of colorful hats, neckwarmers, and head-
bands for all seasons. The gear is a bright
spot in the otherwise largely black and gray
(and maybe red) ski industry. And it’s been
hugely successful: Her products are in more
than 300 stores.
Prevot never intended to own a business.
Skida started back in 2008, when Prevot was
a high school Nordic ski racer, and couldn’t
find a hat she liked. “They were all knits and
solids. I like colors, f lorals,” she says. So, she
bought four-way stretch fabric and made her
own. When competitors saw the loud, intri-
cate pat terns at races, they wanted one, too.
Soon the colorful hats topped skiers a ll over
the northeast. And suddenly, at the age of 17,
she had a business.
When she went to Vermont’s Middlebury
College for a joint geography and sociology
degree, she brought the company with her.
She took orders, packaged, worked with
designers, and shipped from her dorm,
while a team of Northeast Vermont at-
home sewers did the manufacturing. It
grew organically, no ads or marketing; she
was too busy with classwork and racing
for it to be any other way. But people kept
ordering, so when graduation came, Prevot
decided to commit and bought her Burling-
ton storefront.
The brand’s local roots are important
to Prevot, so as Skida grew, she contracted
more Vermont-based sewers to keep up
with demand. She also found local experts
for packaging, shipping, and sales, even-
tually hiring eight employees. But she kept
the things she loved—design, marketing,
and the financials—in her sphere. On any
day, you can find her balancing the payroll,
picking new color schemes, creating gift
boxes, organizing photo shoots, and paus-
ing to write order thank-yous. It’s a constant
balance of creativity and small business
know-how, but that balance feeds itself. “I
have a creative and analytical mind. I can
inform a lot of my creative decisions by the
finances.”Commodifying creativity isn’t easy, espe-
cially when Prevot has to sell the 27 patterns
in a current season’s collection, market the
next’s, and design the following’s. “Every
year it stumps me, I finish a collection and
I’ve got nothing left. But I do it all again.”
And when she feels tapped, she heads back
to where it started: outside.
In the winter, it’s skiing at dawn, and in
the summer, it’s mountain biking. The dirt
tracks of Vermont are where she does her
best out-of-office work. “It’s such a great way
to enjoy our woods and mountains.”
Sometimes inspiration comes on the dirt,
or while looking at old photos of family mem-
bers ski guiding, but Prevot works until the
next pattern, style, or marketing pitch does;
she has to. “I appreciate the accountability I
have for the people I work with, I enjoy that.
I want to help everyone succeed.”“EVERY YEAR IT STUMPS ME, I FINISH A
COLLECTION AND I’VE GOT NOTHING LEFT.
BUT I DO IT ALL AGAIN.”
AB(^56) July/August 2019 _ PopularMechanics.com
THE LIFE