PBN 2021 Business Women Awards
Achievement Honoree: Susan Mocarski, Cleverhood LLC
A THEME EMERGES when you speak with Susan Mocarski, owner and principal designer of rain apparel company Cleverhood LLC. The very ideals she has put to work in starting and operating her 10-year-old company have created products that are essentially tools for others to do the same.
“It’s about getting out – rain or shine – and not retreating,” she said of the Providence company’s high-performance rain poncho. “It’s about being a participant in where you live.”
Mocarski launched Cleverhood in 2012, producing rain capes designed for people who want to get to work wearing a dress or suit and still arrive looking professional.
The first garments were made in a Newark, N.J., factory. Now Cleverhood’s design and shipping departments are based in Providence, with manufacturing in various U.S. locations and Vietnam.
The rain capes have functional, quality features with local sourcing such as YKK zippers; armholes that – with some help from magnets – snap shut to keep the rain out; a hood designed to maximize peripheral vision; reflective 3M piping; and elastic thumb loops to keep the cape in place when biking.
Mocarski is the sole designer, with the multiskilled Cleverhood team totaling four, including one of her sons and a longtime family friend. A network of trusted subcontractors keeps things running smoothly. She prefers keeping the company small and tight, utilizing all available resources to their maximum capacity and being able to pivot when necessary.
Mocarski has received support from the R.I. Commerce Corp. and the John H. Chafee Center for International Business at Bryant University. The Chafee Center helped Cleverhood – which saw a dip in sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic – strengthen its exporting program.
Cleverhood’s other support system is comprised of its customers. Calling them “oddly specific,” they consistently offer feedback on product features. Being a nimble company also means that customers can and do see changes they suggest made in as little as four weeks, Mocarski said.
Cleverhood’s future may involve the inclusive marketplace. With an outerwear product for people who use a wheelchair, the company is in the process of becoming a brand offered on Juniper Unlimited, an inclusive and accessibility-minded e-commerce marketplace.
