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About a year ago, Greg Casals and Allie Thielens didn’t have their own company, but they did have a mutual vision: clothing that looks good but is also super functional and made of high performance, technical fabrics.

By October of 2014, this vision had already materialized into the launch of NINOX’s first collection—4 jackets that use technical performance fabrics in a more sophisticated way. They have since released a few more pieces including hoodies, pants, and shirts while hoping to further the expansion of this collection in the near future.

While this is all very impressive, it’s a type of ambition that Casals would say isn’t all that unique in Boulder.

“When you’re starting a company from the ground up, working a ton of hours, and doing everything you can to get noticed, it is great inspiration to look around at the many companies in Boulder that also started with just an idea.”

Not just tech ideas either—and that is something that Casals and his business partner Thielens think deserves to be highlighted.

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If you have ever been to a fashion event in Denver, chances are you have bumped elbows with Brandi Shigley, of Fashion Denver. The bubbly and enthusiastic fashionista is Denver’s unofficial mascot for the fashion community, promoting and emceeing a plethora of events every season and promoting the fashion community from her World Headquarters in the Golden Triangle. She hosts workshops entitled “Love What You Do, Do What You Love,” and its clear from her positive aura that there is truly no one in Denver more qualified to speak on making a career out of following a passion.

Her story is an interesting one. Abandoned at an orphanage in the Philippines by her birth parents, she came to Denver at 16 months, and was adopted by a couple in Denver. Her father was a tower crane operator who worked on Republic Plaza and her mother worked at a bank. Shigley attended Smokey Hill High School and started making and selling handbags at a young age, when she says, “the internet was just getting started.” Soon her designs were being sold around the globe, and she was getting press attention from all over.

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