Along Sun Valley Road at the eastern end of Ketchum there is a groundswell of life. Iconoclast Books is a gathering spot with its café and shelves full of unusual and intriguing books. The Gilman Gallery has in a short time proved to be one of the most au currant of art galleries in town. Then there are shops like Pure, Armstrong-Root, the Open Room and Davis, and across the street is the new fly-fishing clothing and gathering spot, Ketchum on the Fly.
A couple of things make this place stand out. For one thing, it is owned and operated by two women—Julie Zapoli and Elizabeth Hendrix. For another, it's the first store anywhere to carry Filson outdoor wear for women. In 1897, C.C. Filson's Pioneer Alaska Clothing and Blanket Manufacturers opened in Seattle, specializing in goods to outfit those stampeding to the Klondike Gold Rush. It only took 110 years for them to think about the women's market.
Zapoli and Hendrix met five years ago at a fundraiser for The Conservation Fund. Hendrix already had an idea she wanted to pursue—an outdoors Web site for women called Women on the Fly. Their conversations about women and outdoor sports were a natural and helped form a bond. At the time Zapoli lived in Michigan and worked for The Conservation Fund and before that for Orvis as Midwest district manager where she created and taught at its fly-fishing schools. She is a licensed guide and certified fly-fishing instructor, and has led summer fly-fishing trips on remote rivers in Alaska and elsewhere.
Also a fly-fishing enthusiast, Hendrix was living in Seattle where she had a busy career with her company, W&CO Design Communications, one of the top design firms in the Puget Sound area.
"I came to Sun Valley seven years ago, and that trip sustained me," she said. When her ex-husband announced he was leaving, she picked up her two kids and headed to the Wood River Valley.
Two years ago, Zapoli also came for a trip and "fell in love with the place."
But prior to the move Zapoli was directing a float trip in Alaska for big donors to The Conservation Fund's initiative to protect salmon habitat.
"Elizabeth was on the trip because she'd done pro-bono design and marketing work for The Conservation Fund," Zapoli said. "We were with all these couples and all we talked about was how to get women out in the outdoors. I've been on lots of other cigar and brown-liquor fishing trips when men ask, 'Why can't we get our wives out here?' They've done the boys trips."
So together they launched the Web site, changed the name to Ketchum on the Fly, and began planning trips and bringing people to the valley.
To endorse that concept even more, Hendrix attended an Adventure Travel Trade Association summit in Seattle where, she said, the message was that "Women's outdoor adventures are the fastest growing travel niche."
"Women are the decision makers in travel and boomer women travel more and more on their own, and want a safe, group kind of experience."
But a Web site wasn't enough after they'd decided to make the move to Ketchum.
Hendrix said. "Our vision wasn't to open a store, but it legitimized the Web site" and gave them a base. "Everything has fallen into place."
"We're concentrating on getting women here to fish, do sport clays and wing shooting," Zapoli added. "The goal is to bring commerce to the town."
When they first began the Web site, the first thing they did was ensure they could take over as the area's Orvis affiliate, which had been at Bill Mason Outfitters in Sun Valley, since he was retiring.
"We basically bought his business, which includes the outfitter license," Hendrix said.
That license has a story of its own. It is the oldest outfitter's license in the valley and had originally belonged to Chip Fisher, who owned the old Snug building, which was torn down years ago. In its place, at the corner of Sun Valley Road and Spruce Street, is Les Saisons, in which Ketchum on the Fly is now located. It's the kind of synergistic, full-circle experience that Zapoli and Hendrix are particularly attuned to.
"We've worn men's fishing and hunting gear our whole lives," Zapoli said. "When manufacturers make stuff for women it's usually pink or is of a lighter material then you'd want. Filson put together a women's council and Elizabeth and I really took the reins on that. We told them what we wanted, and gave them feedback on their designs".
Last summer Filson decided to do its spring 2008 catalogue shoot in Sun Valley.
"This area is so prime for what they're doing," Hendrix said. "We scouted the whole loop from Silver Creek to Mackay to Stanley. And that's where the shoot was done."
More than that, Hendrix and Zapoli are featured on the cover of the catalogue and at play fishing, shooting and wearing Filson inside. As well, their picture is in the prime home spot on Filson's Web site.
"Julie and Elizabeth have such passion for the lifestyle," Filson Marketing Manager Amy Terai said. "It attracted us to them. You don't hear of many women out there doing that. We were thinking about doing a women's line. That's how we decided to work with the Ketchum ladies."
For the ladies this is more than good public relations. It supports their mission to get women into outdoor sports for their emotional health.
"Women give up so much for their families, careers, business," Hendrix said. "Rivers are so magical, so healing."
Zapoli agreed. "Every woman deserves that kind of escape. When I'm fishing I'm so present. We want to get women into it. It's not hard to do, you don't have to be strong and it takes you to beautiful places."
Besides the classes, clinics and exotic fishing trips—Alaska this summer, Mongolia in September and Slovenia in the spring—the Ketchum on the Fly trips are known for the pampering components. Clients receive monogrammed Ketchum on the Fly pajamas at the start of the trip. On their pillows each night is a gift. And while it sounds like the antithesis of an outdoor adventure, clients can also have pedicures, manicures, facials and massages.
There are many more plans in the energetic minds of Zapoli and Hendrix: volunteer vacations, a possible women's leadership conference. But mostly, they want to enable women to recharge.
"We want to encourage women—really, all people—to get out and experience the beauty, connection and the sense of accomplishment that the world of the sporting traditions gives us," Zapoli said.
Photo coutesy Lee Thomas Kjos
Owners of Ketchum on the Fly, Elizabeth Hendrix, left, and Julie Zapoli won’t be fenced in, nor will their dog, Scout.
