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Avid surfers and skiers Kathy Thomas and Sara Zilkha have nine kids between them and are often on the hunt for activewear for the whole family. With a lack of options and growing resentment toward shopping out-of-date male-focused websites, they decided to start their own e-commerce destination: Salt + Snow, which officially launches today.
“With the surge in the active-lifestyle-apparel market coinciding with the growing demands in our daily lives, we saw firsthand that this was a need not being met in the online marketplace,” says Thomas. “Niche and larger brands are focused on strongly expanding their active apparel, and there wasn’t one single destination to access a curated viewpoint on what these brands have to offer. Oftentimes the experience with many outdoor retailers can be overtly masculine in aesthetic and messaging.”
Thomas was also tired of spending long days shopping multiple sites and not being able to find what she wanted, both in terms of quality and quantity. With a barrage of e-commerce sites in existence, there truly wasn’t anything that stocked all the activewear she wanted to see and buy. “Women want to simplify their shopping experience and get time back in their day instead of scouring online to find the information they need to outfit themselves, their partners, and their children for whichever outdoor endeavor they are planning to make,” she adds.
For now, Salt + Snow is starting out small, with a curated assortment from 20 brands. The cofounders decidedly put a focus on a mix of big names and emerging talent so that shoppers can experience an element of exploration at every turn. A few of those names? Alps & Meters, Amundsen, Anemos, Cynthia Rowley, Dinoski, Dip, Eugenia Kim, Kasia + Surf, L’Etoile Sport, Left on Friday, Matuse, Powder Puff, Revo, Rhone, Sea Star, Seasta Surf, Seea, September, and Xcel. But in the fall they plan to ramp up to more than 40 labels for the new season. “A key component of our excitement for launching Salt + Snow is our partnership with amazing brands who want a broader platform to share their product with consumers,” adds Thomas. “These discovery brands, as we call them, are innovative and forward thinking and motivated to make the world a better place, and we’re happy to provide an additional marketing platform for them to lean on.”
With Zilkha’s experience working at Goldman Sachs before transitioning to the nonprofit sector and Thomas’s work as a former music marketing manager at Sony and Principle Management as well as a producer in advertising at Wells, Rich, Greene BDDP, the two put their combined knowledge together and hired the best of the best in retail to join them. Ashley Bryan serves as the chief operating officer after successful tenures at Net-a-Porter, Moda Operandi, and Maisonette, while former Ralph Lauren retail whiz Brooke Gerschel is Salt + Snow’s chief merchandising officer. As for the director of marketing and editorial? Former Vogue staffer Brooke Danielson takes the reins.
“We want women to be represented in a bigger way and find the community and information they are after without having to dig through highly technical sites that aren’t personal to what we need and want,” adds Zilkha.
What also sets the new retail destination apart from others is the content section. Dubbed The Wanderist, the editorial section of the website shares unique stories that hope to inspire, such as the tale of a blind ice climber, gear guides, and skin-care stories that share how to hydrate your skin midair.
“We are a community as well as a retail site,” says Zilkha. “We provide a place to celebrate, educate, and dress women and their families for the day-to-day adventures all the way through to the more challenging ones.”
