Exploring Life & Business with Mary Lauder of Verta Mountain Club

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Lauder

Hi Mary, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Ever since I was a young girl, I have been disappointed with the options for women’s ski and snowboard apparel. In high school and college I would shop for outfits with my mom and barely find anything I even wanted to try out. In my 20’s girlfriends who were getting into skiing would approach me and ask “Where should I buy gear from? Everything I’ve found so far is terrible!” and I’d begrudgingly tell them that I still hadn’t come across a brand that I loved. After spending my 20’s working in finance, I decided I wanted to spend the rest of my life solving this problem. I left my finance job in 2022 and moved to New York to work in DTC beauty to learn how brands were built and run. This fall, I left that role to focus 100% on building Verta Mountain Club – a women’s ski and snowboard apparel business that empowers and celebrates women and encourages more to join mountain sports.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
By far, my biggest struggle has been finding the right product development partners. Skiwear is very technical! And people aren’t going to buy your product if you haven’t designed everything very intentionally and thoughtfully. This spring, I started working with a new development partner who has experience specifically with outdoor and ski and I’m really hoping I finally found the right fit.

I’ve also started to facilitate more outside feedback to make sure the products I’m making are what people truly want and solve their problems. From Facebook Group posts, to TikToks, to product development surveys, I’m trying to leave no stone uncovered. If you’re reading this and have a pain point – please reach out to me!!

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Verta Mountain Club?
Verta Mountain Club was created to empower your mountain adventure. We want to be known for making beautiful products that allow you to pursue your life’s greatest adventures. Right now, we’re focused on women’s snow apparel and believe there are a LOT of improvements to be made. Someday, we’d like to improve hiking and other outdoor sports apparel as well.

At Verta, we aim to make mountain sports more inclusive for women. So much of the marketing in mountain sports reinforces the age old belief that these are activities for men, and that women aren’t priority. We believe that by creating beautiful products for women, we can bring more women into the sports and show them how incredible mountain adventures can be.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Any mentorship I’ve received or networking I’ve done has happened really organically – mostly previous bosses or co-workers. I will say that when you’re looking for new opportunities, it’s so important to make connections. If you’re applying for a job, reach out to the recruiter or hiring manager online. If you’re looking for feedback on your products, join Facebook Groups in relevant interest groups and make connections there. It can be scary but the connections you’ll create are incredibly worth it!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://VertaMountainClub.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vertamountainclub/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VertaMountainClub
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marylauder/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marylauder
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@vertamountainclub

Image Credits
You can just tag @VertaMoutainClub for credit. Let me know if you need different sizes of any of the photos!