An Interview With Raquel Velez, Founder and CEO of Alpine Parrot

We sat down with Raquel Vélez, Founder and CEO of Alpine Parrot to learn more about her journey, inclusive sizing, and what Alpine Parrot is all about! Watch the video below, or head past the jump to read what we talked about.

Quick Stats:

Name: Raquel Vélez Pronouns: She/Her Location: Monterey, California Hometown: South Brunswick, NJ

Q: Where is Alpine Parrot Located?

A: Alpine Parrot is located on the Monterey Bay Peninsula in Monterey, California.

Q: What is one of your favorite childhood memories of being outdoors?

A: Wow… Okay, so I didn’t really grow up in the outdoors, but my family is from Puerto Rico and I like to think that in Puerto Rico there is this—it’s a very North American thing to make a plan to go to a place that is far away. Right? When you come from an island, nothing is that far away, so you just go; you don’t plan it, you don’t have itineraries, you don’t figure out what your snack plan is, you just go. I remember going to El Yunque, which is a national forest, the only tropical rainforest in the country, and we were just like, we climbed and climbed… I’d call them nature walks, because they weren’t really planned, but it was beautiful. We got to hear the Coqui and it was just amazing. I remember there was a huge drought at the time, which was weird for Puerto Rico. It’s supposed to rain, that’s how it works, it’s in the tropics! We were just like, “it’s so dry, so hot,” and then I remember getting to the car and just as we were approaching the car, the skies opened up and it just started pouring. The temperature went down, and it was like—I don’t know, it was almost holy, like it was amazing—and it [was] such a warm rain that we just got into our swimsuits and just started dancing in the rain. That is one of my fondest memories of being outside, even though I would not consider myself as an outdoorsy person before the age of 26.

Q: Have you always been into outdoor recreation?

A: The thing I like to say is, I did not grow up in the outdoors. The idea of voluntarily sleeping outside, on the ground, in the cold, was not my parent’s definition of success. I mean, I think that is really common amongst immigrant families, families of color, actually any family that has poverty in its ancestry—I feel like that is what you do when you have nothing else to do. So, it’s a huge privilege to voluntarily do that, right? It wasn’t that I was actually discouraged from going outside, it just wasn’t encouraged—other than these nature walks we would go on, which were always spontaneous. I remember at some point—I was 25-26, and I was dating a guy who had a dog and we would go on these hikes. It was like, “Oh, this is really cool, we’re like purposely going out into the woods, that is neat.” I ended up marrying that guy, and when we moved to California he told me he wanted to learn how to ski. I was like, “That is a terrible idea, because you could die, and you’d be on a mountain and I wouldn’t be there, I wouldn’t know, and it would be very traumatic—so obviously I should go with you and we should take a lesson.” I went and took a lesson in skiing and it was amazing. It was like a light switch went off. I completely and totally fell in love with skiing and was like, “This is my sport, I love it.” Skiing was a gateway sport for me. Skiing, and then when there was no snow, there was hiking, and when I couldn’t make it all the way to the mountains, I started climbing indoors, and then, eventually (AKA at the beginning of the pandemic) I thought, “I need to be outside more.” Then my husband convinced me to try camping—and it was bougie camping—and a year later I voluntarily slept on the ground outside. It wasn’t that cold though.

Q: What made you see the need for size/shape inclusivity in the outdoor industry?

A: Basically, it starts with that whole ski thing, right? I feel like one commonality that a lot of people have when it comes to buying clothing—it’s buying jeans and swimsuits—no one likes it, because it is just impossible to find a perfect fitting pair of jeans and a perfect swimsuit. It’s just so hard, there are so many issues around it. I have a degree in mechanical engineering, and I was like, “How hard could it actually be to make my own pair of jeans?” Literally the same weekend—because I looked back on my calendar to verify this—[that] I learned how to ski, I learned how to sew. I was like, “I’m going to learn how to make my own clothes, surely this can’t be that hard.” I started out with a pillow, and that turned into trying to make clothes from patterns. The reality is that patterns have the same issue that ready-to-wear [clothing] has. It all comes down to some designer [who] has decided, “This is the ideal person who is wearing my clothes,” and they make a pattern that fits that person specifically. If you are outside of that ‘vision’ then you have a really hard time finding clothing. And for a long time there was a very explicit vision of who should get to be wearing clothing that is really not reflective of the American public as we currently know it. As I progressed with sewing I got really frustrated, because you can adjust [patterns], but, “I’m a mechanical engineer, surely I can figure out how to make my own patterns.” It turns out there was a pattern-making school not two blocks away from where I worked at the time, and so I signed up for pattern-making school. And in that school—it was actually a two year course—I learned how to make my own patterns, I learned how to sew, and I learned what happens when you have clothing that is actually made for your body—it is like an incredible experience: “Oh my God, I have confidence in the world!” It sounds silly that clothes can give you confidence, but fashionistas have known this for a long time. I was never a fashionista because I could never fit into anything that was considered ‘cool’, so when I could finally fit into my own cool things, my confidence skyrocketed. It was amazing.

In that course, there was actually a class, ‘Brand Development and History of Fashion.’ [Y]ou basically come up with this fake company, you find out who your target market is, and the final is that you present an 8 piece line. I designed an 8 piece plus-sized line, because when you learn something new, you just learn with whatever you have available to you. You don’t want to go out and commit thousands of dollars to a sport you don’t even know if you like yet. I learned to ski with sweatpants under rain pants, a hoody under a rain coat, [and] borrowed or rented everything else. I fell in love with the sport, kept doing that for a while, but was thinking, “Do I really love this sport?” Once I was like, “Okay, I need to stop getting snow down my backside, it is time to go and invest in a pair of ski pants,” and…nothing fit. I was like, “This is bonkers.” And so when I designed this 8 piece, plus-sized women’s skiwear line, I presented [it] to the class. After [the presentation], my teacher pulled me aside and was like, “You’ve got to do this.” I thought, “No, I don’t. I have a perfectly good, well-paying job that I absolutely hate, but it’s fine, and surely someone else will do this.” She said that no one else was doing this, and you have a leg up on everybody because you understand that market—you are that market. I think it’s really easy to forget how powerful that is, because we see so many things made for communities by people who are not of that community—which is considered normal—but wait, people can solve the problems that they have. If you are not really from the community, it is easy to not understand the community. So that basically led to me thinking about things, getting really burnt out at my job at the time, and then I was like, “You know what!? Let’s give it all up and make some pants.” And of course in the process of doing that, I discovered that 68% of American women—that is 2 out of every 3—wear size 14 and up, and less than 20% of outdoor apparel is made in plus sizes, which are usually sizes 14 and up. It was like, “Wait a minute—surely there is something out of balance here, but why is no one touching this?” So, you know, we could go into that—[it’s] a lot to unpack, but basically that is where the inclusivity of size came in. The shape inclusivity piece comes from me being an engineer and wanting to kind of toss the way apparel is made, like the traditional way [it] is made…

Q: And how is apparel traditionally made?

A: Traditionally, apparel is made by—again—there is a designer who is like, “Okay, this is my vision for who will wear my clothing,” and then they find a person, and that person is called a fit model, and that person is usually [in] the middle of the range, so for a lot of apparel companies that is a size 6, or a size 8 person. We’re talking about women’s clothing, but I want to be careful—gender is a social construct—unfortunately, the apparel industry is stuck in the 1940’s, so it’s men’s, women’s and children's. I’m not making clothing for kids, I’m not explicitly making men’s clothing, I personally identify as a woman, so I started with women’s sizing. Really, that part does not matter. I’m just going to use the word women. Especially for women’s clothing, we start with a size 6 or 8 and you make a pattern that fits them perfectly. Then, because we want to do things quickly, we take that pattern and we algorithmically define all of the other sizes. Literally the way that works is: you take the pattern, you put a big ol’ grid on it, you cut along the lines and you spread the pieces out to make the bigger sizes and you overlap the pieces to make the smaller sizes. So, when you think about it from the perspective of—have you ever played with an old copy machine and you just zoomed in and zoomed in, you just end up getting these little pixelated dots all over the place, it’s like, “Oh—that’s distorted.” Same deal. So, traditionally, folks who are in the larger sizes, they will walk in and they will try something on, and the neckline is too big, the arms are too long, what looked like skinny jeans on the mannequin are suddenly wide-legged jeans, because that is how all of the things change, and it’s like, “I’m not going to wear that, it’s not cute, it doesn’t fit right,” and then, of course, the industry is like, “Nobody is buying it, therefore the industry must not exist.” Wrong.

Q: So what did you do differently?

A: What I did [was], I decided that instead of doing this traditional method, I was going to go a step further. Hilariously, I quit my day job 6 weeks before the entire world shut down in February of 2020, so I had to figure it all out by myself regardless! That is just where we were, so I used myself as a fit model—because that is who I had access to—and then I went ahead and algorithmically created the other sizes, but then I put them on actual fit testers. [I] started out with 10. Discovered we have multiple shapes in addition to different sizes, so I took that opportunity to develop 2 different fit styles. Then from there, I put it on another 30 people to test again. Making sure that every single size is actually fitting human bodies, and not just [fitting] completely out of nowhere with like, hypothetical, very strangely-shaped humans.

Q: Why is your company called Alpine Parrot?

A: All right, Alpine Parrot. There is one species of alpine parrot in the world; it is called the Kea. I want to note that the Kea is a treasure of Maori, who are the traditional people of New Zealand. What is special about this bird is that, when we think of parrots stereotypically, we think of these colorful birds that like to sing songs on a beach. But the alpine parrot lives in the mountains, and it plays in the snow, and it is super-smart and super-friendly, and despite its kind of basic olive green exterior, when it flies it has these beautiful rainbow colored wings. They just take your breath away—absolutely gorgeous. When I think about the customer we serve—people of size, people of color—there are all of these stereotypes about us. That we don’t go outside, that we’re lazy, or all of these really awful stereotypes, but the reality is that when we are in our element, when we are outside and embracing joy, just like the alpine parrot, our colors just truly shine. That is why it’s called Alpine Parrot.

Q: What are the differences between the River and Mountain fits?

A: We have River fit and Mountain fit. Basically, the differences are based around the waist to hip ratio. So, the Mountain fit is smaller waist, bigger hips. The River fit is similar waist and hip. We could consider them pear and apple, but I prefer to compare myself to forces of nature rather than fruit.

Q: What kind of technologies did you include in Alpine Parrot’s Apparel?

A: So, in terms of the fabric, it’s this amazing, stretchy fabric that is also breathable and quick dry, but most importantly, it’s abrasion-resistant—because my thighs touch, which means that the very first area that tends to break down in any pair of pants I have is right in the inner thigh—which is super annoying. The benefit of having abrasion-resistant pants is that I have literally gone down into bush-whacking in the backcountry and my pants are fine—it’s really nice. So, that is the fabric itself.

The pockets are huge; there are five different pockets. I believe that a pocket must hold an entire cell phone without it sticking out […] Otherwise, it’s just a design detail, I want real pockets. Some other important things include this waist belt—so what is nice here is that there is just a ton of adjustability, because our bodies are constantly changing. Not just month to month, but like, from the bottom of the trail to the top of the trail, so being able to have these super micro-adjustments as you need [them] is really nice. One person pointed out to me that the fact that the belt doesn’t go over the closure means that if you need to very quickly release, you can without having to undo the belt. It’s a higher and curved waistband, which means that when you bend over there is no air going down your back, there is no gaping—it’s really nice. Finally, the cuffs: you can actually roll them up and turn them into capris, which is a nice way to have a little versatility whatever you are doing and wherever you are going.

Q: What do you see for the future of Alpine Parrot?

A: I want Alpine Parrot to basically fill the incredibly huge, gaping hole of need [for] outdoor apparel for people with bigger bodies. It really is just that simple, it’s not—I literally worked at NASA, so I know what rocket science is—it’s not rocket science. It’s literally just making clothes in sizes that people need, [and] making sure that people can safely and comfortably go outside. You could go outside in leggings and flip flops, no shade—no shade at all, but that is going to limit the types of adventures [that] you can go on. I don’t want you to be limited. I want you to really go out there and have a blast. So, yeah, we are starting with pants, but that’s not where it stops—we’ve got shirts, we’ve got jackets, we’ve got—all of it is going to be coming up. Basically, any outdoorsy closet should be able to be filled with Alpine Parrot. That is the future I foresee.

RAPID FIRE ROUND:

Q: Favorite trail/ski area?

A: Lake Tahoe is one of my favorite places in the entire world. It’s where I learned how to ski, it’s where I learned real hiking. The eastern Sierras were my first backpacking trip, so like, that whole area is very, very special to me. There’s a trail in South Lake Tahoe that is called ‘The Powerline Trail,’ and it’s my favorite trail, just because there’s this one little overlook that looks out onto the entire lake, and in the fall it’s bright colors. It’s beautiful, it is just amazing, and it’s not too difficult of a trail, but it leads off into miles and miles and miles of trails if you wanted it. Or you can just do a little out and back situation, whatever you are feeling like, but it gets you out and just makes me so happy.

Q: Where is your favorite place to just relax outdoors?

A: Okay—living in Monterey, there is a spot that I call—that I think is also called on Google—Seal Beach. It is literally where a bunch of harbor seals nap during the day—because harbor seals are nocturnal—and so it is just—you go there, it’s fenced off—so you can’t pet the seals but I just love to sit there and watch. Inevitably, there is one seal that is, like, awake from their nap, just like scooching up on the beach and going down into the ocean. Sometimes if you just sit, watch, and wait, you see some sea otters playing in this little cove as well, and so that is one of my favorite places to just sit and watch, it’s really easy to access. Literally anybody can go, during pup season it’s really cute.

Q: Favorite baked goods?

A: I mean, I think I’m going to have to go with croissants. Like, if I could only have one for the rest of my life, I’d go with croissants, because I could eat my weight in croissants and it’d be totally fine. I love chocolate, but sometimes if you eat too much chocolate it gives you a tummy ache, and no one wants a tummy ache for the rest of their life. Croissants.

Q: Which Leave No Trace principle appears the most in your daily life?

A: I think the easiest one for me is just, like, picking up after myself—like all of the little bits of trash. In my family we have this policy: That any time we go camping, the number of hearts that is with us—each one has to find a piece of trash. The dogs count, but they aren’t going to find their own trash, so we have to take care of it for them. We’re always picking up after ourselves. I think that’s my answer.

Q: What is your favorite trail snack?

A: Dried Mango. Yeah, I know a lot of people don’t think about that one, but it is so good!

Q: What is one piece of gear that you always have in your bag?

A: Acknowledging that I have internal organs vs. external organs: I freakin’ love my PStyle, because I do not enjoy dropping trou in the woods. I have, like, issues with it, just—let’s just be honest here. So being able to pee while standing up is amazing.

Q: Thoughts on Creemees?

A: I grew up in Jersey, we have soft-serve, it’s very similar. However I will acknowledge that the creemee I had was creamier.

Q: Favorite genre of music/band?

A: I love boy bands from the 90’s, I’m not going to lie. There’s just something very special to me about all of the boy bands, especially the really weird ones that no one remembers like Five and LFO and 98 Degrees—all good. Backstreet Boys and N’Sync—fine, fine—All For One-—also good—just those little niche one-offs, like one-hit-wonders, but you bought the CD anyway, and you listened to the CD over and over again.

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