Brand Spotlight: Wild Rye

When Smith Optics announced it would relocate its headquarters from Sun Valley, Idaho, to Portland, Oregon in 2014, Cassie Abel made a last-minute decision not to relocate. Instead, she gave entrepreneurship a go and launched White Cloud Communication the following summer, and in 2016 co-founded the women’s outdoor apparel brand Wild Rye. In late 2018, Abel became the sole owner of Wild Rye, and moved the brand from Lake Tahoe to Sun Valley.

After a decade working in the outdoor industry, Abel wanted to provided better apparel options for women, while building a community to match. Committed to also building a sustainability-minded brand, Wild Rye uses recycled materials the meet rigorous environmental and animal welfare standards, offers customers the option at checkout to offset the carbon footprint of their order, and ships orders in recycled and recyclable paper mailers.

As a female owned and operated brand, Wild Rye is dedicated to getting more women outdoors, and supports other organizations with the same goal. In 2018, Abel also launched Women-Led Wednesday as a way to highlight and elevate female-owned businesses. On this annual holiday that happens the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the public is encouraged to shop at women-led businesses focused on active lifestyle, outdoor apparel, home goods, beauty products, kids’ gear, and more. This year’s Women-Led Wednesday is November 24. Check out the nearly 500 brands in the Women-Led Wednesday directory here.

Wild Rye’s line of mountain bike apparel is designed for women, by women, and includes a broad range of sizes and creative and complementary colorways and prints.



The Path partnered with Wild Rye earlier this year to stock its mountain bike shorts, jerseys, pants, socks, gloves, water bottles, and hats, available at our Tustin store and online.