Angela Abshier
From fashion to freedom, Angela’s weaving a new culture of care - turning discarded sails into shelter, one stitch at a time.
Angela Abshier didn’t grow up anywhere near the sea. Raised between Arkansas and Wyoming, she always felt like a “water girl” without ever seeing much of it. Her path to the ocean and sailing yachts wasn’t direct – it was built on curiosity, creativity, and a lifelong love of textiles.
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Her career began in the garment industry, where she built secondary markets for deadstock apparel. Then one day, she stepped aboard a sailboat and everything changed. “Sailing was my first true experience of freedom,” she recalls. “It was incredible. But I couldn’t stop thinking about what happens to all these sails when they’re no longer used?”
That question sparked a movement. Angela founded Sail to Shelter, a non-profit giving retired sails a second life as shelters, bags, and other useful items. Angela saw potential in every discarded sheet of fabric. Working with architects, designers, and universities, she began deconstructing sails into panels of Kevlar-reinforced material that could last for a decade. “It might seem like nothing,” she says, “but to someone sleeping under it, it’s everything.”
Building trust with boat owners is key as each sail is personal property, tied to memories of adventure. Angela’s goal is to create a system that makes donation part of the sailing culture. She dreams of embedding microchips into sails at the time of manufacture, allowing them to be tracked and recycled responsibly. “When we know better, we do better,” she says.
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Her love of technology, fashion, and problem-solving all converge in this work. A former law student who once studied intellectual property to protect independent artists, she’s exploring how blockchain could help register and trace sails globally. Alongside the shelters, she’s launched a line of bags made from reclaimed sails and deadstock fashion materials, and is even in talks to collaborate with designers like Tory Burch.
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“I’ve always been curious about how to do things better,” Angela says. “For me, it’s about protecting people and the planet – one sail at a time.”
