A new chapter for Samantha Wells beyond the slopes

For two-time Winter Olympian Samantha Wells OLY, the 2026 Snow Australia Awards provided an opportunity to bring together two important parts of her life: her history in aerial skiing and her passion for sustainable design.

Through her creative venture, SAMade, Wells transformed three retired aerial skiing suits into a one-of-a-kind couture outfit, worn by former teammate, World Cup gold medallist and Olympic coach Renee McElduff at the Awards.

The striking design not only gave retired performance wear a second life but also celebrated McElduff's journey from athlete to coach, following her Olympic coaching debut at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

"The project brought together two important parts of my life, my history in aerial skiing and my love of making and reimagining materials," Wells said.

"Textile waste is a significant environmental issue, and technical sportswear can be particularly challenging to recycle, so I wanted to explore how retired aerial ski suits could be given a meaningful second life.

"I also wanted the piece to celebrate Renee’s Olympic coaching debut. We had been teammates as athletes, chasing the same dream of competing at the Olympics, so I was incredibly proud to see her realise that dream as a coach."

For Wells, the transformation of the suits reflected McElduff's own evolution within the sport, taking something with a rich competitive history and giving it a new purpose.

"In many ways, the outfit became a metaphor for Renee’s own evolution, the ski suits were transformed from their original purpose into something new and unexpected, while still honouring where they had come from," she said.

"Couture isn’t my usual 'bag', which made the creative challenge even more appealing! Having Renee wear the finished piece at the Snow Australia Awards brought the story full circle, returning those materials to their sporting community in an entirely new form."

While the finished outfit made an impression at the Awards, bringing the design to life presented Wells with a unique set of challenges.

With McElduff coaching at Milano Cortina 2026, Wells created the garment remotely, using a pattern recreated from one of McElduff’s favourite outfits and her own measurements as a guide.

"The process definitely wasn’t straightforward! Renee was on the other side of the world coaching the team at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, so the entire outfit had to be created remotely, with no fittings," Wells said.

"Knowing I wouldn’t see Renee until just 30 minutes before the Awards, I also built some contingencies into the design. The pants, for example, included additional seams that could be let out on the night if needed. Thankfully, they weren’t!”

Using three retired aerial ski suits, Wells strategically cut, pieced and hand-stitched the fabric while working around existing team branding and sponsor logos. 

"There was a lot of seam ripping, strategic cutting and some creative 'Frankenstein' piercing to make the available fabric work," she said.

"The mountains on the pants were all hand stitched and took around 16 hours alone. Luckily, there was plenty of sport, and appropriately, the Olympic Winter Games, on TV to keep me company while I stitched!"

Although Wells has traded competitive aerial skiing for creative pursuits, she sees many similarities between the two.

Sewing remained a constant throughout her sporting career and has now evolved into SAMade, where Wells transforms discarded materials into functional designs. Her experience as an elite athlete also shapes her approach, helping her embrace experimentation, problem-solving and unconventional materials.

"For me, sewing and elite sport actually have a lot in common. Both start with a vision or a goal, and then require you to trust the process and keep working towards it, even when you encounter challenges, setbacks or uncertainty along the way," Wells said.

"My years as an athlete taught me to be comfortable taking calculated risks and to trust the skills and experience I’ve built over time.

"When you’re creating with unconventional or reclaimed materials, you don’t always know exactly how you’re going to get to the finished product. 

“You have to be adaptable, solve problems as they arise and keep moving towards the original vision, something that feels very familiar after a career in elite sport.”

Beyond its creative significance, the outfit highlights a broader challenge facing the sporting industry: what happens to specialised uniforms, equipment and event materials when they are no longer needed?

Through SAMade, Wells is encouraging sporting organisations to reconsider the lifecycle of the materials they use, recognising that items retired due to changing seasons, sponsorship arrangements or branding may still have years of useful life remaining.

"More than anything, I’d love people to become curious about what happens to these materials when we’ve finished with them," she said.

"In sport, we use an enormous range of specialised clothing, uniforms, equipment, signage and event materials. They’re designed for a particular purpose and often replaced when seasons, sponsors, branding or requirements change but the material itself may still have years of useful life left.

"I hope projects like this encourage people and organisations to see 'end of use' differently. Instead of asking, 'How do we dispose of this?', perhaps the first question becomes, 'What else could this become?'

"Not everything needs to become a couture outfit, of course! The bigger opportunity is to think more carefully about the whole lifecycle of the materials we use, how much we acquire, how long we use it, and what pathways exist for reuse, repair, repurposing or upcycling afterwards."

Looking ahead, Wells is continuing to develop SAMade alongside her sustainability consultancy work, combining hands-on creative projects with helping sporting organisations rethink how they acquire, use and manage materials.

Through these two approaches, she hopes to demonstrate both the creative possibilities of repurposing existing materials and the importance of reducing waste before it is created.

"The two approach the same challenge from different directions: one demonstrates what’s possible with the materials we already have, while the other helps organisations make better decisions about them in the first place."

From competing on the world stage to creating sustainable designs, Wells continues to draw on her sporting experience to explore new possibilities, with McElduff's Awards outfit demonstrating how the stories behind retired sporting materials can continue long after their final competition.