Working in the healthcare industry for over 14 years, Michelle has dedicated her adult life to introducing innovative technology and products to people that need it the most. In 2013, after moving to Missoula, Montana from New York City, she found herself sitting for long periods of time at a new job. She had no idea that sitting or standing for long periods could have such negative effects on her body, especially on how her legs and body felt.

When Michelle mentioned her new sedentary situation to a physical therapist, he recommended compression socks. The only options available were athletic or medical use socks and nothing she found reflected her personal style. This inspired Michelle to start VIM & VIGR: a high-quality compression legwear line with stylish designs to be worn all day. Today, she leads the V&V team as they set out to bring the benefits of VIM & VIGR products to people everywhere.

Michelle's favorite style: Queen's Floral: Blue & Charcoal

Kira’s passion for trying to get people to like the things she likes can be traced all the way back to junior high school in the rural suburbs of Seattle, where she furiously forced all her favorite books, bands and bad movies on her friends, to varying levels of success.  Naturally, marketing was an obvious career choice. After nearly 10 years at Amazon.com, and another 3 spent starting a bakery in Cambodia among a rag-tag crew of international expats, Kira found her way to Missoula and VIM & VIGR. She finds it wonderfully easy to try and get people to like VIM & VIGR, because what’s better than insanely cute socks that make you feel incredible? 

When she’s not hunched over her computer staring at spreadsheets, Kira can be found sleeping in a tent, hiking with her stubby pit-corgi mix Huxley, bingeing HGTV, attempting (and failing) to bake without butter, and planning her next adventure.

Kira's favorite style: Petite Dot: Mustard & White

KC's curiosity for process and development literally started in the field during her early childhood in Illinois as she waded through creeks in search of tadpoles in various developmental stages, analyzed the glow frequency of lightning bugs, and tried to stick crawdads on unsuspecting friends. She has since developed better get-to-know-you skills and only reserves the crawdads for her closest friends and occasional team-building activities.

KC has a Bachelors in Biology from the University of Montana and a Masters in Healthcare Administration. She spent 10 years in healthcare and mental health center leadership and management, where she built processes from the ground up, developed teams, analyzed business functions, and collected a variety of cool toys and gadgets so people would have something to fidget with while sitting through budget meetings.

Away from work, KC enjoys hybridizing daylilies (because who doesn’t?), recapping the most recent episode of Radiolab to family and friends, searching for the world's best cinnamon roll, and spending time with her unruly husband and four charming dogs.

KC's Favorite Style: Malibu Stripe Compression Sleeves: Raspberry & Creamsicle

Jeanne brings over 35 years of accounting experience to VIM and VIGR. She provides a unique blend of technical expertise as the Controller as well as the practical experience of a small business owner. She has provided accounting service to a variety of clients in the Missoula area since 2006, operated a retail business for 15 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has worked for publicly traded corporate entities. Additionally, she managed multi-million dollar budgets in mid-level management positions in Silicon Valley.

Her outside interests include gardening, textile crafts, traveling, kayaking, and hiking.

Jeanne's favorite style: Unisex Compression Leg Sleeves

Jes loves the moments in life when clarity is reached, and is continuously tickled by the fact that it all too often happens by surprise. In her work as a choreographer (Jes has an MFA in Experimental Choreography), in her explorations with cooking, in the never-ending game of Tetris that is packing for back-packing or river trips in Montana, or in her position in the accounting department at VIM & VIGR, she is driven by the moments where she finds herself saying, “oh, there it is!”

As the newest member of the VIM & VIGR team, she is working on getting her long-legged Doodle a modeling gig and is already choreographing a sock ballet in her head.

Jes's favorite style: Falling Stripe: Green & Black

* Photo credit: Buffalo James Photography

How much tape on a box is too much tape? If a sock is on sale how many socks will customers buy per minute? Per second? Based on friction, gravity, local weather, and the air speed of a Boeing 727 who is D.B. Cooper? These are the questions that keep Eric up at night. He breaks down the data of VIM & VIGR to help the team make the right decisions and help provide the best compression legwear to its amazing customers. Aside from analytics he uses his experience in supply chain management with overseas manufacturers to lead VIM & VIGR's team of suppliers and vendors to ensure that the highest quality product reaches the customer when it is promised.

As a born and bred Montanan if Eric isn’t at his desk it is likely that he and the brand-spankin’-new Mrs. Emily Bruner, are on a Montana river fly-fishing, on a mountain skiing, or lost on a dirt road in the middle of a national forest because he wasn’t listening to Emily…again.

Eric has many hopes and dreams but the most important thing you need to know is that Eric really hates writing his own biography.

Eric's favorite style: Thick Stripe: Light Blue & Grey

From a very young age Lindsey has loved expressing herself, be it performing a silly new dance or goofy skit for her mom to crafting the perfect outfit for a particular mood or feeling. Creativity and expression have fueled Lindsey’s career path and taken her to Portland, Los Angeles, and now back home to her native state of Montana.

With Business and Apparel Design degrees, Lindsey brings us 15 years of experience in design and marketing from her time at Adidas, Rich & Skinny Jeans, and Campus Drive. She is excited to bring her love of color and design to the VIM & VIGR team and looks forward to expanding our design and product offerings.

When not toiling over sock designs, you can find Lindsey hiking with her two dogs, taking in a concert, cooking for friends & family, or adventuring with her husband and toddling 18-month- old son.

Lindsey's favorite style: Little Stripes: Raspberry & Cream

A native Pennsylvanian and long-time Bostonian, Ann is still getting used to some western ways – like making eye contact with strangers, eating elk, and going out for a quick ski on a weekday. Trained as a historian, Ann is a crazy good writer and has worked for historical minded non-profits and companies. As one of three original employees, Ann has been involved in all aspects of account management. She is generous to a fault and has been instrumental in shaping our culture of amazing customer service.  Her ideal day involves a long morning run, a peppermint latte, happy kids, a local IPA and a good book. She is fearless when it comes to hockey and body surfing, and not so fearless when it comes to driving over snow-covered mountain passes.

Ann's favorite style: Nautical Stripe: Cream & Black

Paige has spent the past decade traveling the U.S. with Americorps NCCC and with her significant other who served on a destroyer ship for the U.S. Navy. She has previously held jobs at many cafés and coffee shops, and has always loved being hands on with people- making her customer interactions a worthwhile experience. Paige is currently (finally!) finishing her degree in Social Work in hopes to someday run her own non-profit and help build up the people in her community. At VIM & VIGR, Paige has the pleasure of building relationships with our customers, vendors, community members and organizations who are in the business of helping others feel confident about their health.

When she’s not answering emails and phone calls she loves to hike around the Bitterroot Valley with her dogs and partner, zipline, travel, garden, fiddle with essential oils and natural bath products, and most importantly, to laugh whenever possible.

Paige's favorite style: Petite Dot: Mustard & White

Edgar is a Missoula transplant from Richmond, Kentucky by way of Seattle. He spent 16 years in the Northwest, playing in multiple bands and living the musician dream, before moving to Missoula to simplify life and spend less time in nightmare traffic. While living in Seattle he became a pharmacy technician and is particularly passionate about patient advocacy and rights.

Edgar is also fanatical about the outdoors, frequently spending his time hiking, camping, jogging and playing basketball. He is an especially obnoxious Kentucky Wildcats basketball fan.

Edgar's favorite style: Thick Stripe: Light Blue & Grey

After working in various administrative roles at different businesses around Missoula, Amy finally settled into something that continually piques her interest. On paper, Amy manages VIM & VIGR’s wholesale accounts and Account Management team, but really Amy is the glue that holds the office together. She is never satisfied with a simple solution, is constantly figuring out a better way to do things and perpetually tries to make all the pieces of a business fit together. She started here by packaging socks, but her frenetic mind soon took hold of her and she started working her way through each department of the company, forming the core of our day-to-day.

When Amy isn’t working out boundless energy on her mini-elliptical at her stand-up desk, she can be found encouraging her daughter to never be bored and always be creative, going camping with her family, listening to an audio book on body science, watching the Big Lebowski, or just generally being ridiculous in hopes of getting her friends and co-workers to take a second to laugh.

Amy's favorite style: Box Plaid: Opal & Ink

Christine is a lifelong Montanan and an inveterate podcast listener. When she isn’t busy keeping her feline taskmaster happy, she can be found enjoying music and a healthy rotation of 7-10 books at a time. She hopes to one day open a world-famous roller rink/oddity museum.

Christine's favorite style: Petite Dot: Mustard & White

Rachel is always up for a challenge. In high school and college, she and a good friend would sign up for distance races and triathlons that were far outside their comfort zones, with the motto: “It could be fun.” She carries this spirit with her into each new adventure she undertakes.

After four years in non-profit marketing, Rachel found an enticing challenge in communicating the benefits of designer socks to customers across the country. She knows firsthand that VIM & VIGR’s therapeutic threads are a perfect fit for a healthy, active lifestyle.

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Rachel has an endless appetite for the outdoors. Outside of work she can be found running the roads and trails of Missoula, hiking in the mountains or baking up something cozy in her kitchen.

Rachel's favorite style: Falling Stripe: Cloud & Sky

At the young age of 6, it was obvious that Bailey was destined for the business world. Being the leader of an elite Kool-aide stand, she turned a 10-cent cup of Kool-aide into a $400-dollar franchise. Using cuteness to her advantage, she also convinced her neighbors in Butte, Montana to buy rocks from her. She realized at this point if you have passion, drive, and a killer marketing strategy, you can sell anything. Her mom later made her return the money, but she had found her calling. How lucky is she to find a career where she not only gets the privilege to develop marketing strategies, but also to promote and sell a product she loves and believes in!

Knowing good strategy is key, Bailey combined her love for marketing and analytics to find her true passion – driving marketing campaigns with data and creativity. Analyzing sales information to create focused advertising campaigns that inform consumers about a product that will improve their well-being and lifestyle – while also contributing to their fashion wardrobe is wonderful!

“Make it simple, but significant.” The fictional Mad Men marketing genius Don Draper spoke these wise words. Bailey aspires to be the Don Draper of the compression sock industry, without all the bad habits of course.

Bailey's favorite style: Malibu Stripe Compression Sleeves: Dark Teal & Creamsicle

Aerionna’s experienced her first sale in 4th grade selling candy as a fundraiser for summer camp. She realized that if she put in the hours and hard work with a smile on her face, she could always reach her goal. Over the next 10 years she raised money that allowed her to participate in summer camps, cheerleading, choir, and school trips. As she grew older she realized her passion for volunteering, and combined that with her sales skills to successfully raise money for nonprofits, including AmeriCorps Campus, Flagship, The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, and The Missoula Community Foundation.

Aerionna graduated from the University of Montana with a marketing degree which she now utilizes in her sales career at VIM&VIGR. Aerionna is excited that she gets to travel with her job, enjoys meeting people, and loves educating the world on the benefits of compression.

When she’s not traveling or talking with customers Aerionna loves being outdoors. She hikes, bikes, loves to ski and swim, and enjoys time with her two dogs.

Aerionna's favorite style: Color Block: Sea Glass & Grey

Rainy considers herself an artist, whether that medium is drawing with ink and/or acrylic paint, creating recycled material dolls, visual directing and costume design for film projects, or songwriting & singing along with her guitar.

She originates from the Mat-Su Valley in Alaska and from that vast, magical land has developed a deep love for the majesty and connectivity of the natural world.

She finds joy in solving problems and is a relentless optimist, believing in a spiritual meaning in all things. Rainy loves self expression through clothing, and finds that the added element of health benefits of VIM & VIGR is perfect for a health conscious consumer.

With her desire to make any space more soothing and for everyone around to feel heard and loved, Rainy’s character can be summed up best like this: she really just wants to be a warm light that pours over everyone.

Rainy's favorite style: Falling Stripe: Cloud & Sky

Jake spent the first half of his life in the Pacific Northwest, kicking it with orcas and exploring the paths of Whatcom Falls Park with a roving band of equally wayward youth. He moved to Montana in his teens and quickly discovered his love of all things music-related (except for dancing), and he’s been playing guitar ever since. He held steady to the culinary career track for about a decade until he decided that he needed a change of scenery and joined Team VIM & VIGR. When he’s not busy being the deputy of Sock Town, he can be found partaking in aforementioned music stuff, hosting his own instructional home cooking stream, and skateboarding when his body allows it. 

Jake's favorite style: Thick Stripe: Light Blue & Grey

After over two decades of Michigan winters, Sophie dreamed of finding her home in a warm climate after college, only to find herself someplace even colder! But have no fear: getting to spend her days with a company that gives her all the writing and organization projects her heart could desire (that is, when she’s not busy filling orders) is a dream come true.

Outside of work, Sophie can be found writing in coffee shops like every quintessential cliché novelist, taking long hikes in the sun, buying more books than she’ll ever read, and spending way too much time thinking about musicals.

Sophie's favorite style: Malibu Stripe Compression Sleeves: White, Creamsicle, and Dark Teal

Russ is a part of our fulfillment team, responsible for receiving all of our exciting new products and analyzing them to ensure they meet our strict quality control guidelines. Along with many daily fulfillment tasks such as preparing orders for shipment and inventory maintenance, Russ is also VIM & VIGR’s unofficial workplace handyman.

Outside of work, Russ enjoys spending time with his wife, Charity, and their two boxers, Tiger and Poppy. He also enjoys camping, building custom furniture, baking, and gardening.

Russ's favorite style: Little Stripes: Dark Clay, Dark Teal, & Orange