Jewelry company shows off ski racing-inspired pieces worn by some of the world鈥檚 fastest skiers at Birds of Prey World Cup
Double Diamond Jewelry is creating winter and ski racing-inspired pieces worn by some of the world鈥檚 fastest skiers
Double Diamond Jewelry/Courtesy photo
There’s something sparkling in Beaver Creek and it’s not the crystals of the snow. It’s the unique winter and ski racing-inspired jewelry that you can find exclusively during the Birds of Prey World Cup races from .
Double Diamond Jewelry has been family owned and operated by Janet Brady and her husband Mark since 1999 and calls Lake Tahoe home. The jewelry is now worn by some of the fastest skiers in the world like former U.S. Alpine 撸先生 Team member Tamara McKinney and current team member, Mikaela Shiffrin.
“We opened our store 25 years ago in the heart of Olympic Valley, California. We feel very blessed to get to live in North Lake Tahoe and our kids grew up ski racing. We just adore skiing and love the mountains,” Brady said.
Brady’s love of snowflakes sparked the Snowflake Collection at Double Diamond Jewelry. Brady would take photographs of snowflakes, then utilize computer-aided design to mimic the exact shape and intricacies of the snowflake and then craft it out of 14-karat solid gold and adorn it with natural earth-grown diamonds.
The Snowflake Collection has prompted custom-made jewelry for The Yellowstone Club and Big Sky Resort’s 50th Anniversary in Montana and other memorable occasions. Double Diamond Jewelry has also been doing a pop-up boutique at the World Cup races at Palisades Tahoe for many years.
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“We’ve had pop-ups at several of the women’s races and the men’s races. Even in the blizzard two years ago, we had to literally wipe the real snowflakes off the jewelry cases, but we sold a record number of snowflakes that race weekend. We just kept laughing because the real snowflakes were helping us sell the diamond snowflakes. It was hilarious and priceless marketing,” Brady said.
Brady said they’ve always wanted to come to the Birds of Prey World Cup and do a pop-up, but Beaver Creek is a bit of a drive from Lake Tahoe.
“After talking to the Vail Valley Foundation and hearing more about the event and talking with some friends that had been here, we thought it would be really fun to catch a snowflake and have a real Birds of Prey exclusive jewelry collection,” Brady said.
When Brady is commissioned for work outside of Lake Tahoe, she always makes sure she has an authentic snowflake from that area to work with.
“When I knew we were going to be a part of the Birds of Prey World Cup, I needed a snowflake from Colorado to work with, I couldn’t use a Tahoe snowflake,” Brady said. “We found a wonderful woman named JoEllen Stewart from Denver who takes photographs of snowflakes as a hobby. So, we found her snowflake online and we called her and said, ‘we’re actually going to get to do an exclusive collection for Birds of Prey. We can’t misrepresent with a Tahoe snowflake. We have to have a real Colorado snowflake.'”
Brady points out that the piece of jewelry created for the Birds of Prey World Cup is purposefully asymmetrical because snowflakes are not all symmetrical.
“We have many pieces that we’ve made symmetrical because some women and even men, like to purchase ones that are perfectly symmetrical,” Brady said. “But my favorite ones are the ones where we maintain the original crystallization of the original snowflake. So, we did that with JoEllen’s snowflake and a lot of people like that original touch.”
How did Mikaela Shiffrin end up wearing the pieces?
“When the women’s World Cup was at Palisades Tahoe in 2017, it was Mikaela’s birthday weekend and her father, Jeff Shiffrin, came up and I didn’t realize who he was and he said, ‘my daughter saw your snowflakes and really loved them. So, I want to get her a snowflake for her for her birthday,’ so he got a snowflake necklace and a pair of earrings and I said, ‘you’re buying at a perfect time because we’re donating back to the U.S. 撸先生 team.”
Jeff Shiffrin passed away in 2020.
“It was such an honor to have one of our snowflakes be her birthday present from her father and mother,” Brady said.
Italian brand Barilla pasta is a big supporter of ski racing and one of Mikaela Shiffrin’s sponsors and they had also heard that the Olympic medalist and World Cup champion was a fan of the snowflakes, too.
I can’t remember the exact year, I think it was 2018 or 2019 but they (Barilla) said, ‘we hear Mikaela loves your snowflakes,’ so they got one from me for her end-of-the-year gift and gave it to her at the World Cup Finals in Aspen,” Brady said. “I’m very honored that my snowflakes are on some of the fastest women in the world.”
In addition to the Snowflake Collection, Double Diamond Jewelry created the Stifel Birds of Prey World Cup Collection with many designs to choose from such as the Birds of Prey logo made out of solid 14-karat white, yellow or rose gold. In the Fresh Tracks Collection, Brady can take your exact line from a photograph and create a piece of jewelry that is unique to the way you skied that run. She created a special Birds of Prey racecourse design which is made out of either white golf with white diamonds or white gold with black diamonds.
“It mimics the shape of the course and I like it with the black diamonds since it is a double black diamond run,” Brady said.
Double Diamond Jewelry has been a vendor at Birds of Prey Way since the men’s races started on Dec. 6 and the booth will be here throughout the women’s races which end on Sunday. Double Diamond Jewelry will be donating 15% of the sale in each customer’s name to the Vail Valley Foundation, the nonprofit that organizes the Birds of Prey World Cup races in Beaver Creek. If you aren’t able to get up to Beaver Creek to shop, Brady said to reach out via the and you can still get a meaningful memento from the Birds of Prey World Cup races.
