This weekend, I stood on stage in front of over 200 powerhouse women, fueled by coffee, butterflies, and three years of BirdieBlue grit, and pitched our mission to keep outdoor gear out of landfills and put it back into the hands of women who love to get outside.
(T9 Pitchfest Organizer Extrodinaire Lisa Gilliand sporting a BirdieBlue Fanny throughout the festivities)
As a female founder of a small, but mighty upcycling business, I was honored to be chosen as a finalist for Title Nine Pitchfest, an event that supports women-owned brands designing gear by and for women who get outside. It's not just a pitch competition. It's a movement.
I had 7 minutes to share the BirdieBlue story. Then came 7 minutes of tough, thoughtful questions from a legendary panel of judges.
(BirdieBlue's Founder Kate mid pitch!)
They asked the questions you’d expect from any major retail partner:
👉 How are we scaling production of our upcycled bags?
👉 How do we manage labor costs with a domestic sewing network?
👉 How do we replicate styles using one-of-a-kind upcycled materials?
These are exactly the kinds of questions I’ve been preparing for as we work to bring sustainable bags made from recycled ski gear to a larger market.
And while I didn’t walk away with a purchase order or the title of Pitchfest winner, I walked away with so much more. Real talk and encouragement from women I’ve admired for years including Title Nine's founder Missy Park, Michelle Wahler, founder of Beyond Yoga (aka my daily uniform), and Rhonda Swenson, founder of KrimsonKlover. We are now also exploring new partnership opportunities with fellow purpose-driven brands. It was a weekend full of inspiration, high ropes course moments, and shared stories, proving that community over competition always wins
Of course, I was super disappointed not to win a purchase order. Missy told me directly, “We’re just not ready for a business model like yours.” Yes, we are doing something very different than others in the industry. We can't order thousands of units from China. We are not growing just to grow. What we are doing is hard and has taken more than two years to figure out just how to scale efficiently. And honestly this feedback and loss fuels me even more.
Because I am ready.
I'm more fired up than ever to prove that purpose and profit are not mutually exclusive.
At BirdieBlue, we are building a circular economy business that’s designed to save thousands of pounds of technical apparel from landfills, create flexible jobs for women in rural Vermont and beyond, and inspire everyday adventurers with bags that carry joy, grit, and story. No, I didn’t win the pitch. But I came home with something just as powerful: a renewed fire, a deeper community, and the momentum to keep going.
So thank you, Title Nine. Thank you to the incredible judges and finalists. And thank you to the BirdieBlue community for believing in what we’re building.
The pitch may be over, but this mission is just getting started.
Let’s carry purpose together.
xo,
Kate
Founder + Chief Upcycler-in-Charge
BirdieBlue 💙♻️