Welcome to Allover Diaries, where we get to know the inspiring people who wear our overalls and the adventures they take in them.
For our inaugural edition, we welcome Cassie Wallace—an Appalachian girl who found her home in the Rockies. Cassie is a beloved Summit County, Colorado, resident active in several femme-forward outdoor communities. She is also an incredibly badass mountain biker and trail runner. We have the pleasure of knowing her—and now you do, too.
Tell us a little about why you are who you are today.
A theme that keeps resurfacing for me is this idea of our roots. It wasn’t until recently that I reconnected with who I was and what I loved as a kid. I grew up just south of Pittsburgh in the Appalachian mountains near Seven Springs, which I just recently learned is formally in an area known as the Allegheny Plateau. My childhood was made up of all of these activities that, back then, I didn’t consider “outdoorsy.” I grew up swimming in the river and riding my bike through the green rolling hills. I never considered us “being in the mountains” because that was just how we lived.
Two defining factors of my childhood shaped me into who I am today: sports and computers. We didn’t have a ton of money, but we did have a YMCA membership. If the Y had the sport, you better believe I tried it. I eventually fell into track and cross country—a funny story. I was a cheerleader and goofing off during practice, so naturally, I got yelled at, and my punishment was to run laps around the school. The cross country coach approached me and said, “You don’t look miserable doing that—you should come out for track.” That changed my life—I ended up running collegiately at Carnegie Mellon.
I always followed this traditional ladder that made sense—going to college, getting a good job, fulfilling the dream of living in the big city—until it didn’t. Something was missing. I would never take back the experience of living in New York City, but taking the leap to Colorado and the more recent career switch from being engineering-adjacent to being fully ingrained as an iOS software engineer follow the same arc: getting back to my roots and doing the things I loved growing up.
Let's talk about Allovers. What drew you to our overalls?
I always felt this sense of belonging in sports that I didn’t have anywhere else. One of those communities is Allover. I stumbled upon Allovers and met [the founder] Emma at a pop-up at Broken Compass Brewery in Breckenridge. I have an athletic build, so I’ve never found overalls that fit. When I tried them on, I was like: “Holy shit! They fit!” And they’re stretchy and cute. I loved them immediately.
My Allovers are ideal for multi-sport days when I don’t necessarily want to wear a super-optimized kit for one activity or another. If you need to be flexible but also need skin or sun protection, think of hiking up and skiing down a glacier in July or going for an MTB ride and then meeting a friend for a yoga class afterward. I don’t want to wear my MTB clothes to yoga—that’s not cute! Even better, I can put cute sneakers on and go to the bar afterward.
They’re stretchy but still thick and sturdy. That’s the gap Allovers fill. My leggings are stretchy, but they'll be destroyed if I fall. I know my Allovers will be durable enough for every adventure and the little moments in between.
Who are the people who influence and inspire you most to continue to pursue your passions?
Easy. People pursuing what they really want to do—whatever that may be. For example, I’m not that interested in climbing since I’m scared of heights. But if I see someone who has made sacrifices and is pursuing massive climbs and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, that gets me fired up.
Lael Wilcox is a good example of that in the cycling community. She cycled around the world! I’m not going to try that. Still, it inspires me because of the sheer intensity of the endeavor. She’s accomplishing that at 38 years old, not that that’s old, but she’s still pursuing her own thing when women are expected to sacrifice their dreams for other things.
I also love goofy adventures, and cycling worldwide qualifies as one. My friends told me about a group of people on a mission to hike all the Fourteeners with their bikes and then biked down. Not to be cheesy, but the community aspect. Sports bring everybody together. It’s an excuse to get together to see your friends.
Finding a sense of belonging can be hard when moving cross-country, but you find communities with similar values everywhere you turn. How?
It started when I got involved with Trail Sisters Golden when I first moved to Colorado. I obviously was a competitive runner, and I don’t do that anymore, but running has remained a constant. Something about running in Colorado with snakes freaked me out, and I knew I needed a group to tip-toe into building more confidence. That was the first time I’d seen the idea of a femme-centered space formally, not just a group of friends. There’s a special connection there that I now seek out, like with VNTRbirds.
I’m now an ambassador, but my original interaction with them was back in 2021. I went to one of their Pedal Parties (a community meetup for femme-identifying and non-binary riders to get on bikes), and then I tore my ACL the following year, so I missed a summer of biking. Last summer, I knew I wanted to get back into it. I took a handful of clinics with VNTRbirds and immediately took more active involvement in the community, like leading rides and even organizing a Pedal Party. I’ve gotten so much from it, and I’ve met so many great people—being more ingrained in the community has taught me that I want to foster these spaces for myself and other femmes where we can feel strong.
Because many traditional outdoor activities are statistically male-dominated, there are presumed physical, dangerous, and competency aspects of being outside that tackling together as a group of women allows the development of camaraderie that is hard to find elsewhere. Like hell yeah, we just hammered this thing together, set up camp, and torpedoed down a mountain! And that’s what’s so great about these communities. Say I move anywhere tomorrow, I could find an outdoor community that will encourage and empower me to be myself and grow.
