Welcome to Field Notes

Welcome to the SENIQ Route

A new path for modern outdoor women

Backstory—

It all started at Victoria’s Secret. I know—there are plenty of horror stories about this place. But if you peel back those layers, you’ll find that the years from 2013 to 2019, when Madi & I worked as assistant merchants, were truly magical. They feel like some of the last “classic” years of retail before COVID and the rise of remote work changed nearly everything. At that time, Victoria’s Secret was growing at lightning speed and brought in industry experts from all over the world to move to little Ohio and lead the merchandising teams. They empowered younger staff to learn, experiment, fail, and try again. We were fortunate enough to find ourselves in one of the best retail training boot camps out there, created by the man who invented merchandising himself.

Madi and I were fresh out of college. We had actually gone to the same high school and college, but it wasn’t until we were at VS HQ that we truly got to spend time together & become friends. It was the early morning meetings, late night buy review preps, exhilarating work trips, and all the trauma-bonding that comes with being a young professional. VS was where we learned the fundamentals of merchandising and were first exposed to the hustle that is retail. We fell in love with it, especially since we both grew up with two strong mothers—both of whom are retail veterans—so it felt like home.

One stand-out moment at VS happened on an ordinary Tuesday. While Madi was crushing buy-review prep, I was standing by her desk and had an out-of-body experience. I vividly remember this gut-feeling, realizing that not only was Madi one of the smartest people I had ever been around, but that I would work for her someday. I blurted this out, and it probably sounded even stranger out loud than it does in writing—especially since we were in the early stages of being friends. But something deep in my gut was speaking to me. This might have been my first experience with manifestation. And thank god it was.

Fast-forward a few years, and Madi and I had gone down our separate career paths, hopping between a few different companies. She spent time in the jewelry industry, while I dove head-first into the outdoors. I had just moved to Utah to take on a role at Backcountry and quickly realized a.) what an amazing company it was, and b.) how much I didn’t know anyone and would do anything to have a hometown friend nearby. Then, a role opened up, and the stars aligned—Madi moved to Utah to join the women’s buying team, while I was working on the owned-brands category as a merchant & product developer.

Utah became the place that truly fostered our love for the outdoors and the outdoor industry. It brought us closer to the female outdoor consumer through work and allowed us to become her ourselves (thanks to the insane access to world-class nature). We hiked, we trail ran, we river floated, we curled, we went skiing—we embraced almost every minute of this new outdoor lifestyle. And, as you can probably guess, there was one part we didn’t love: getting dressed for these activities.

Stumbling Upon The Whitespace—

This was around 2022, after COVID, when more women than ever were getting outdoors—most for the very first time. New brands like Hikerkind, Alder, Halfdays, and FP Movement were scaling rapidly, and even legacy brands were starting to prioritize women in their assortments and marketing campaigns (like TNF and Arcteryx). There was so much good energy building for women in the outdoors, but it still felt like a critical piece of the puzzle was missing.

On a granular level, the biggest gap we noticed in our own outdoor pursuits during the summer of 2022 in Utah was the perfect pair of hiking pants. We’d show up at the trailhead in our poorly fitting yet high-performing pants, giggling at each other, and then take on the terrain ahead. (By the way, my favorite trail in Utah is Gloria Falls in Cottonwood Canyon). The worst part of getting outdoors was getting dressed.

On a macro level, what was missing were two things:

Outdoor wardrobe pieces that strike the perfect balance between trend and functionality. It felt like we had to choose between gear that was cute and matched our aesthetics or functional yet masculine hiking pants.
At the same time we were coming to this realization firsthand, we noticed a cultural shift happening in the outdoors. Mainly from our own circle of girlfriends, we were getting outdoors more for our minds than our bodies. Accelerated by COVID, the burnout was real for our generation, and more women were escaping to the outdoors for a mental reset rather than physical activity. Getting outdoors became less about building muscle or burning calories, and more about practicing mindfulness or a free form of therapy.

The Brand Approach—

We set out to build our dream outdoor community—one that empowers women to prioritize their mental health and values enjoying the journey over focusing on the destination. Less “grind to the summit,” more “soak in the view.”

On one of Utah’s finest powder days, I was stuck inside, recovering from ACL surgery. My mental health was shot. I remember staring out my tiny bedroom window at the mountains, feeling completely broken. Then something shifted. I thought, I can either sit here feeling bitter that my best pals are having the time of their lives on the mountain, or I can try to embrace this stillness, take the scenic route through this recovery, and appreciate the blessings all around me.

The moment I pictured the words scenic route, a lightbulb went off. That’s it. I texted Madi immediately: What if we named our dream brand Scenic Route? She replied right away: What if it’s just Scenic? After some trademark research, we realized a fresh spelling was the most viable way to bring the idea to life. And so—SENIQ was born.

The idea of “taking the SENIQ route” speaks to us deeply. It’s how we approach both everyday life, our careers, and the outdoors—with intention, softness, strength. We hope to inspire other women to take the SENIQ route too, whatever that may look like for them.

First 12 Months of SENIQ—

Once we made these realizations we decided to clear our schedules the next Sunday and write a business plan. We opened up Canva and selected the prettiest business plan template we could find (highly recommend this exercise). This was the exercise that became the catalyst for SENIQ. It forced us not only to think and talk through the bits and pieces of our strategy, but it also forced us to write it down. Another subliminal manifestation moment. This gave us clarity on what product categories we wanted to develop, what consumers we wanted to target, and how we planned on doing that. The business plan took us a week to start and finish— and after that SENIQ took on a life of its own and our blissfully ignorant inertia began. The next 6 months felt a lot like… are we doing this?! We are really doing this aren't we?! Wow, let's do this!

We decided to quit our stable corporate jobs, a very surreal leap to take, and pick-up less demanding day-jobs to float us financially during the first year of development before the brand launch. While working our new-found jobs during the day, we were building the beginnings of SENIQ in the evenings and on weekends. There was this energy and momentum that almost felt euphoric. And there were so many signs from the universe that this was meant to be— like our first interview to find a designer being the same beautiful human we still work with today, or landing a handful of incredible female angel investors who understand the retail space in & out. There was something bigger happening here and we were heads down focused on building the best product we possibly could and told ourselves we would figure out the rest.

We didn't give ourselves a timeline right away, but once all of the funding and production pieces were in place, we decided we would give ourselves until March of 2024 (12 months exactly) to develop our dream trail collection. Our dream collection looked like 8 styles that could be mixed and matched from street to trail. We wanted these styles to be the foundation for the lifecycle of the brand that we could build on for many years to come.

It all felt surreal—but the wildest moments were:

Taking the leap from our corporate jobs and scaling back our personal expenses to make this dream possible.
Hosting fittings for our own designs—after sitting through hundreds of fit sessions for other brands—this time in a room full of women designing with us, for us.
Landing fabrications and color palettes that felt true to our vision, without the endless loops and approvals of a big organization.

Writing our very first purchase order—easily one of the most terrifying (and thrilling) moments of my life. Wiring that much money to a foreign account? I was truly sweating.It was dreamy and glittery. Until the nerves and anxiety hit hard right before launch.

Launching The Brand—

I am still to this day dissecting this, but after talking with other founders who also experience the same thing, there is this funny internal battle that happens before a launch. It's quiet before the storm. Your mind finally catches up to your body that has been running 1000mph to bring this vision to life and you begin to question yourself, rethink, or even doubt. Maybe its because as a creative I am highly emotional, so launching a product feels like opening my diary for the world to read. But I remember vividly feeling this oddness for the first time before our March 2024 launch (currently feeling it as we are getting ready to launch our SS25 collection). Maybe my instincts knew that we had just climbed an incredible mountain, and were yet at the bottom of an even bigger one that comes with now having a brand live and in the world. The exhaustion, the fear, the pressure was building and starting to bubble to the surface. This didn't stop us.

We launched the brand on March 13, 2024. It was a day to remember. At 10AM a WWD article launched with an exclusive coverage about SENIQ and our mission (we knew this article was coming but there was no promise of when). We unveiled our brand statement video to the world through our social platforms. And we introduced our trail system. The sales rates blew our expectations out of the water. I thought we would do $100K in sales in the first year as a brand, we hit that goal in the first quarter. We laughed. We cried. We hugged. We took a minute to sit. It was one of the best days of this experience so far.

First Year Of SENIQ—

I think that little pause signal weirdness from the beloved gut before our brand launch was a friendly warning. A warning of the beautiful insanity that was to follow the launch. It is a wonderful thing getting to build a brand that isn't in the world yet, isn't open to interpretation, operation gaps, product defects, or marketing misses. Doesn't have timelines or critics or unhappy customers. But that is the fun of this isn't it? Being an entrepreneur is the wildest experience because almost daily you are kicked in the nuts and get to keep pursuing your commitment to this sport (business). It gives you every single reason to give up and walk away, almost daily. And when you don't, is when you get stronger.

Everyday was filled with an MBA full of learning. Biggest takeaways were:

Buy to sell out is the best way to build organic demand
Get crystal clear about marketing messages and have a few target channels to communicate through
Say ‘No’ way more than you think you should— to anything that will steer you away from your goals and vision
Set up processes that allow for operational excellence

Fast Forward 1 Year Later—

The goal of our first year at SENIQ was simple: prove the concept. Were there other women out there who felt the same way we did—craving outdoor apparel that finally balanced tech and trend, performance and femininity, strength and softness? The answer was a resounding yes. And we’re still pinching ourselves.

Now, in year two, the mission shifts: it’s time to spread the word. What started as a whisper between two friends is now a call to women everywhere. Whether through social, community, wholesale partners, or the trails themselves—we’re turning up the volume.

Because we believe the outdoors is more than a place. It’s a mindset. It’s a reset. It’s a powerful reminder that you can do hard things—and look really good doing them.

With love from the SENIQ Route,

Tina & Madi