A purchase with Wilder + Beyond stands for community, purpose, fun and compassion.
Deena Gregory founded Wilder + Beyond, a premium stackable nature-inspired jewelry company, as a first-time entrepreneur looking to share her love of the mountains with others through beautiful pieces of jewelry. Her story is one of resilience and passion. YOGA + Life connected with Gregory to learn more about the inspiration behind her brand and what yogi’s can look forward to from her this season.
What is the inspiration behind Wilder + Beyond?
Even before I started skiing at age 5, my parents took me on countless outdoor adventures in the Sierra Nevada Mountains to camp, hike and fish. Mountains are a huge part of who I am. The inspiration behind Wilder + Beyond is all about bringing your love of the mountains with you everywhere you go. And each of our experiences in the mountains is as unique as we are, so at Wilder + Beyond, we encourage you to design a ring that truly captures your special memories in your favorite places.
What has the journey been like bringing your vision to life?
Wilder + Beyond has been in the works since December 2020 and officially launched in September 2021. As a first-time entrepreneur, it’s been an incredible learning experience, full of so much fun too. It’s been extremely rewarding seeing how many people love the brand as much as I do.
When envisioning the design, I immediately thought of my friend and professional skier, yogi and artist, Chris Benchetler, to create the initial design of the rings. Chris has designed artwork on skis, goggles, murals and more, but never jewelry. As a long-time artist, he’s always intrigued with pushing his current skillset and trying to evolve in an attempt to blend the mountains into every aspect of his life — a perfect match for Wilder + Beyond.
We’re extremely excited to be working with both Chris and his wife, Kimmy Fasani, to share our love of the mountains with everyone.
What makes your jewelry unique?
Wilder + Beyond jewelry is unique because the customer is in control of creating their dream mountain ring. You can choose from one ring to wear solo, or add to your stack all the way up to our full stack of four rings. Choosing from 14k rose gold, white gold, yellow gold and the best cut diamonds, it’s a “choose your own adventure” twist on premium jewelry for the outdoor adventurer who wants to wear the highest quality jewelry while bagging 14ers.
With the holiday season approaching, what rings can our readers purchase?
The holidays are a perfect time to gift yourself or your special someone with a memorable and custom gift. So many times, gifts we receive are generic and just sit around. But with Wilder + Beyond, your stackable ring is uniquely yours, showing off your personal relationship with the outdoors. For example, you could start with our Base Lodge Ring for the holidays, then add the Mount Diamonds for Valentine’s Day, the Simply Mountains for your birthday, and the Eternity Band for your anniversary, completing the stack of four. This is also a way of allowing different budgets to still enjoy our products.
Can you tell us more about your collaboration with Boarding For Breast Cancer?
A percentage of each purchase is donated to our charity partner, Boarding for Breast Cancer, a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to early detection education, promoting a healthy, active lifestyle in the outdoors and survivorship programs for those thriving and surviving with cancer.
Given the outdoors are near and dear to my heart, as is helping others, I wanted my company to do good and give back to organizations that I feel a connection to. I have family members and close friends who have fought and beat breast cancer, and some that are currently fighting against the metastatic disease. All strong, all resilient, all optimistic. I’ve been familiar with B4BC for many years and always admired their work. So, when thinking about a charity partner, I knew they were the perfect fit given our shared love for the outdoors and its healing powers. By partnering with B4BC, this is our way of supporting them and everyone else to help overcome these hurdles and encourage them to conquer that mountain.
To see the full line of products, visit wilderandbeyond.com and follow @wilderandbeyond on Instagram to learn more.
Paid partnership with YOGA + Life.
