Outdoor apparel brand Halfdays has secured $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Kellwood Company, with support from Dick’s Sporting Goods Ventures and model Taylor Hill, reported Business of Fashion.
Over the last five years, the Colorado-based brand has carved out a niche in the outdoor market with its focus on stylish and functional skiwear for women.
Co-founder and CEO Ariana Ferwerda, who started the company with Karelle Golda and former Olympic skier Kiley McKinnon, reflected on how this funding round, after raising smaller amounts of money since the brand’s inception, felt different.
“We’ve moved from ‘are we going to make it?’ to ‘how do we grow this thing in the best possible way?’ and that shift is subtle but massive,” Ferwerda wrote. “It’s the difference between surviving and scaling. Between asking for belief and having earned it.”
The Halfdays founders decided to raise money again last spring, after a strong winter season with accelerated growth and high sell-through rates. The founders faced a choice: continue to grow slowly or raise capital to ensure they could grab opportunities as they arose.
With the new funding, Halfdays plans to grow its core winter and ski collections; continue expanding into year-round trail, active and everyday performance apparel; accelerate wholesale growth with existing partners and new partners such as Revolve and Shopbop; and invest in brick-and-mortar retail, according to a news release.
“This round lets us hire the people we’ve dreamed of, say yes to the opportunities that used to feel out of reach, and take Halfdays further into what it was always meant to be: a year-round outdoor brand for women who love style, function, and a little fun in their gear,” Ferwerda wrote.
Halfdays was founded in 2020 after McKinnon competed in men’s ski pants at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Together with Ferwerda, she wanted to challenge the “shrink-it-and-pink-it” approach of the outdoor industry. The company opened its first flagship in Denver in December 2024, and is also available in more than 150 doors across North America, including Dick’s Sporting Goods, REI, Backcountry, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s.
“If there’s a lesson in any of this, it’s that you can do big things,” Ferwerda wrote. “Really big things.”
