Last Christmas, my younger sister, who lives in Bozeman, Montana, gave fleece beanies to my brother and his fiancée, who live in New York City. If you’ve been to a mountain town lately, you know the kind: plush, cozy, and shaped like a regal crown. The design is hot right now in a lot of ski destinations, and while I’m not sure how these hats play in Manhattan, they looked great when the happy owners recently visited my parents in Lake Tahoe, California.
The beanies were made by Sophski, a tiny Bozeman company, and they’re a good example of a recent trend: clothing and gear created by outdoor startups at a remove from design and production hubs like Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Portland, Oregon. Sophski is run by Sophie Hewitt, a 25-year-old skier from Maine who started making her own neck warmers several years ago to save money. She migrated to Bozeman, added hats to her line—the beanies described above, which go for $35, are called King and Queen—and now moves about 50 of them per month online and in stores.
“Once I started selling them in Bozeman, they became something that traveled by word of…
