We're hat people, but Blowfish has always been about more than hats. It's about the stories you wear, who you are, and the places you go every time you step outside. For us, that story starts right here in Idaho.
We're Sheena and Casey. Born and raised in the 208.
Rivers, mountains, snow, dirt, sunburns, and long days outside shaped who we are long before Blowfish ever entered the picture.
Sheena grew up chasing seasons with her family. Skiing Idaho winters and spending summers traveling, camping, and dirt biking. She started college at Utah State, where skiing became much more than a family pastime. Powder days, steep lines, and mountain life became a passion that changed the course of her life. Eventually, Idaho called her home, where she finished her undergraduate degree and later earned her MBA from Boise State. While her education followed a business path, her heart never left the creative world. She has always been an artist at heart... creating, illustrating, and finding ways to blend art with storytelling.
Casey fell in love with rivers at eight years old during a family trip down the Salmon River. By eleven, he had convinced his parents to let him learn to kayak, and that was it. He was hooked. The years that followed were filled with guiding and kayaking on the Payette, winters working chairlifts and eventually ski patrol, and shoulder seasons spent in kayak shops talking gear, river levels, and where to paddle next.
We met during the winter of 2002–2003 at our local ski hill (where even the name is Bogus). Sheena was a ski patroller, and Casey was running chairlifts. We became instant best friends, and before long, that friendship turned into something more. Mountains have a way of bringing together people who don't mind cold hands and long days outside.
Inspired by Casey and the river community, Sheena learned to guide on the Payette, worked at the Banks Café, and built a life around the kind of work that leaves you exhausted in the best possible way. That river life eventually led her to spend more than a decade with AIRE, helping shape the voice and story behind one of the most respected names in the rafting world.
But the best job we've ever had isn't on a river, a mountain, or even making great hats.
It's being parents.
Today, we're raising our kid with the same roots we grew up with. We believe in taking care of the places that have taken care of us. It means packing out what you pack in, slowing down, paying attention, and protecting these places so they'll still be here for the next generation. We're an outdoor family. We chase snow in the winter and rivers in the summer. We believe in dirt under fingernails, art in your heart, and never losing that sense of awe and wonder.
When we discovered Blowfish, it felt familiar.
It wasn't just the hats. It was the people, the craftsmanship, and the idea that what you wear should tell a story. Taking over Blowfish wasn't about buying a business. It was about carrying on something we believed in.
Every hat we make carries a piece of that life. Hand-stitched. Worn hard. Built to go wherever your story leads. On the river. In the mountains. Around the campfire. Or simply through everyday life.
Blowfish isn't just a business we purchased. It's a brand we fell in love with.
Whether you've been wearing Blowfish hats for years or just found us today, we're glad you're here. We hope our hats become part of your adventures and your stories, just like they've become part of ours.
We are Sheena and Casey Coles. We wear our story, and we're just getting started.