2025 Recap: The real story behind Moonspin's year

It was exactly three years ago, December 2022, that I set my heart on creating what is now Moonspin. 

I spent that winter dreaming while huddled over Pinterest boards and sketch books, and - because I'm a nerd - building lots of Google Sheets and Docs. That spring, I headed to Portland, Oregon to attend a textile tradeshow, where I met my awesome design partner Brynn. Brynn and I then met up at the Outdoor Retailer tradeshow in SLC in June, where we picked out the material for what would become the Drift MTB Shorts. 

Later that summer, I teamed up with the incredible owners of The Athletic Community, Jess & Vanessa, for a collaboration on Moonspin's first product - MTB socks! I'll be forever indebted to these two incredibly kind, hilarious, brilliant, and generous ladies for teaming up with me when Moonspin was just a wee lil baby brand.

And after 18 more months of navigating design, sourcing, manufacturing and everything in between, it wasn't until last spring that Moonspin really came to life. Although Moonspin was dreamt up during a wintry December in 2022, I'll always think of Spring 2025 as Moonspin's true arrival.

Just this past year, we:

• • Did our first IRL event - an Earth Day pop-up at Juniper Cannabis in our hometown of Bozeman, along with a community bike ride and trash pick up! This was the debut of our flora hemp top line, in partnership with artist Paige Dirksen, and we also dropped our plant-based Moonspin hats at the event.
    
    
    
  • Launched our Drift MTB shorts in June! These shorts will always be a pinnacle Moonspin product and are something I'm so proud of. You all showed up to grab a pair and share your glowing reviews 🥰. Thanks to Virginia at SWOOP for partnering in a fun giveaway to support this launch!
    

• • Took Moonspin on the road to do my favorite thing - connect with folks who find join in adventuring on bikes, and who appreciate quality unique gear. Thanks to my pal Cameron at Titan Straps for sharing a booth with me for our first shake out event last June in Bozeman. In August we headed down to the gorgeous Western Slope of Colorado to share Moonspin joy at the Leadville 100 and Breck Epic. Shout out to Sarah B. from Symbiosis Gear for hosting us in Leadville, and to Tarin from the City of Breckenridge for showing us around your amazing trails. October found us back in Colorado, this time for The Hotdogger in Fruita. SUCH a fun event. We closed out the year with a final holiday pop-up at our favorite Bozeman yoga studio, Namaha (thanks, Jess!)
    

• • Donated Moonspin gear to support some amazing partners. I haven't paid a cent to advertise Moonspin. Instead, to raise awareness in a way that feels good, we've donated gear and gift cards to raffle in support of events and nonprofits like: 
    • The Dusty Bandita, a women+ gravel race here in Montana,
    • Slow Spokes, a women+ bikepacking community based out of Missoula, MT,
    • Coombs Outdoors, a Jackson, WY-based nonprofit supporting access to outdoor rec, 
    • COPMOBA, Western Colorado's amazing trail association, and
    • The Dirt Concern, our local Bozeman chapter of Southwest Montana Mountain Bike Association.
      
    • Plus, we donated 10% of the sales in April from our hemp blend tops, which are made in Los Angeles, to support Garment Workers Center, in light of the raids on immigrant garment workers in LA this year.
      
      
  • Had so much fun doing photo shoots with real life people and friends! Maggie, Megan, Molly, Katherine, Jaga, Annie, Tracy, Shelby (& Marla!), Courtney, Marina, Eliza, and Annie (again!) - THANK YOU for being such stellar, fun, and REAL models to bring Moonspin to life. And to Chuy, Olivia, and Karly, thank you for your incredible photography and videography skills.

 

Some biking highlights from the past year include:

Taking a spin with Jess & Vanessa in Portland when I came through on a work trip.
	Volunteer coaching at a Ladies All Ride camp in Bend, OR - I just LOVE these camps and connect with the most amazing women at them (shout out to my LAR Whitefish '24 crew!)
Getting out on my road bike a ton for the first time in ages while visiting my mom in France (the region around the rural, pastoral village she lives in is a road biking dream!)
	Riding in The Dusty Bandita. I haven't done a race in ages, but had so much fun at this really special women+ gravel event and am so honored for Moonspin to be a sponsor again next year.
Volunteer coaching at yet another LAR camp in Targhee in July, and then connecting with my new bike friends to ride Big Sky later in the summer (where we got to share stories of how well our Moonspin gear held up in crashes 🫣)
	An all-day adventure ride with a new bike friend (I'm so glad you were down for my cow path and rugged mountain pass adventure loop for our first date, Alex!)

 

And while it wasn't a summer of tons of epic backcountry rides or bikepacking adventures, I got out on countless after work and weekend spins solo, with a friend or two, sometimes my husband, and often times my two dogs. And to be honest, these unassuming rides, the rides where you're noticing the light on the trees more than your heart rate, the rides that don't end up on Strava, the rides with surprise double rainbows over the alpenglow...these, I think, are my most favorite of all.