Halfdays’ Skiwear for Cool Girls Is a Hit on the Slopes and the Streets

Their company hit $20 million in sales last year by bucking the ‘shrink it and pink it’ method of making sports gear for women.

BY ALI DONALDSON, STAFF REPORTER @ALICDONALDSON

Even as an Olympic skier, Kiley McKinnon at times felt unwelcome on the slopes, as instructors and Black Diamond tryhards pushed past her to make their way through the powder. In the years since she competed in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games in aerials (a freestyle skiing event involving flipping and twisting off a single ramp), she’s made it her mission to ensure other women—especially first-timers and the aperol-spritz-at-the-lodge crowd—aren’t too intimidated to enjoy the sport that she’s loved since she was 3 years old. One barrier to entry for many? Finding gear that fit their bodies and their recreational bent.

Her answer is Halfdays, an outdoor apparel brand offering technical and fashion-forward ski gear designed for women, which she launched alongside co-founders Ariana Ferwerda and Karelle Golda in 2020. 

The brand’s snow pants, puffers, and base layers come in an array of colors and at a lower price point than other style-oriented competitors, such as Arc’teryx, Goldbergh, and Moncler. The collections have been a hit with Halfdays’ target audience: young women. Last year, the Denver-based startup surpassed $20 million in annual revenue and secured a $10 million Series A funding round, with investments from the Kellwood Company, Dick’s Sporting Goods Ventures, and former Victoria’s Secret angel Taylor Hill. 

The idea was born out of McKinnon’s own experience as an elite athlete who had to compete in men’s ski gear—landing a full double full (a maneuver involving three rotations and two backflips) in pants that, to fit her waist, came up short on her 5-foot-9 frame. She saw an opening for a brand that could provide female skiers with more tailored fits and flattering looks. The next year, she met Ferwerda, who became the company’s CEO. Six months later, Golda joined to handle marketing and brand partnerships before stepping away from day-to-day operations in 2023. 

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Like a good downhill run, the company has gained momentum through the turns, expanding from its initial direct-to-consumer reach into hundreds of retail stores. You’ll find racks of the upstart’s parkas, bib pants, and athletic gear at REI, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Revolve, Shopbop, Christy Sports, a mountain town ski chain, and the shops at tony Aspen Snowmass and Vail Resorts. Even though the Halfdays website still accounts for the vast majority of sales, between 60 and 70 percent, wholesale revenue has surged by over 5x in the past two years. With that boost, the company projects more than $30 million in sales in 2026. 

With its amateur-friendly ethos and technically sound construction, Halfdays has engineered its ascent by making city dwellers feel like there’s room for them on the mountain. The brand’s largest market is New York City. Free events, like ski meetups, rooftop happy hours, and watch parties for the Winter Olympics, have pulled in an outdoor-curious crowd, many of whom may not have skied since childhood and want to get back into the sport before a bachelorette weekend or a trip with their in-laws. Halfdays connects with customers off the slopes too, hosting group hikes, Galentine’s Day walks, and Pilates classes for anyone who follows the brand’s social media accounts or joins the community Slack channel and decides to show up. In 2025, the brand hosted nearly 200 get-togethers in more than 40 cities and ski areas. Its largest, a ski meetup in Park City that coincided with the launch of a new collection, attracted around 500 people.

Not only do a high portion of those women come back to another meet-up, the co-founders say, but they typically return with a friend or two in tow. Even among this demographic, which might ski only a few times a year, more than a third of customers become repeat shoppers.

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