¶ Creating Sustainable Mountain Bike Apparel
Natasha Woodworth is the founder of Curious Creatures , a mountain bike apparel company that's taking the trails by storm . I've been testing a pair of her sundog pants and am obsessed . They are fabulous .
In this interview , we dive into what sets her brand apart from others in this space and what makes good mountain bike clothing , not just for performance , but also for style and comfort .
Natasha shares how her background at Patagonia has shaped her approach to design and sustainability , and how Bozeman , montana's rugged , train and tight-knit community continues to inspire her creations . Plus , we get real about balancing it all as a new mom and the CEO of a company .
Whether you're curious about the perfect gear or about navigating life as a designer in the bike industry , you'll enjoy this interview Real quick . Before we jump into today's episode , I want to tell you about the training plans I've created for you all .
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Podcast listeners get 50 50 off with coupon code podcast 50 . Head to femcyclistcom to get started today . Natasha , thank you so much for being here and I've got to tell you before we get started I have been testing out your sun dog pants and I really , really like them .
I test out a lot of bike clothing and I don't know why , but I was kind of skeptical before I got them and they are my favorite pants now . I like , want to wear them all the time I told my husband these are more comfortable than my sweatpants .
These are great , so nice . I love to hear that I'm a big fan of those .
Why did you start Curious Creatures ? And obviously there was like a lot of mountain bike apparel already out there . What sets you apart ?
Yeah , it was kind of a great timing with a lot of different things going on in our lives , but I had always wanted to start my own brand and I've been just really inspired by the mountain biking community in general , just like seeing it grow and seeing so many of my friends getting into it .
Um , and then you know , from all different levels and um perspectives of like lots of beginners getting into it or people that are starting to race and be very competitive , um , so just been like pretty inspired by seeing that um and also feeling like there was a lot , just like a little bit of a hole in the market , especially on the women's side , with some
clothes that were really technically designed , like .
My background is in product design and , um , I work on a lot of used to work on a lot of like super technical stuff where I would often be forced or asked to make things look really technical , and I felt like what I was actually seeing with people around me where they didn't want to necessarily like look super technical all the time , but wanted the
performance , the performance side , um , but wanted their clothing to just feel a little bit more like regular clothing or um mostly that they could feel like themselves too , like I heard that a lot with people that were , um , either new to biking or had been doing it for a long time .
They always felt like they were like putting on this like costume or like something that was just like not them , and I do feel like clothes are such a great avenue for expression and like creativity in that way , so I wanted to make clothes that people felt like it was just an extension of like their regular closet , but had that really technical and construction
and fabric and stuff like that .
That is something I really like , because it sometimes seems like ridiculous that we have to have this entire regular life wardrobe and this entire bike wardrobe , and it's nice to have pieces , that kind of transition between the two , and it's nice to have pieces , that kind of transition between the two .
Yeah , and it was like , yeah , inspired off a lot of trips that I did with my husband , whether it's like bike packing or you know , you're like bringing one pair of pants and then you might want to go out to a restaurant later , um , things like that , and just like working on that small kit of these things that could work for so many , uh , different
applications . Or like where you live .
I mean , obviously you bike a lot , but you probably do a lot of other things in the mountains too and um , building versatile product is also really exciting to me , so it was nice to be able to do that for live , for your creatures you see curious creatures being solely a mountain bike apparel , or you see yourself branching out from there yeah , I mean , I
really wanted to build a mountain bike brand and , um , I think there are a lot of like outdoor brands that are making mountain bike stuff , or there's lots of mountain bike stuff being made with within brands that care more about maybe like road cycling or care more about other types of cycling .
So I did feel like I was really excited for curious creatures to really be about mountain biking and that really special experience of being on a bike , which is so fun and makes you feel like you're a little kid again , but then you're also in these really remote beautiful places and um , experiencing wilderness in a way that is so different than maybe like road
riding and stuff like that . Um , so that that's a long answer of .
I do really want it to be rooted in mountain biking , but I've been really pleasantly surprised in a lot of these events we go to and when we're selling things , how people are like like , oh yeah , I bought these for mountain biking , I took them on a 10 day river trip and things like that , and that's also something that's really exciting to me because it
means you get to make less stuff in the world . If you can make like one pair of pants , that works really well for lots of mountain activities . That's really a win and great for the environment and great for just like not producing more stuff .
Yes , so you have a background at Patagonia , which is obviously well known for sustainability efforts . What have you taken from that to Curious Creatures ?
Yeah , I mean , that's like it was the craziest master's education in sustainability that I could possibly ask for is so nice . I mean , the way they approach design from the beginning is , uh , through the lens of sustainability and responsibility .
So even things like repairability is thought about at the beginning of the design of the garment , which is something that I think about now too , at Curious Creatures blue sign approved and meet these certain standards for responsible practices , because the mills where they actually make the fabric is the biggest carbon impact actually of the whole product , which is kind
of crazy . You know a lot of people are like , oh , you're shipping it and you're doing all these things , and that's true , but on the piece of the pie , the actual biggest carbon impact is just actually weaving the fabric um .
So really being cognizant of using good fabrics and good mill partners and I tried to use um 100 polyester in a lot of our stretch fabrics um , so that they could be recyclable at end of life , because usually when you make a really stretchy fabric , you add spandex and then it's like a ?
Um , a blend of two fabrics , two materials , and then that makes it so you can't recycle it um , but all , most all of our fabrics in the bottom , except for one short have , uh , no , spandex in it so that you can actually recycle it at end of life , which is cool , but yeah , I mean , I could go on and on .
There's so many things that that place taught me and it like , honestly , I was there for 10 years and I started as an assistant designer , and so everything I've learned about how to be a designer has really been from them and I'm just super grateful for that education . It's been awesome .
¶ Inclusive Mountain Bike Apparel Design
A lot of the other apparel brands in this space created by women are like Wild Rye and Shredley . They have focused on women's specific apparel . Why have you chosen to create like a unisex brand ?
Yeah , that's also a good question . It's probably a little bit um , even my whole career I've I started as um , the only woman's designer on the technical team and it was all men and they were like so excited to bring me on , because they were like , oh , you can have a woman's perspective and it's great because I can .
But I also feel like if you are a good designer and you design good product , I think that you should be able to do both if you want to . And , um , yeah , I've always liked , enjoyed working on men's stuff . Um , I definitely focused on women's in the launch collection .
I had a lot of guys that I ride with or in my community that were like what the heck , I want some men's stuff , and so I'm just happy to service both genders and , um , I also really like kind of the overlap sometimes .
Like I was just at an all-women's event and a couple women bought the men's pants because they were so tall and , um , they liked the longer inseam , and I think there's something kind of cool about having just different fits for different bodies outside of gender .
Um , yeah , that's kind of how I'm approaching some of the gender stuff , because , while I do think it's super important To listen to women's needs and build women's specific product .
It's kind of nice to build it for , yeah , different body types , different well shifting speaking of different body types , the outdoor industry is notorious for creating very small clothing and not being terribly size inclusive . What have you done to try to address that ?
yeah . So we actually um didn't do it super well in our launch season . We went up to size 14 , which was , I thought , big enough and , um , when you're super small and you're kind of only have so much funds to buy product , that just kind of made sense for us .
But I really quickly it was like so it was a mistake to not go up to , um , the bigger sizes . So I think it was like maybe eight months later or something , we were able to place another order with the factory and we went up to size 18 and 22 in some sizes , so in some style .
So we did try to get better at it and it's still like such a learning . I think I worked with Ashley who started Cosmic Dirt .
She did a little consulting for us on just how to build inclusive product , because it's not as simple as just being like , okay , add this amount , x , amount of inches everywhere , cause then you could end up with these like crazy parachute pants that are like really big at the ankles and tight at the waist or I don't know .
So it is still like definitely a learning and I think it's a super valid call out and I would get you know messages on Instagram from folks that were like I want to try your stuff , but I'm a size 16 . And that was like such a bummer , like oh gosh .
So I'm happy we got to make some more oh gosh , so I'm happy we got to make some more . Yeah , you mentioned earlier trying to design clothes that aren't too technical but are still functional . What , in your opinion , makes a pair of mountain bike clothing functional ? Like what ?
What do you , what makes you feel good and what have you tried to include in your designs ?
and what have you tried to include in your designs ? Yeah , um , I think for mountain biking it's a lot of . Well , I'll kind of start at the top .
So one thing I'm like pretty obsessed with is just the comfort like around your waist , because you're kind of bent over and you're like always coming up and down , so your waist circumference is like actually changing quite often . So if you have like a really static waistband , it could just dig in after a long time .
And especially if you have like a zipper and a fly and all this extra bulk down there , that can be like pretty uncomfy .
So I am always trying to think about that , to think about that and then always articulated for pedaling , um , just around the knees and even like some of the hip crease and stuff can be like kicked forward a little bit so that it's , um , really meant for that like bent position .
And then I think pockets like especially for women that get like these tiny crazy pockets , but having having enough pockets to put your snacks and your phone and things like that is really important . But yeah , I'm trying to think . What else I think I'm trying to always build it quite technical and performance driven and then just some of the like .
Design lines and aesthetic can be just a little bit more casual , even if it just means like instead of a really harsh angle , it can be like a little bit of a curve or something that looks a little bit more um , it just like looks a little less technical , but it's not actually impeding on any of the functionality .
That makes sense . It does . Yes , that was actually a very good description , because I have no design background whatsoever and as you talked I could think like oh , those pants , those are how those are . Like that , facing in is very comfortable , the pedaling motion . I don't ever feel restricted . So what does curious creatures mean ?
It's kind of an unusual name .
Yeah , it is funny and that's actually a good way to talk about your first question when you're like why did you start it ?
But I think the name is a good way to talk about why I started it because I wanted to really celebrate that curiosity aspect of being on your bike , that you know , seeing new places or being with new people , making new relationships , whether it's traveling on your bike and a little bit moving it away from maybe some of the more like race focused stuff out
there .
And then the creatures part is just that feeling of when you're back , when you're out on your bike , you're out in nature and you can kind of return back to being a creature in nature , um , and I think when we connect to , yeah , that like creature part of us , we can respect and appreciate the nature we're around and hopefully work to protect it and um ,
things like that .
But yeah
¶ Balancing Mountain Biking and Motherhood
, I love that . Yeah , you are a background with mountain biking . How did you get started ?
Yeah , um , let me think . So I was actually a ski racer , a competitive ski racer , and I did that for a long time and then even , um , professionally over in Europe and stuff . But I I mean like all ski racers would just like constantly have knee surgeries .
So I think I had like a couple years in a row where I would just get a knee surgery every spring . They'd go in and like fix my ACL or like clean things up , and biking was , um , the best rehab and it was like just so good for us .
And there would always be like a couple of us that were hurt , but instead of like getting back to running or skiing right away , biking was one of the first things that we could do , and so I always liked it for that reason .
And then I worked on it a little bit at Patagonia , actually , when they launched their mountain bike line , which was probably like 10 years ago now , and that kind of got me back into it where I was like , oh , maybe I'll actually buy a new mountain bike and it's been fun since then . And then my parents actually live in Eastbrook , vermont .
Oh , I've been there .
It's fabulous yeah .
Yeah , yeah , nice . But yeah , it's a good . It's an amazing back to that community aspect of biking , like they've just built so many trails and it's really helped that town and the people that live there and it's been cool to watch .
Yeah , and for people listening who don't know , that's like the kingdom trails that are there . Yeah , how long ago were you there ? Oh , it would have been in 2018 , I think . So it's been quite a while now . I'm sure it's gotten even better , but , yeah , I had a fabulous time there . I'm from the West . And so that's totally different for me .
Yeah . It's so green and so beautiful yeah , slippery , all these like roots and stuff , yeah you live in bozeman now .
Is that correct ? Why did you choose bozeman ?
um , I had a couple good friends that lived here and so I'd always visit a couple times a year , um , and yeah , it's just been really nice . Access to the mountains , it has lots of young families and stuff like that .
Like it's not super , um , it has all the things , but it's not like a doesn't feel so much like a resort town , like there's lots of um , regular people , all kinds of people that live here . Um , but yeah , it's been great .
It was a couple of us actually all moved here at the same time , so we just had good community here and yeah , it's been really nice . I still love skiing too , so that was like a big part of it was just being in winter and now it's like starting to feel like fall again and I really like it .
What ? What part of your competitive skiing background have you applied to mountain biking ?
Oh my gosh , mom , I'm not that good at mountain biking . Maybe falling Okay , like fall all the time , and sometimes people will be like whoa , and I think it's because I grew up just like falling a lot or like knowing how to fall and stuff , and so you're kind of like , oh , it's like no big deal when .
Sometimes I think if you're not used to falling and didn't grow up falling , it can really rattle you yeah , why mountain bike apparel rather than ski apparel ?
oh , I know a lot of people ask me this , but I think the answer or I know the answer is I just feel like there's so much good ski stuff out there and I actually worked on a lot of ski stuff at Patagonia and I do feel , like everyone , there's a lot of people making really good stuff and and there are people making really good mountain bike stuff too ,
but I just felt like my perspective in mountain biking was maybe a little bit , um , not already out there . Okay , that makes sense , it does , yeah in bozeman .
What are your favorite trails ?
yeah , we have like we're lucky we're at the bottom of highlight , which is the big national forest , and um , there's like a really quick after work loop called leverage . That's very popular , but it's nice because we can ride from our house . But we do like going to Big Sky and riding there .
There's lots of good trails and then Bang tail is also a great one , kind of like a longer day . But I haven't done that since I had my daughter and I need to go do it . So that's on the list . I'm like , oh , it's been a long time . How old is your daughter ? She is 10 months .
Okay , so obviously very busy right now .
Yeah , how like I mean .
I'm sure , like many women listening right now have time constraints , mom's jobs . How do you find time to balance it all and still get out on your bike or get out on your skis as well ?
Oh my gosh , I don't know , I don't know I do . I feel like I'm just coming up for air with some of that stuff now , like , um , I think when she was first born it was hard to get out and we would ski and take turns and stuff like ski in the resort . But I love backcountry skiing now and that's been kind of hard to get back to .
But , um , yeah , I feel like the past couple of months I'm finally in the zone where I'm like , okay , I do have time to go out on my bike and , um , I'm not good at it , so I'm not going to say , but I have heard some great advice from friends that are um more about just like saying no to certain things and just saying no to a little bit more .
And especially if you're people like us that really value our active time and like being outside , you know that's really high on the priority list and to not feel bad about it .
I listened to a good podcast on hidden brain about time and I really enjoyed it because she was kind of saying like , write out , write everything down that you do for a week and kind of rate it Like how happy does it make you , how does it make you and then if you look at some of that stuff , yeah then you don't have to feel bad .
If you're like , okay , I spent two hours riding my bike but it was like a nine . Or I got coffee with my friend and it was a nine , um versus . Then you know to like kind of protect those things in your time management , if that makes sense it absolutely does .
I think I do that similar thing , but maybe not as formal yeah , yeah , but no , it's super hard and I'm not .
I'm she's my first kid , so I'm very new to it all . Yeah , it does get easier .
You're in the hardest part right now , for sure . Yeah , do you have kids ? I do . I have a . He just turned 12 this last week , so yeah , and so now he's loves mountain biking and it's skiing and he's like very easy to get out with .
So , oh , awesome , like all the hard work you do when they're young pays off yeah , well , I should ask you , you should give me the advice , oh , oh , I don't know , I still struggle with the time management part , but yeah , but it does get easier .
Um , what have I not asked you that you would like people to know ?
Oh gosh , I can't really think of anything .
Um , I mean just a little bit about our team is really small , like um , and I would like to just say like thank you to Anna , who's really kind of my first employee , and she just started a couple hours here and there and now she's like going to all these mountain bike events and doing such a good job and , um , yeah , I think like some we're kind of at
this weird point where it looks maybe it like looks bigger than it is , but it's really just me and her and then like a couple of contractors that will , that are friends , that help for projects here and there . But yeah , I just feel like that's something that I didn't really expect in starting a business .
Feel like that's something that I didn't really expect in starting a business .
Like I was so excited to make products the way I wanted to , and what's been really nice and really rewarding is like meeting all these different people to work with and how great they've all been and how supportive , even just like the Bozeman community has been , and that's been just like a really nice um bonus yeah , I love that .
Where do you know yet what events you'll be at in the coming year ?
um , I don't know , we just finished um Rome Fest and Brit Fest , which were so fun , and Anna got to go to the south , which was like pretty cool because we haven't really had a presence there at all , yeah , and then it kind of like slows down a little bit over the winter .
So , if you have any recommendations because I do love going to the event , it's really fun because you know , it's just like I said , such a small team and we're working down here in our basement and going to the events when people can try stuff on and be like , oh wow , like I really like these or I can never find shorts that fit me , and that's been super
nice and rewarding .
I have three final questions for you , but before that , where can people come learn more about your brand ?
Yeah , so our website is wearecuriouscreaturescom and check out our product there . We have an Instagram that's also wearecuriouscreatures . We're not in any wholesale accounts yet , so buying stuff online is still the only way , but we do have free shipping and returns if you need to find your right size and stuff like that .
Very good . Final three questions . The first one is what bike or bikes do you ride ?
Oh , I have a Santa Cruz 5010 and it's actually pretty old . Like somebody was making fun of me the other day and I was like oh no , but I love it . I'm just like so comfortable on it I almost I don't want to upgrade . I have to like relearn , but yeah , yeah , great .
It's also that sustainability piece right . You've got to ride your bike for a while , yeah .
And I do have a gravel bike too , actually . And what's that ? That's a specialized crux , okay .
Second question is where is your favorite place ? You've ever ridden your mountain bike .
I think we went to Oaxaca and did some bikepacking there and I had a really good time because I think bikepacking like especially the little loop we did it was a good combo of like grinding it out on the uphill and then fun downhill .
That was actual like real single track , and so it had like a little bit of that adventure part , but then some actual good riding too and we could like even ditch our bags for a day and rode a lot of the single track . So I think that was a pretty fun trip .
And then when you got just rode from town too , which was really cool , and then you finish and you can like go get a margarita , it's the best .
Final question is what is your favorite thing about riding your bike ?
Oh , definitely just that feeling of like , feeling like a little kid or a little creature . Um , it's just . It's really different than anything else , and I suppose you get it in skiing a little bit too . But something about bikes it's like that's why they're called those freedom machines or something there's it just like pulls something in your heart .
That's a bit of like freedom , exploration and like youthfulness or something I just keep coming back to , that of like that feeling of being a child again .
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