Clothing supports marine life

While he was a University of Rhode Island biological oceanography graduate student, Spike Stone printed marine-life drawings on his daughter’s onesies.

The simple line images of whales and jellyfish drew the attention of friends and family and from them was born an educational clothing brand focused on ocean conservation.

In July 2017 Coventry-based Pepper’s Closet, named after the baby, was launched as a benefit corporation – in between a for-profit and nonprofit, explained Spike’s wife and co-owner, Elizabeth. The business prints Spike Stone’s images on various adult and children’s clothing and donates 10 percent of its net profits to ocean-conservation charities.

Each product comes with a tag describing the animal pictured. Dissemination of this information, said Spike, is at the core of the business model because most of the scientific knowledge about the ocean is accessible only in dry academic journals behind a paywall.

The company has five employees, including three URI interns.