Local company DECKED has created a product that appeals to many of the kinds of people who call Ketchum home: outdoors people, tradesmen/contractors, and just about anyone who drives a truck. It was while innovating a way to organize a truck bed that DECKED founders, Jake Peters and Lance Meller, came up with the idea for DECKED’s drawer system, tapping into the market of truck accessories that few had or have since. In its almost ten years as a company, DECKED has grown from a small-footprint, servicing mom and pop accessory stores, to a multi-national company available directly from manufacturers like Ford and Chevrolet distributed into 27 countries on six continents. The Origin Story Like the origin of so many products, DECKED’s drawer system was the result of necessity. Ketchum local Lance Meller was a snowboard rep and pickup truck owner who built his own plywood drawer system for the bed of his truck, which allowed him to sleep in it while on the road while also storing his snowboard samples. After getting a new truck, Meller realized he would have to build another system from scratch, with no real roadmap for doing so. He partnered with DECKED founder, Jake …
Visit Sun Valley, Sustainably!
Traveling sustainably is an important aspect of modern-day travel, and being mindful of our environmental impact while traveling has never been more critical. Fortunately, there are simple things we can all do to help preserve the environment and make our travels more sustainable. From using reusable items to picking up litter, shopping locally, and reducing our carbon footprint, these small actions can go a long way in helping protect the places we love to visit. In this blog post, we’ll cover some easy ways to travel sustainably while enjoying all that the Ketchum area has to offer. Bring reusables! Did you know that Americans use over 100 billion plastic bags each year? If 25% of families used 10 fewer bags per month, we would save 2.5 billion bags per year! Grab that reusable bag and water bottle and hit the town! This is a simple way to do your part when out and about and stopping in shops and groceries. Plus, our local tap water is out of this world. Pick it up! It can be a damper to roll up to a campsite, trailhead, lookout, or even a park and see pieces of trash around. Be sure to pick …
What We’re Made Of: Nomadic Van & Sync Vans
Many entrepreneurs launch startups in Ketchum simply because they can work from anywhere and would prefer to do so surrounded by the natural splendor of the Rocky Mountains. And while this is true for companies Nomadic Van and Sync Vans, they have tapped into both a national and local market by creating something perfect for outdoor aficionados like themselves: adventure vans. Luckily, these two companies aren’t in competition with each other since they’re involved in different sides of “van life”: Nomadic Van in the importing of Japanese Mitsubishi Delica vans and Sync Vans in the customization of Sprinter van interiors. Nomadic Van Although not officially started until the summer of 2019, Nomadic Van had its beginnings in Ron Arnold’s yard, where he would tinker around with the Mitsubishi Delica vans he had started importing from Japan as a side hustle in 2017. He had fallen in love with these durable, adventure-ready vans while traveling in New Zealand, where he also met the friend who would become his exporter in Japan. Ron’s friend, Gardner Cord, took an interest in Ron’s tinkering and wanted to learn about the vans. While the two worked on vans, they would spitball ideas for entrepreneurial opportunities, such as making storage bins or shot skis. Finally in the summer of …
24hrs with a Local: 5b Fruit’s Katja Peller, February
Wellness-focused couple Parker Morris and Katja Peller have taken their passions and turned them into two thriving businesses, 5B Fruit and 5B Floatation. After hiking Baldy on a hot summer day, the two were craving a healthy smoothie. Not finding one that satisfied them, the two opened what they thought would be a small smoothie stand and turned it into the popular shop it is today. While their days are busy behind the counter at 5B making delicious smoothies and bowls, they still have time to enjoy raising chickens and their dogs Tilly and Garth on their farm south of Bellevue where they’ll be getting married this summer. Learn how Katja spends the perfect day in Sun Valley! How does your perfect day start? Coffee/breakfast somewhere? Easy morning at home? Katja: Usually, mornings start very early to make sure things are taken care of around the farm. The drive from my house to Ketchum is about 40 minutes so I listen to a podcast to start the day off. Then I stop at Lizzy’s on my way into town. A day can’t start and is not complete without a cup of coffee. My favorite way to start the day is …
24hrs with a Local: Wild Rye’s Cassie Abel, October
Cassie Abel is the CEO and co-founder of Wild Rye, a company dedicated to creating mountain apparel for women of all sizes, ages, and skill levels—an area she saw was decidedly lacking after spending years working in the outdoor apparel industry. Though Abel didn’t found the Ketchum-based company until 2015, she has been living here fulltime for about 10 years and spent much of her life in and out of the Valley; she’s held down jobs at local favorites like Java, the Cellar Pub, and Smith. As the kind of woman her brand targets—mountain biker, skier, busy mom—Cassie is the perfect mountain lady to tell us how to spend an ideal day in Ketchum, Idaho. How do you start your ideal day? Can I give you two ideal days? Cause one’s going to involve my toddler, and one will not! So if I don’t have my toddler, I wake up and drink some coffee on my porch. If I’m heading out for coffee, go to Lizzie’s or Maude’s and get a really delicious latte. Then I’d go for a big bike ride like Osberg’s, Alden, or Greenhorn/Imperial. How do you refuel after a long bike ride like that? Probably grab …
Ways to Capitalize on Remote Learning in Sun Valley
Schools shut down? Kids enrolled in online courses? Taking some online courses yourself to work on that masters? If the traditional classroom environment looks different this fall then Sun Valley is the best place to be. Not only does the Valley have all the resources needed to achieve academic success, it is also a great opportunity to expand beyond the standard curriculum and learn about life and Mother Nature. Work Spaces If a quiet place and fast wifi is what you need to crank out some assignments or to log on to a video conference then the library is probably your best bet. Newly remodeled and full of little work zones to try out, the library and its many resources are available to anyone with a free library card. If some background noise is more your style then the coffee shops and hotel lounges offer up a variety of locations to crank some productivity. Just remember to bring a mask and possibly check in at the front desk before you dive in. The Community Library Java on Fourth Starbucks Limelight Hotel Sun Valley Lodge Ketchum Town Square Ketchum Works Hailey Coffee Different Kind of Classroom Some of the best lessons …
8 places to Catch Up on Work in Sun Valley, Idaho
In our hyper-connected world, it’s hard to unplug. While we hope that getting away from it all is exactly what you do on your next trip to Sun Valley, Idaho, sometimes other responsibilities beckon. If that happens, we’ve got you covered. Check out these five places to catch up on work so you can get back to enjoying your vacation
What We’re Made Of: Higher Ground
In 1999 the Higher Ground organization began right here in Sun Valley, Idaho with a goal of using recreational therapy for people with cognitive, physical, and developmental disabilities, as well as active-duty military members and veterans. The extraordinary beauty, recreational possibilities and a community that believes that people of all abilities should be able to experience the healing powers of the mountains made Sun Valley an ideal incubator to bring this therapy to fruition. When they first started, it was just about teaching locals with disabilities how to use adaptive skis but their programming has since grown to include so much more. Today, locations for Higher Ground have expanded to the surf of Los Angeles—home to over 300,000 veterans—and the hiking trails of western New York, home to another one of the largest veteran populations in the country. Using top recreational therapists and mental health professionals, Higher Ground strives to give people of all abilities a better life, bridging the gap between disability and belonging. Programming Higher Ground offers two types of programming; one for recreation and one for military. Recreational therapy is defined by the American Therapeutic Recreation Association (ATRA) and National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification (NCTRC) as a systematic …
What We’re Made Of: Community Leader – Courtney Hamilton
Spending your 20’s in Ketchum, Idaho can look a lot of different ways. Many people dedicate themselves to ski-bum life, working at restaurants at night and crushing the pow all day. Some are dipping their toes into different types of jobs, trying to find what sticks. For Ketchum-native Courtney Hamilton, she still probably falls into the second category, but that hasn’t stopped her from wanting to make a difference in the community she’ll always call home. A city council woman, board member of the Ketchum Innovation Center, and board member of Sun Valley Economic Development, Hamilton has also worked for Sun Valley Trekking, as an Adventure Town Ambassador to Clif Bar, TEDxSunValley, home energy auditing, has lead outdoor trips for the Community School and is now the Projects Coordinator for Carson International. “I’m just your typical mountain town person, trying to find my way.” Hamilton grew up in Ketchum and after graduating from Community School headed to the west coast to attend college at Pomona College in Claremont, California where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Policy Analysis. Like many other kids who grow up in Ketchum, she felt that pull to go to big cities where the opportunities are. “After …
What We’re Made Of: First Lite Entrepreneur – Scott Robinson
Sun Valley, Idaho is no Silicon Valley but it has certainly seen its fair share of startups in its day. Smith Optics, Scott USA, Club Ride, DECKED, Powder Magazine, and Snowboard Magazine all got their start in this small town. Now a slew of new innovators is changing the economic scene of Ketchum including hunting apparel company First Lite. photo: courtesy First Lite Believe it or not, co-owner of First Lite, Scott Robinson, had never even hunted before moving to Ketchum when he was 23. Robinson grew up living in Seattle but ski racing and visiting Sun Valley often, so the place always held a spot in his heart. “Kenton [Carruth, co-owner of First Lite] and I both moved to Ketchum in 1993 or 1994 for the same reasons most people do—to take a break from the real world, do some skiing, and have fun in the outdoors,” says Robinson. The real world he desired to take a break from was working as a CPA in Seattle. He continued to work in financial management roles for 10 years in Ketchum before leaving Ketchum for a three-year stint at Nike. In 2004, he came back and worked for local company Smith Optics, running …