you nuts.

Raquel was starting your own company a dream you always had?

"Ooh, that's a really interesting question because, so I grew up with entrepreneurs as parents, right? So my mother started her own company I think within a year or two of me being born. As far as I'm concerned, I've always been surrounded by entrepreneurs my entire life. So it wasn't so much of a dream as just like an inevitable: "Okay, well, when I'm done working for the man, I will work for myself."  And fun fact, Alpine Power it's not my first company; it's actually my third. I wouldn't say that it was something that was a dream of mine, it's just "Okay, we'll eventually get there." The question is more, what will my company be?" 

And though you didn't know what your company would be, was it obvious to you it would be part of the outdoor industry?

"No, not at all. Not at all. I didn't grow up in the outdoors. My family is from Puerto Rico. I use that as as a reference point because for my family, the idea of planning a trip to go outside was kind of weird. You're surrounded by all this incredible beauty in nature and it's just something you do. It's not this concept of of getting backpacks and figuring out like what's your trail and what are your various refresh points. Like none of that was a thing. It was "Oh yeah, let's go to the waterfalls this weekend. Oh yeah, let's go to the beach." or whatever. So I grew up with that same mentality of there's beautiful things around us, let's just go check it out. This idea of planning to go outside was not a thing. So I often will joke the idea of voluntarily sleeping on the ground outside in the cold and spending more money than you would to say spent at a hotel for a night is just completely preposterous. It was not my parents' definition of success. When you sleep on the ground outside in the cold, it's because something has gone horribly wrong.

I didn't consider myself outdoorsy at all until I was in my mid to late twenties, I would say. And that was after college as I was meeting my now husband and he was like "Let's go for a hike." And I was like "Okay, let's just go wonder." And he was like "No, no. We should actually like plan for that." And I was like "That doesn't make any sense. Why would you do that?"

Okay. Let's take a step back. Before Raquel embarked on the entrepreneurial route, she was a successful engineer. She'd completed her bachelors of science in mechanical engineering at Caltech, started her career in robotics and then moved into the tech world.

4:00
"I chose mechanical engineering because it's like arts and crafts with big machines. I love being arty and crafty. I love making things with my hands and when I moved into software I missed that. I missed the tactile nature of arts and crafts and mechanical engineering is solving those types of problems. And so I was looking for something to do and I hate buying jeans. I think that there's a universal feeling around jeans and swimsuits. No one likes buying those because they never fit, right? And like when you do find that one perfect fitting pair, you have to buy as many as you possibly. Or hope that they don't like fall apart ever. So I thought to myself "You know what? I have a degree in mechanical engineering. How hard could it possibly be to make my own pair of jeans?"

Mind you, I never learned how to sew when I was in middle school. I had to choose between Home Ec, which is where you learn how to cook and sew, and wood shop, where you get to like make things with wood and use powerful machines. I chose wood shop so I can neither cook nor sew. I've since remedied one of those things. I I took a class in, in sewing. It was a pillow making class, like I learned how to make a pillow. It's the most basic thing that you can possibly make. It's like, Five stitches all in straight lines, but at least you get the sense of like, you know, using math and all these. And I was like, I'm so good at this. This is gonna be great.

I'm just gonna go ahead and make a pair of jeans now. And my teacher at the time was like, good luck with that. We're rooting for you hilariously the exact same weekend that I learned how to sew. Was also my first real time learning how to ski. My husband and I were living in San Francisco at the time and he said "Let's go to Tahoe. I wanna learn how to ski." And I said "That's a terrible idea cause if you die on the mountain, no one will be there. And I will find out later that you're poor mangled body is gone." You know, like I just went to the extreme and he was like, okay or you come with me. And it was amazing. It was like an on off switch. I completely fell in love with skiing. It was painful. The boots didn't fit. I fell on my butt multiple times. It was snowing. There was a whole bunch of stuff that I was like, this is ridiculous, but just that feeling of flying down a mountain completely, it was like a drug. I just absolutely loved it. And so, that was kind of my gateway into what I'm gonna call the out outdoor industry like this planned idea of buying a bunch of gear to do an activity, et cetera. If you're gonna go skiing, you have to buy gear. You've gotta buy skis; you've gotta buy a helmet; you gotta buy clothes; you gotta buy poles; you know, boots for sure, all of it. 

Whenever you're starting something new, you learn with whatever you have access to. So I learned to ski in rain pants over a pair of sweatpants. I had a hoodie under a raincoat and then everything else I rented or borrowed, like that was just what I did. And, and that was great for the first few times. Cause I was like, okay, but before I commit to this, I'm gonna try this again. And again, I just kept loving it every single time. But I finally said "Okay. I need to invest in a pair of ski pants" like actual snow pants so that when I fall over, cause I always do, I don't have snow going down my backside and I went to my local shop and nothing fit me. And it was just the worst because when you're trying something new but then you can't find the gear that you need in order to keep you safe and comfortable doing it it's really hard not to walk away thinking "Oh, I guess it's just not for me.". I still went skiing by the way, even though I couldn't find ski clothes that fit. I found ones that fit good enough. But I loved skiing so much I was willing to put up with the poor fitting clothing just so that I could have fun, you know, flying."

8:05
So was it as easy as learn to ski, learn to sew, start making outdoor apparel?

"So when you're making clothes for yourself, you have a couple of options. The first very basic one is you buy patterns. You go to your local sewing shop and you buy these little patterns and you look to make sure like, what size should I be? And then you cut out fab pieces of fabric and you sew them together and you put 'em on. And hopefully it fits. It almost never does. Ever, ever, ever! It's just like ready wear. It's important to recognize that the designer of that pattern had a vision in their mind of who would be wearing those clothes when they designed it. If you don't match that person in terms of proportions and shape, it's not gonna fit you either. The benefit of having a a pattern already made is that you can actually manipulate it so that when you do put it on, it does fit you better cause you can't really do that with ready to wear. But I didn't like that option either.

I'm an engineer and while I did enjoy the puzzle piecing, sewing everything together, I got really tired of having to figure out "Okay, well, so then in order to adjust this pattern to my body, I have to make these different types of changes.". You know what? It would just be easier if I could go to first principles and just make my own patterns. So I learned how to make my own patterns. I started out online and then I found out that a top-notch pattern making school was literally two blocks away from my work. And so I signed up for that and started a pattern making course and I learned how to make my own patterns.  And let me tell you, when you put on clothes that are made for your body, it is a game changer, an absolute game changer! So many of us grow up thinking "Oh, my body is broken. I need to lose weight or gain weight, or change my shape just so that I can fit in because obviously I'm broken.". When you get clothes that actually fit your body, my you are suddenly royalty. You are royalty! And it's all the other clothes that are broken. You are perfect and it just feels amazing. Confidence skyrockets and it's just incredible. It's absolutely incredible.

Also in this course, there was a class in which we get to design an eight piece line, and we created these fake businesses. I mean, it's all drawing but I had this idea and it had a name and it had a customer. All these different things. And I designed an eight piece plus size women's skier line cause I wanted clothes that I could use to go skiing. And after I presented it, cause it's all fake and I was like "yeah, this is just for fun. It's no big deal."  my teacher pulled me aside and she said "You realise you need to do this." And I was like "No, no, no, no. I work in tech. I have a perfectly good paying job. And even though I am miserable, you know, it pays really well. I cannot afford to stop doing this.".  And she's like "Yes, yes. But you are your customer, and this customer is grossly underserved. They need this. And no one else is gonna make it as well as you do because no one is that customer in the same way that you are." 

That teacher, her comment, is that what plant the seed for Alpine Parrot?

11:30
"That really stuck something in my head. And a few months later I was in New Zealand presenting at a tech conference and I was so burnt out. And I was so tired and all I wanted to do was go outside and hang out and go hiking. I turned to my husband and I was just like "I just wanna make pants. I wanna go make clothes for people like me so we can go outside so that there are no more barriers for us to have fun." 

By the summer of 2019, Raquel had created the Alpine Parrot Company in the fall of 2019. She was already going to trade shows in February, 2020. She left her corporate job and embarked full-time on her I entrepreneurial journey in the outdoor apparel industry.

Raquel, I can't help but ask, why not just go pitch your idea to an already e established outdoor apparel brand? I mean, they would've had the know-how the resources, the distribution channels already in place at the time.

"Other brands were talking about plus size stuff but they didn't actually care. Then I realized that the, the branding that mattered the most to me, was not gonna be something that someone else was gonna do. You know, Alpine Parrot is more than just apparel. It's about really creating a community where people feel welcome to take up space. And you can't do that with someone else's words as effectively as you can with your own. So ultimately I was like, " "Nope, it's gotta be. It's gotta be me, cause if I don't do it no one else will to the level of greatness that I expect."

You told us your husband was a hundred percent behind you embarking on this journey. What about your parents and friends? What were their reaction? . 

"Honestly, I got nothing but full support from everybody. I think because the idea was so clear. I wasn't trying to do something that no one's ever heard of. Not trying to do anything that people are completely oblivious to. I was literally just adding more people into the pie. Like we know clothes are thing; we know people go outside; we know all of that. So I think that it was because it was such a clear idea. People are like, okay, that makes perfect sense."

14:10
I usually ask my guests on the podcast what a typical week is like in their outdoor jobs. But , I'm pretty sure your weeks aren't that similar to one another. 

"The thing about startups is that things are changing constantly, right? So what a week looks now versus a year ago versus two and a half years ago, it's very, very different. And I remember the very first few weeks of the company people were talking about a pandemic. But I was like "No, no, no. Surely this won't be that big of a deal." In February, 2020, I left my job so I could go full-time in Alpine Parrot. And then six weeks later, the entire world shut down. So it's been a really good and fun adventure."

A global pandemic that shut down much of the world for months. It stumped the global supply chain. It hit the global economy hard. Many of us would've shied away from opening a new company at that time. But not Raquel. She's told us before, she's a problem solver, but is that enough to drive success from the start?

You seem to have been clear about "the why" as author Simon Sinek would put it. How would you formulate your why?

"It's more than just make apparel. We're really trying to bring the outdoors to everyone. Make it a space for people to find joy and to be themselves, to take up space outside. Something that a lot of our customers felt like they couldn't do."

And being clear about the why of Alpine Parrot hasn't been the only use of why that's helped Raquel succeed.

15:40
What's clearly one skill you think that's made a huge difference in your entrepreneurial journey? 

"When I was trying to figure out what to study in university, my mother also an engineer, said "You can't go wrong with engineering because engineering teaches you how to think, it teaches you to keep digging. At the end of the day, it comes down to be willing to dig, to keep asking the questions. There's this idea software engineering called "The Five Whys": when something goes wrong you ask "Why? Why dit it go wrong?" And then you ask another why. It's kinda like talking to a five year old:. "But why?" And you're like, da, da, da, da. "Yeah, but why?" And then, well, because da, da, da, da. "But why?" And so that is actually a huge skill in figuring out "I have no idea what I'm doing, but I know where I'm trying to get to. So let's just keep digging.".  And eventually you get to a point where it's like "Oh, I can do that. I can figure that out." and then you get to to bubble up again. And now it's like "Okay, well I've figured that out so now I can use that to get me to this next bit.". And I'm talking extremely generally here, but it flies and it works for literally everything. And so it is analytical in in a lot of ways. But I think that it's a combination of analytics and creativity to say "Okay, well let's dig into the problem and then creatively how are we gonna get ourselves outta this hole?"  because lemme tell you, there are lots of holes, but then also lots of summits. It's really great. It's a rollercoaster being an entrepreneur."

​It comes back to that problem solving you seem to get really excited about in your work. Is that the number one thing that keeps you going when things get really hard?

There are two things. The first one is the problem solving aspect. I'll be like "Okay, wait, so here's a new problem. I don't know how to solve this. Let's figure it out. Let's dig in. Let's play with spreadsheets. Let's make some phone calls. Let's figure out what's going on.". But I think the thing that keeps me going, even when there isn't a new problem to solve, when it's just everything is hard, is seeing the impact. People will post on Instagram or they'll send us an email and they'll say things like "I never knew that I could have clothes that fit my body." Or "This is my first pair of hiking pants and I've been hiking since I was three.",  "I'm so happy I could cry.". Like, these are things that are just so impactful for me. On Instagram this weekend, there was a woman who was celebrating her 40th birthday and she was like "For my 45th birthday, I'm gonna hike four and a half miles." and she did it in our pants! I was like, "You are freaking adorable, first of all." and she's just so, like, the joy is radiating out of her. And the fact that she's wearing my pants, like the pants that I designed and that made her day, right? Those are the moments, those are the things that I keep thinking about and I'm like, these are the people I'm serving. This is what I'm doing. That keeps me going."

19:00
And though Raquel loves what she does and believes wholeheartedly in the why of Alpine Parrot, she doesn't sugarcoat the challenges and difficulties an entrepreneur faces. But again, as the problem solver that she is, she also has some great advice on how to deal with some of them. 

"Entrepreneurship it's very lonely. It's extremely lonely. It's so easy to think no one understands what it is that I'm doing. And I think someone told me like only 1% of the human population is an entrepreneur. I don't know that that's factual but I could believe it. You know cause like, think about it, do you have 99 friends who are not owning their own business? And the answer is yes. For every one entrepreneur friend I have, I have 99 friends not entrepreneurs.

But the thing that unites us is it's really hard. Entrepreneurship is really, really hard. And the good news is that I guarantee every single thing that you're experiencing in the hard times, someone else has experienced it too. It is not just you. Everybody has had days where they go, oh no, am I gonna make payroll? . Every single entrepreneur has had moments of "what do you mean there is no thread?". Cause that has literally happened to me. Literally everyone. And so if you can find other entrepreneurs, whether it's online or in person, I will call people and say "You know what? I really just need a reality check in right now.". And they will give it to you because they've been there too. And they'll call me and they'll be like "I'm having the worst day." and I'll be like "Cool, tell me about it.". Like I can be here and listen or I can tell you my own stories. And it's real and it's hard but it doesn't have to be as lonely as you think."

And that's not the only challenges Raquel concedes to the outdoor apparel industry.

"The first one is supply chain. I mean, it shouldn't be this hard, but high pandemic, boat that got stuck in a canal. Supply chain has really been difficult and we're seeing that across the industry. Everybody is reeling from that, brands to retailers to customers. Everybody's affected. I didn't know when I walked into it that it was gonna be; nobody did. But that has been an actual, legitimate, genuine challenge.

Another one is just timing. I'm used to working in software. I'm used to working really hard for two weeks and then pushing things out into the world, getting feedback, and then iterating every two weeks. Super, super fast. Here it takes two years. It takes two years to build a product, to build something new, to get it out into market, and then you get to see how people react to it. And then it takes two years again to fix any of the issues that you had before. And that is really painful.

And then of course the third one is cash flow. Money. Money rules, everything. And I was very lucky in that I worked in tech for a long time so I had a nest egg of money to be able to get this thing off the ground. I'm no longer working off of my own personal money cause I don't have anymore to give. But I have enough of a brand now that I can work with other sources of funding."

22:30
Being a woman of color and leader in what is still viewed as a "male and pale industry", I had expected Raquel to also mention some of the hurdles women in such scenarios have become accustomed to dealing with. When I openly asked her if she'd been affected by sexism, this is what she had to say. 

"I think I was extremely lucky when I came into the outdoor industry. The first person I met was a ski and snowboard founder. I was about to go to Outdoor Retailer, which is a really big trade show in the US and I was like "Yeah, I'm gonna go to O.R." and she was like "Here's what you need to know: These are the people to hang out with; these are the people to avoid. Meet me here. You can meet other cool people there just don't even bother with this section. Check out this area but don't stay too long cause it'll feel gross after a while.". And so I just feel so lucky that I had this person who could show me what I needed to know. And so for that reason, I have not had very many issues at all. And I'm not gonna say sexism doesn't happen in this industry. I 100% believe that it does. I know that that fat phobia is massive in this industry but in terms specifically of my experience as a woman in this space, I have been given a bunch of bumpers in the bowling alley and so I don't fall into the gutter quite as often as I think someone who might be brand new. I just consider myself extremely fortunate. Also I think the fact that our company is so forward thinking and so different, it tends to attract people who are more like-minded. We get people coming up to us all the time being like "But what about men?" And I'm like "what about men? Men can wear these too. And my husband has a pair of our pants and he loves them." And so I'm like "No, really. Like why not this?". There's no gender to these pants or to these clothes. They just happen to be in women's sizes. Because I identify as a woman and I picked those."

24:45
Part of the mission of the series Women and Outdoor Jobs is to share the stories and experiences of women like Raquel who've successfully made the outdoors their living, so that women who want to achieve that for themselves can benefit from their learnings and advice. This is what Raquel would say to you, if you're considering an entrepreneurial journey in the outdoor industry.

"Find your community as quickly as possible. Like I said, I was so, so fortunate to find someone literally on day zero, like day negative five when I was like still in my day job or my corporate job, and she helped guide me and she continues to be a mentor to me to this day. She would tell me things like "You need to apply to this program when you're ready, but before the deadline", you know, and she'd give me all these pointers. And so I had very much a strong women's focused entrepreneurial community. Right from within the first year. I would also say you've gotta give it time. I'm one of the least patient people you'll ever meet in your life. And so when things are not going the way I want, I'm like, I just need to go faster, faster, faster. But it doesn't. It doesn't go faster, especially in apparel. And that can be really hard. That can be really, really hard and can be super frustrating.

I think the last piece of advice I wanna put out there is something my husband said many years ago. He said quitting is not the same thing as stopping. And what's interesting there is that I think sometimes things don't work out and that's okay. You're not quitting because it's too hard. You're choosing to stop because it's not the right fit for you. It's not the right option. And I think so much culturally, and this is many different cultures, there's this idea of "I started it so I must finish it" but sometimes finishing means not doing it anymore. And you can actually get yourself into more trouble if you keep pushing on something that's not working. Like, feel free. Nothing is sacred. Nothing needs to be perfect. Like, listen to yourself, listen to your mind, your body. Look at everything with cleared glasses; none of the rose coloured stuff and acknowledge "Is this the right thing for me to be doing right now?". And if the answer is no, stop for the love of all that is good! You will save yourself a burn out. Like I said, this is my third company. I stopped the other two when they no longer worked for me."

Thank you to Raquel for taking the time to talk with me. You can find Raquel on Instagram at Alpine Parrot and alpine parrot.com. Other resources are listed in our show notes.

27:55
Hello listeners, this is Charlaine. I'm happy to be back with the second part of our Women in Outdoor Jobs series and a huge thank you for listening. As I'm nearing the celebration of our first year launching the podcast, it's time to get a little introspective and so I'd like to ask you for 5 to 10 minutes of your time. I would love to get to know you, the listener a bit better, and get your insights on the podcast. You can do that by completing our audience poll that you can find directly on our website at aboutthatoutdoorjob.com or at the link in our podcast Instagram bio. You can also find the link in our show notes. Again, thank you for listening.

This episode was produced and hosted by me, Charlaine Jannerfeldt.