Steven Bright was on a chairlift at Breckenridge Ski Resort a couple years back with his wife Ashley Curry when the two started examining the outfits of other resort-goers. 

“We saw all the colorful elements of a typical ski outfit, except that everyone was wearing the same boring black gloves, including us,” Bright said. 

On the lift, they chatted about how hands are one of the most expressive parts of the body, but when it came to slope-style apparel gloves and mittens were always fairly muted. 

They began brainstorming ways in which people could express more individuality with gloves, while also noting how cold it could be taking off gloves to pull up a trail map on a phone when you’re lost at a ski resort. 

That chairlift brainstorming session would later go on to inspire their business. In September, Curry and Bright began selling Skittenz — mitten skins that have trail maps on them. Skins go over gloves, which allows them to be interchangeable.

“At some point, everyone has been lost on the mountain and hasn’t wanted to take out their phone and have cold fingers. … We thought it would be convenient and sensible to have trail maps in the palm of your hands,” Bright said. 

The Golden-based couple contacted Vail Resorts and got licensing to make skins with trail maps of Breckenridge Ski Resort, Keystone Resort, Beaver Creek Resort and Vail Ski Resort.

Bright said he has calls out to more resorts to further expand the amount of Skittenz trail maps.

“If you have a skin, you can slide it on at Keystone one day and Breckenridge the next day and still have your good mittens or good gloves underneath them,” Bright said. 

Curry and Bright both work in health care and, with much consideration, decided to take the leap into the apparel business this year. 

Given their longtime careers in health care, neither knew much about entrepreneurship or the apparel industry. Bright said this deterred them from pursuing the idea for a while. That was until Bright found a National Public Radio podcast that changed his mind. 

“I started listening to the How I Built This podcast … and realized that these founders or creators are very ordinary people who just take that first step, take that leap, which I’d never done before and this seemed like a good enough opportunity to do it,” Bright said. 

Curry and Bright wanted to have their gloves manufactured in Colorado, so their first stop was American Made Apparel Manufacturing in Aurora. They later picked up another Colorado manufacturer, Hookfish Manufacturing out of Denver. 

Bright said the company would love to partner with Colorado artists to get their prints on the skins as well. 

The skins are made of either a blend of polyester and spandex or nylon and spandex. Bright said they included spandex to give it the ability to conform to a user’s glove or mitten and it makes sizing a little more universal. For now the skins come in medium and large. 

The skins are coated in NikWax Coating, which Bright said “bonds the material tightly to that fabric, and creates a very effective water repellent layer.”

In addition to the four trail map skins there are also other skins with a variety of designs. Generally the skins go for $35 but for the month of December they are on sale for $24.99. More information can be found at Skittenz.com.