Mallory Ottariano: Youer

By Megan Davin

Images by Aleks Was, Isaac Miller, & Mallory Ottariano

—Mallory Ottariano, founder of Youer

The box of unfinished garments on her doorstep wasn’t the first time that Mallory Ottariano found herself saddled with a production headache. In the nine years since she’d started her activewear apparel company, Ottariano had received damaged pallets, misprinted fabrics, and incorrectly cut and sewn products, and she’d been unexpectedly dropped by production facilities in favor of larger contracts and producers.

On this occasion, Ottariano— founder and “chief everything officer” of Missoula-based Youer— had been counting on her factory partners to deliver hundreds of pieces of apparel, expertly sewn in the United States and ready to send out to customers around the country. Instead, she had a box of half-sewn and unfinished products that were unsellable in that condition.

“I sometimes can’t believe all this stuff happens to us,” said Ottariano. To the dogged entrepreneur, the bad luck felt almost “on brand;” after so many mishaps, she’d grown used to such twists and turns. “Apparel manufacturing in the United States is a mess, and I realized that if my business was going to thrive, I needed to take control of every element of production.”

Now, she’s embarking on the latest chapter of her business journey: She’s launching her own soup-to-nuts production factory in Missoula, Montana— the first of its kind in the state, and a potential model for how sustainable apparel manufacturing can thrive in the United States.

To help fun this factory, Youer launched its "CSA"— short for “Community Supported Apparel”— fundraising campaign earlier this fall, raising more than $27,000 in just the first hours of the campaign. If 2020 taught the 31-year-old founder anything, it’s that the manufacturing and production systems are broken, and to maintain the quality and control she wants over her products, she has to take matters into her own hands through vertical integration. Her plans currently call for a 2,500-square foot facility on an acre of land in Missoula, where she’ll eventually train and employ an estimated 10-15 employees.

Ambitious? Yes. But for Ottariano, that’s perhaps the most “on brand” ethos of all.

Ottariano is no stranger to apparel manufacturing. In 2012, at 22, she started an Etsy business— originally called Kind Apparel, before Youer’s eventual rebrand in 2020— with a $100 sewing machine and some extra space in her parents’ basement. Her first pieces of clothing were created from upcycled materials found at local thrift stores and then stitched together and given a new life and artistic style. That story quickly changed as she became deeply rooted in the outdoor industry and started making the clothes she wanted to buy but couldn’t find in the marketplace: bright-colored, well-fitting crossover athleticwear. She sourced sustainable fabrics, milled in the U.S. and made from recycled plastic bottles, and prioritized low waste dyes and printing to preserve water and eliminate harsh chemicals. And she reveled in bright, funky patterns; a self-taught artist and designer who refined the skills in design school, Ottariano designs each print in the Youer collection.

“My goal has always been to give people the tools to express their individuality through style,” said Ottariano.

Along the way, she built an enthusiastic fan base of women customers around the country who flocked to Youer for comfortable, brightly patterned and colored clothes that are also made in the U.S. Her clothes routinely sell out swiftly, snatched up after dropping on her website. Her vision, business model, and acumen landed her accolades among women entrepreneurs in the outdoor industry, and she won the prestigious Title Nine Pitchfest in 2018.

But no amount of enthusiasm from her customers, or cheerleading from industry contacts, could erase the problems Ottariano was facing in production. She explains that when she was growing up, her dad always used to say, “you can’t help others until you can help yourself,” and for her, that rings more true now than ever.

“Just two percent of the clothes we purchase in the United States are made in the U.S., and next to none of those are produced in Montana,” said Ottariano. She’s on a mission to change that, fueled by equal parts vision and necessity. After all, supplier mismanagement and errors nearly put Youer out of business more than once.

“Tough is an understatement,” she said, recalling those setbacks, “We went 7 months without inventory in 2020, but our customers were rooting for us to succeed the whole way. When we announced that building our own factory was the solution to our problems, we were met with so much joy and support and overwhelming messages of ‘how can we help?’”

For Ottariano, the future of this company is so much more than apparel. Youer is about celebrating everything that makes you different. Youer makes products that are kind to the planet, but the ethos of this company is to stand out from the crowd.

“It’s about showing the world your personality through bold colors and bright patterns, and it’s about celebrating all the different ways women get after it for everyday adventure,” said Ottariano. “Life isn’t all about summits and traverses. It’s about all the things we do every day— kicking butt at work, raising a family, trying a new recipe for dinner, fixing a flat, getting an extra hour of sleep, and living. Our clothes should support and celebrate all of those adventures.”

After all, adventure comes naturally for Youer’s leader, and she frequently chooses the path with a healthy dose of the unknown. Her tolerance for risk is often the determining factor in “success.” From her understanding, if a goal doesn’t scare the shit out of her, then the opportunity for growth isn’t significant.

According to Ottariano, “There’s something very odd about entrepreneurs. We have this wild love for what we do. A commitment that seems totally unreasonable to many people. A passion that fuels us to work all night, flake out on plans, put our personal well-being to the side and make people in our lives feel less important than this powerful (often invisible) obsession.”

Luckily, she says, her customers have joined her in that obsession: A supportive and enthusiastic community is at the heart of the brand. That enthusiasm inspired the CSA. While the factory’s building will ease growing pains for Youer, Ottariano also hopes it will inspire change across the clothing industry— and help consumers better understand where and how their clothes are made.

“I’m a storyteller by nature,” she said, “and the factory I’m building is both a way to ethically produce clothing and a way to bring consumers into the process, showing them what apparel manufacturing can and should look like.”

MEGAN DAVIN is motivated by her desire to deeply connect with and learn from nature. Her dedication to pursuing as much time outside as possible is fueled by a need to understand, appreciate, and protect the places we play. She aims to ride bikes, ski, garden, and run in the mountains for as long as she can. It’s about being out there, appreciating the stark contrast between human and environment, and understanding we are all connected and not so different after all.

shopkindapparrel.com | @shopyouer

ALEKS WAS | fotografed.com @fotografed_

ISAAC MILLER | isaacmillerphotography.com @isaacmphoto