November 2009Dogpatch-Based Company Offers Cabbage Patch ClothesBy Kevin DavisBehind the second story windows at 2475 Third Street in Dogpatch hums a million-dollar-a-year organic cotton baby clothing business, Speesees, which counts celebrity mothers like Nicole Richie and Courteney Cox as fans. Speesees, which adds new pieces every year, offers machine washable everyday wear, like roomy yoga pants with gentle waistbands, bodysuits and jumpers with nickel-free snap crotches, ingenious side-snap kimono shirts and dresses – which wrap around instead of pulling over a baby’s big soft head – t-shirts with wide collars for easy overhead dressing, and a line of casual jackets. Company founder Rachel Pearson recently lowered her prices – which now range from $12 to $16 for short-sleeved t-shirts, to $36 for a hooded lamb jacket made of Sherpa cotton, which is created when loose terrycloth fibers are brushed, beaten and teased into a soft cloud – to make items accessible to more than just the rich and famous. The Zen-style, vintage-cut pieces are sized for babies to four-year-olds. They’re available in androgynous earth tones, like tomato and peacock, which, according to Pearson, appeal especially to dads. Next year Speesees will introduce a fitted sheet and pillowcase set, along with new patterned prints on un-dyed fabric. Each piece is decorated with a matte-finish with a custom screen print logo of silhouettes of a hummingbird, Tennessee Walker horse, or Pearson’s signature hugging people graphic, labeled Harmonize, that she doodled in college. Pearson was raised in Pacific Palisades, a Southern California enclave, by sustainability-minded parents who believed in cloth diapers, natural food, and wooden toys. She learned gardening and animal husbandry skills at a homesteading camp when she was nine-years-old, an experience she described as “grounding. How to survive as a species in the twenty-first century was an ongoing topic,” said Pearson, who credits her dad, a radar engineer, for nurturing her entrepreneurial spirit. “I grew up discussing ideas. I’m an idea person.” Pearson earned a developmental psychology degree at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and studied graphic design at the California College of Art’s Showplace Square campus. For a short-time she ran a vegan baking company, and taught yoga and dance to elderly bypass surgery survivors. Through a distributor she met at the 2002 Green Festival, held at the Concourse Pavilion, Pearson found her way to an organic cotton textile manufacturer located in Umbargaon, Southern India. “It was a big surprise how I started looking and everything opened up,” said the eco-designer, reflecting on how her interest coincided with the growing popularity of sustainable alternatives to commercial textiles. Certified organic cotton uses non-genetically modified, pest resistant cottonseeds grown in nutrient-rich, naturally fertilized soil without chemical fungicides, insecticides, or herbicides. The hand-harvested cotton produces formaldehyde- and dioxin-free cotton cloth that’s colored with anti-allergic dyes. Pieces ordered online are mailed in compostable biodegradable bags made of corn starch. The Indian factory, which employs 450 workers, sells to upwards of 40 American and French clothing lines. It’s certified by Social Accountability International, which monitors the factory’s labor standards. Beginning with a 300 square foot space at the American Industrial Center six years ago, when the company grossed $11, Speesees currently inhabits a $3,500 per month, 2,600 square foot space at Third and 22nd streets, and is projected to earn close to $1 million in revenue this year, an amount Pearson considers modest. Speesees’ success seems organic, like the company, according to Pearson, who plans to open a centrally located San Francisco flagship store in two years, followed by New York and Tokyo branches. She enjoys scouting amateur baby models for the company’s print catalogue and website. Though she’s tickled to come across her fashions on the street, Pearson keeps a respectable distance, except when she sees a particularly amazing Speesees baby. “I’m not stalking parents,” said Pearson, who, after residing in the Mission District for 11 years now divides her time between a Sebastopol cottage and a Russian Hill apartment she shares with her investment banker boyfriend. Pearson contracts out her bookkeeping and webmastery. The full-time Speesees team consists of Pearson, fashion designer Eliza Bradley – an Art Institute graduate who uses desktop applications Photoshop and Illustrator to create the line’s colors, styles and cuts – and account manager Erika Stallworth, who corresponds with the roughly 400 stores which carry the line worldwide. Speesees’ biggest client is Whole Foods, with Rainbow Grocery Cooperative also offering the clothes. |
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