By Molly Tucker

Isis, the Burlington-based women's outdoor apparel company, will celebrate its 10th anniversary in July. It started in 1998 as a home-based business and has grown to almost $10 million in annual sales.

Isis designs technical performance outerwear for active women who like to ski, kayak, mountain bike, backpack, climb, run and camp, and recently expanded into non-athletic clothing. Co-founders Carolyn Cooke and Poppy Gal started Isis in 1998 with almost 40 years of combined experience in the outdoor apparel industry. Cooke's background is in sales and marketing. She was vice president of sales at Merrell footwear and also helped bring Wild Roses, a Swiss women's outdoor apparel brand, into stores in the United States.

Gall's specialties are product design and color. She founded Mountain Ladies & Ewe in 1980 in Manchester, Vt., hiring home knitters to knit hats and sweaters that were sold in the U.S., Canada and Japan. Gall sold Mountain Ladies & Ewe to Turtle Fur in 1990 and then worked as a freelance designer and color consultant for ski and outdoor companies and ran a women's telemark ski program at Stowe.

The two women met in 1990 at a trade show where Gall was representing Mountain Ladies & Ewe and Cooke was representing Merrell. "There were not many women in the industry when we met so we had common ground," said Gall. They shared a passion for outdoor sports and came up for the idea for Isis in February 1998 while riding a chairlift in Stowe.

"Poppy and I were talking about why no one was making good clothes for women to wear outdoors," said Cooke. "Men's clothing was merely being re-sized and re-colored for women. The buying and economic power of women had really started to grow in the 1990s and we couldn't understand why women were still stuck buying things that weren't shaped for them."

They decided to start a business out of their homes producing a line of women's outdoor apparel, and incorporated as Juno Rising in July 1998. The first year, 30 stores signed up as customers. Cooke and Gall were preparing to ship the first orders when they received a cease and desist letter from Junonia, a sportswear company for plus-sized women. "Junonia thought their customers would be confused by the similarity of the names," said Cooke. "We hadn't built a brand name identity yet with Juno so we thought why spend our limited resources fighting for a name that no one knew." They went back to the drawing board and chose Isis, the Egyptian goddess of fertility and motherhood.

In December 2002, Isis moved into the Chace Mill in Burlington, and now has offices on two floors of the building. It currently has more than 300 store customers and 20 employees. Cooke's and Gall's responsibilities have changed markedly over the years. Cooke is now CEO and President Vice President of Merchandising. "As the company has evolved, Poppy's job has become much more focused and mine has become broader," said Cooke. "I used to focus on overseeing the sales force and marketing. Now I'm the head cheerleader. I'm responsible for the bottom-line performance of the company and management of the executive team. I have my fingers in everything."

Gall is Vice President of Creative and Design. She plans the spring and fall collections, including designing garments, selecting fabrics, product coloration, trim development, print design, and garment fit. "As a mountain sports enthusiast I have a keen understanding of the needs of a woman in the outdoors," said Gall. "This informs my decisions about pocket placement, fit, venting, fabrics, hoods, and details like soft inner collars and pocket linings."

In the early days, some of the clothing was manufactured at Vermont Fleece in Morrisville, Vt., but Isis quickly outgrew that facility. "There isn't very good apparel manufacturing in the U.S. that is competitive," said Cooke. "The skill of sewing is not aspired to in the U.S. as it is in Asian and eastern European countries." Manufacturing clothing in the U.S. also meant problems with language barriers, labor issues and finding raw materials. "There are some fabric manufacturers in the U.S. but most is done offshore," said Cooke. "Also most labels, zippers and trims are not made in the U.S. and it is economically difficult to import them." Isis now outsources all of its manufacturing, sixty-five percent to China and the remainder to Fall River, Mass., Costa Rica, Turkey and Italy.

Isis clothing comes in sizes 2 to16, as well as in petite and long leg lengths. The winter line includes jackets, sweaters, turtlenecks, vests, pants, and hats, which are made in a number of specialty fabrics. "Our fabrics continue to evolve," said Gall. "We are always searching to the next best technical fabrics as well as fabrics that are soft and cozy."

In 2005, Isis launched its first summer collection of tanks and tees, shorts, skorts, capris and dresses. "As more women adopt the Isis line, they want to wear it off the mountain, when they're not skiing," said Cooke. Designing for summer is different. "There is not as much need for technical performance with the summer line because the clothing is not meant to keep our customers from being cold and wet," said Cooke. Sun protective fabrics, however, are important, said Gall.

Isis' customers range in age from 25 to 60, says Cooke, and the challenge is appealing to all of them. "Our goal is to keep the product looking young," said Cooke. The company's original customers are now 35 to 45 years old. "A woman might be 45 but still see herself as in her early 30s. She doesn't want to dress like a 20 year old. She wants to look younger without looking stupid."

The company's best-selling winter items are the Niobi down jacket and the Sultana quilted vest, and the best sellers for summer are shorts and capris. For its Fall/Winter 2008 collection, ISIS launched its first line of non-technical, everyday sportswear called Life, which includes fleece and corduroy separates, cotton jersey knit tops, French terry hoodies and pants, and boiled wool jersey sweaters. Isis is currently working on its fall 2009 and spring 2010 collections. "We work 18 months out," said Cooke.

Cooke believes that Isis has influenced other outdoor apparel companies. "The competition has gotten a lot smarter and tougher, and a lot of that has to do with our impact on the market," she said. "The first priority for sportswear companies like Patagonia was to develop products for the outdoors and women came after that," said Cooke. "We've always been about women first, and then about her going outdoors."

Isis sells best in northern states including New England, the Rockies, the Pacific Northwest and northern California. Several Vermont retailers have been Isis customers from the start, including Climb High and the Ski Rack in Burlington; Eastern Mountain Sports in South Burlington; Pinnacle Ski and Sport, AJ's Ski and Sport and Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe; and Onion River Sports in Montpelier.

The company had expanded beyond the U.S. to Canada, Korea and Europe, but cut back about a year and a half ago. "We are still selling in Canada but not outside North America," said Cooke. "We stopped because we still have a lot to do here. The last thing we want to do is to get unfocused."

Cooke says Isis is rapidly reaching the $10 million mark in annual sales, and has grown an average of 45 percent each year. Growing the company hasn't been easy. "The whole financial aspect has been challenging but also rewarding," said Cooke. "Once you meet the financial demands, it allows you to move forward. We were hugely fortunate to find an amazing woman, Betsy Walkerman, to be the company's CFO. She is constantly looking ahead and doing what we need to do. She has helped us raise a lot of capital and now the company is generating its own."

To grow the company, Isis received angel funding, 80 percent of which came from within Vermont, as well as outside equity financing. Isis' management, including Cooke and Gall, currently own 30 percent of the company. Isis supports several national and local charitable organizations. Each year, it outfits women climbers participating in a major fund-raising event for the Breast Cancer Fund. It also supports Medicines Global, Mind Over Mountains, and the Borealis Paddling Expedition. Isis donates products or offers discounts on clothing to local organizations including Girls on the Run, KidSafe Burlington, the Dragon Boat team, the Alison Hicks Foundation, the Clothing Exchange, and Women Helping Battered Women.

Isis is located at One Mill Street, Suite 203, Burlington, VT 05401. The telephone number is 802.862.3351, toll free: 866.875.8689. The company's website is isisforwomen.com.