Our Story

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: Arcade Stripe: White & Red

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: Fresh Stripe: Navy & Teal

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

Julie spent almost 15 years in the non-profit world working for the American Red Cross Bio-Medical Services and has a great passion for blood donation and wellness.  Her time with Red Cross took her from Billings, to Missoula, to Las Vegas and Salt Lake.  Julie is a Montana Native, and it didn't take long for her roots to start calling her home and with it a new canvas at VIM & VIGR.  As a seasoned sales professional, Julie is excited to put her skill set and creativity to use.  

Julie enjoys taking as many trips as she can to New York to see her daughter Madeline and will take any opportunity to meet her son Maelan at one of the local Missoula breweries to catch up. 

Julie's Favorite Style: Juliet Floral: Navy & Gold

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: Arcade Stripe: White & Red

Kristi is a New Jersey native who loves to explore the country and world around her. After exploring New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and San Diego, she has landed in Salt Lake City...but likely not for long. She loves meeting new people and dogs and has a passion for helping everyone to live their best lives. Now she gets to do this through something as simple as socks! 

Her absolute favorite thing to do is laugh - luckily, her friends, family, and especially her four dogs help ensure that she is laughing every day!

Kristi's favorite style: Petite Dot: Black & Tan

Steff is Colorado Springs born and Las Vegas raised. She spent 17 years in the banking industry before changing careers to one that she felt truly helped others improve their quality of life. After almost two years in the non-profit sector, Steff found her way to one of her personal passions: socks. And not just any socks, but socks that improve the well-being of herself and others!

Steff spends most of her free time on animal welfare (mostly cats) and running her cats' social media. She supports a feral cat colony of 16 and helps to promote the importance of TNR.

Steff's favorite style: Block Plaid: Cream & Raspberry

Born in the Midwest and raised a cheesehead, Donna has felt connected to Missoula since the minute she moved here. She graduated from the University of Montana in 2006 with a degree in accounting and spent several years as a fixed asset accountant for Weyerhaeuser in the Seattle area. Her love for the mountains eventually drew her back to Missoula, where she worked as a bookkeeper and accountant for private and non-profit organizations until landing at VIM & VIGR.

A mountain girl at heart, Donna finds time for holistic wellness and quiet sports outside of work. When she’s not crunching numbers and scouring spreadsheets, you might find her in a still meadow doing tai chi or yoga, hiking or backpacking through the northern Rockies or cross-country skiing through Montana’s winter wonderland. 

Donna's favorite socks is the Juliet Floral: Midnight & Gold.

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: Nautical Stripe: Black & 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: Mocha & Slate

Ann grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania and went to college in Boston. She worked in the historical non-profit and consulting world for many years and made the move west to Missoula in 2002. She has been with VIM & VIGR from the very beginning and has been involved in all aspects of the B2B experience.

Ann loves bodysurfing, hanging out at the library, playing hockey, skiing, drinking fancy beer, singing hymns and mothering her three kiddos.

Ann's favorite style: Juliet Floral: Midnight & Gold.

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: Arcade Stripe: Hunter & Raspberry

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: Nautical Stripe: Black & Sky

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: Heathered Collection: Navy