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.”
That said, being a participant in the world of outerwear manufacturing was never part of Mocarski’s original plan.
A graphic designer, decorative painter and educator, her success in the apparel business has been a combination of being passionate about solving problems, researching unmet demand, relying on steadfast resourcefulness and ensuring her company remains nimble.
Growing up in a U.S. Navy family, Mocarski moved a lot. She remembers being in 10 different schools over 12 years and living in five different countries before she was 21. Compared to living in the U.S., international cities such as Naples and Moscow had a different vibe when it came to getting around, she said.
“I would regularly get out and about on my own,” she said. “And there were a lot of people with that sort of sensibility,” no matter the weather.
Mocarski went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in economics from American University in Washington, D.C. She worked in the city as a graphic designer for a time, before moving to New York, where she worked for two magazines before starting a decorative-painting business. After that, she moved to Rhode Island with her husband, had children and taught art at Sophia Academy in Providence for 10 years.
‘This world is very fast and clever. ... So we have to be quick.’
SUSAN MOCARSKI, Cleverhood LLC owner and principal designer
Her schedule at that point tended to be erratic depending on the day, said Mocarski. She would find herself running errands, commuting to and from work, picking up children, and thinking about city people and their lack of good, functional outerwear to satisfy their need to cover up in the rain. “I started dreaming it up,” said Mocarski.
She found the lack of good rain gear even more ironic in a walkable city such as Providence. Mocarski’s research showed that most performance outerwear is made for men. “That got me kind of kooky,” said Mocarski. “Clothing for women was based on fashion, not performance. I had to wear my husband’s stuff.”
And what she was able to find in the outerwear marketplace at that time was clothing for camping or hiking, but nothing along the lines of a high-performance rain poncho a city bike commuter could rely upon.
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.
She is the sole designer, with the multi-skilled 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 where necessary.
For example, in the early days, Mocarski remembers needing models for products. “Anyone who came near me? I threw a poncho on them and put them in the rain for photos,” she said. “It was all-hands-on-deck. Women have a tendency to do this, to lean on community really hard.”
For Mocarski, leaning on community has also meant 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 – such as a migrated thumb loop in a cape design – made in as little as four weeks, she 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.
Next spring, Cleverhood products will also be in the Museum of Modern Art’s MoMA Design Store in Manhattan, she said.
Wherever Cleverhood goes next, Mocarski finds that the importance of preserving the ability to evolve is even more pertinent in manufacturing as opposed to other fields.
“This world is very fast and clever,” she said. “I am a 56-year-old woman. My colleagues and competitors are all 26-year-old guys, knowledgeable in more tech aspects of the business than I am. So we have to be quick.”
