We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kynsi Saye a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kynsi, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Kompass Apparel is an outdoor-inspired clothing line that aims to motivate people to find their path in life and pursue it! We create comfortable clothes for people to wear while exploring beyond their comfort zone. Regardless of how big or small your adventure is, we want you to feel your best. Our mission is meaningful to us because we whole heartily believe that everyone is capable of anything they set their mind to and we want to inspire people to have big goals and not be discouraged to go out their and achieve them!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I majored in apparel merchandising at Colorado State University. Right after I graduated I started Kompass Apparel. I am a Colorado native and love the casual outdoorsy lifestyle. This lead me to wanting to pursue a career in fashion, focusing on lifestyle apparel mixed with activewear. Fitness is also another passion of mine. Growing up I was a gymnast and competitive dancer. That lead me to become a personal trainer and I am currently a CrossFit Coach. I wanted to combine my love for the outdoors with my love for fitness and that is how Kompass Apparel came to be!

Each one of my designs is inspired by a place that I have been. I design all the logos by hand out of my home and have a local screen printer print them for me! I use triblend fabrics mostly and pay close attention to the quality of the products I am using as well as the style. I want my products to be your “go-to” for all of your adventures! I aim to make people feel confident in my clothing and able to live their life to the fullest.

A fun fact about my brand is I really enjoy working with other small businesses and creating custom clothing for them. I work with yoga studios, gyms, breweries and all different types of businesses to create comfortable and fashionable apparel for them! I have a “Love Local” collection through Kompass Apparel that is all about supporting and connecting with local businesses!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

During the pandemic in 2020 I launched my Local Local collection. Basically for each sale that I made I would donate 50% of the profits to a small business of the customers choice.

First I created a logo that represented supporting the community and shopping local. From there I reached out to as many small businesses as I could and asked if they wanted to be a part of it. All they had to do was promote my campaign and drive people to my website. Each business was given a unique code and once customers placed an order, they picked the code of a local business they wanted to support and I would donate 50% to that business.

This campaign became bigger than I anticipated! It expanded to all parts of Colorado and I met a TON of businesses! It was an amazing networking opportunity for me and a great way to give back!

I still have my Local collection and to this day it is one of my best sellers! It was so fun to do this and be able to meet local businesses and meet so many people that loved shopping local!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Owning a small business is an emotional roller coaster! You have to be resilient to be able to keep going and make it successful. There isn’t one thing in particular that illustrates resilience, but many things throughout my journey. Starting out, it was hard to go to events and sell absolutely nothing or have a website and not make any sales for weeks. Instead of letting it bother me, I kept going and kept believing in my product and my brand. 8 years later, I have a successful business because I didn’t quit. However, to this day I still deal with rejection all the time! My main goal is to get into retailers and many retailers aren’t looking for products like mine or don’t even respond to my phone call or email. But I just keep trying every day and celebrate the few that do want my products or that simply respond to me! The main thing I have learned is that you have to believe in yourself and be confident in what you have to offer! That way even if no one else likes it, at least you can be proud of it!      

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kompassapparel.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kompass.apparel/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kompassapparelllc

Image Credits
Geri Saye