Intro
At Stio, we’ve always been inspired by our environment. We started our brand here, in the Tetons, because we craved a daily connection to nature and the uplift it brought to our lives. We needed to see mountains, access trailheads and hear spring creeks daily to feed our souls and keep us grounded. The whitebark pinecone became our logo because it stands for two principles we believe in — naturally inspired design and a strong conservation ethic. This one species reflected our values, resonated with meaning from within our own backyard and became a true north for how we built our brand.
Catalog Story
Mountains have always felt like home for Stio senior designer Courtney Cedarholm. Raised in the valley by outdoor parents, she discovered a new, richer perspective on her local environments after returning from fashion school in NYC. For Courtney, inspiration arrives from the mood-lifting hues and confidence-building power of her natural surroundings whether up high on Teton lakes or on quiet, dusty trails in the Gros Ventres. The creative force behind Stio’s vibrant color palette, she also passionately advocates for lifecycle design, intentional function and exquisite constructive detail in her fundamental role of shaping a designer’s vision into final polished form.
Blog Story Lede
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.
Natural Perspectives with Sandy Flint:
A family river trip on the Yampa River first brought Stio Materials Manager Sandy Flint west, and years later he jumped at the chance to take a material science job in Jackson. It would allow him daily access to mountains, trails and especially, to floatable rivers like the Snake. In his hand-built 14-foot river dory, for both decompression and reflection—where focus helps simplify complex day job challenges like material selection and supply chain sustainability.
Natural Perspectives with Brendan Levine:
A designer’s eye is hard to quantify, but for Stio’s longtime art director Brendan Levine, it all starts with getting outside. Whether it’s a weekend backpack 25 miles deep or a pre-dawn wake-up for a weekday mountain bike—getting out into the wild is not just about practicing what we preach. In these wild places, creative inspiration surges in a way that reflects not only the purposeful precision of nature, but also the character of our local environments. From telling true stories of mountain life to purposeful design inspired by natural elements, this connection proves critical to the look and feel of every Stio design element from our image selection to our seasonal bibles.
