(inspirational piano music)
(window blinds opening)
- Today, I'm on my way to the Crab Tank Pitch Competition.
There's $25,000 on the line so...
I'm Susan Clayton and I am the owner
and inventor of WhitePaws RunMitts.
Winning this and the $25,000 would help buy fabric.
I know it sounds like something simple
but I need a lot of fabric to fulfill my purchase order.
- We have five fabulous founders
who will be competing for a chance to earn $25,000.
(audience applauds)
- Nervous.
- [Presenter] So I thought-
- I'm gonna cry.
- Let all of that fear go.
It's hard to pitch your business in front of an audience
especially when you need the money
and so that's a lot of pressure that she's holding onto.
Breathe.
- America has always been associated with making it.
- But is that opportunity available to all?
- This is what it looks like
- to be Made in America.
- Sometimes I just go out
cause I can open my front door and go,
and I can get away from my head.
I used to be a running coach
with an organization called Back On My Feet.
We run with people who live in homeless shelters.
There's definitely a lot of homelessness in Baltimore
but I don't think that Baltimore is unique to that.
It's every city, the haves and the have nots.
One of the terms of Back On My Feet is, "nobody runs alone."
I'm out here running with everybody else
and we're all equal.
- Morning, everyone.
- Good morning.
- We ran every Monday, Wednesday, Friday
no matter what the weather was.
In the winter I would go running
and I'd get back in the car
and my thumbs would just be so cold.
And one day I saw a friend of mine.
He was running with a pair of socks on,
like a crappy pair of socks and I said,
"I think I can make something better than that."
And I'm a knitter so I just knitted up a couple prototypes.
Well, I was like,
"You know, I'm gonna just take this to a patent attorney.
"Can't hurt."
So I did and three years later, the patent went through.
and I was like, "Okay, now what?"
(laughs)
They go on and they cover up all of your fingers
and your thumb, keeps everything really warm.
But if you need to cool off, instead of taking 'em off,
you just kind of flip the top
or you can you push 'em all the way down.
I was trying to figure out manufacturing
which I had never done.
You can't just go in and say, "Here, make these mittens."
They have to draw up a pattern.
After that, I had to start figuring out,
when's the best time to sell?
How to promote to different people.
When I first started, I was like,
"Oh I'm just gonna sell some mittens
"to people who have cold hands in the winter when they run."
And it's become so much more than that.
(laughs)
These are labels.
(package wrapping crinkling)
"As an avid runner, I couldn't find mittens or gloves
"that kept my hands warm when training in cold weather,
"so I invented one.
Thank you for supporting WhitePaws RunMitts, Susan."
Yeah.
So 2019, I had been trying to get into retailers
and I was getting "No-no-no-no-no."
Nothing but no's and then COVID hit.
I was like, "Oh, now what?"
People are running and they're outside more
because COVID's hit.
Other companies were doing stuff
probably not in this country.
I hit the market before most sportswear companies
because I didn't have to do all that turnaround.
I was the customer,
I needed something that kept my hands warm.
So this is like beginning of May. End of May, George Floyd.
People are starting to look for small Black own companies.
An Outdoor Retailer did an article,
there's only two Black owned gear companies in the U.S.
And I was like, "That can't be right."
So because of that article,
other people were finding out about me
and I got a call from REI and I was like,
"This is not right.
This is not R-E-I."
They're like, "She's Black, she's a woman,
she's a gear company, let's try it."
I think they thought they would do well
but I don't think they thought
they would do as well as they did.
Neither did I, I was shocked.
And it got to the point
where I had to have 'em shipped overnight.
That's how fast they were selling out.
2021, I was in four REI stores.
And then in January they were like,
"We're gonna go into more stores.
We've decided on 80 stores."
And I was like, "Wow."
When I got the order, I was just like, "I'll figure it out."
And then it got to the point
where as I was buying the supplies, buying the fabric,
I was like, "Wait a minute, I'm running outta money."
This is part of the "supply chain issues" that people have
because things are coming in at different times.
And so I just have to kind of store 'em here
until I can get 'em to the manufacturer,
hopefully soon but...
You don't get paid until you produce the product.
So you have to figure out a way to pay for it up front.
- [Presenter] And we're closing partnerships
with some of the world's largest hospital systems,
hotel networks, and more.
(audience applauds)
- I kind of go into these competitions like,
"I'm not gonna win."
- But more importantly, we are saving lives.
- Maybe I'll be audience favorite.
(laughs)
There's no chance in hell I'm winning with these companies.
(audience clapping)
Everyone's looking for that tech company.
- All of us have already
encountered the metaverse in some way.
- There's no way in the world are gonna pick me,
I just sell mittens.
- Up next,
we have Susan Clayton, who is the CEO,
the founder and the startup genius of the company
WhitePaws RunMitts LLC.
(audience applauds)
- Hi, I'm Susan Clayton and I sell mittens.
(audience chuckles)
I used to be a running coach
for an organization called Back On My Feet.
Back On My Feet, we met and ran
with people who lived in homeless shelters
and we met at 5:30 AM every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
and we ran in any kind of weather.
A lot of other people like me,
we could never find the right mitten or glove
that kept both our fingers and our thumbs warm
when we were training on those really cold mornings.
Our patented design is what sets us apart
from our competition.
WhitePaws RunMitts' products
have always been manufactured in the U.S.
Um, we...uh
(scoffs)
Sorry.
Our products have always been manu-manu-factured in the U.S.
(audience member claps)
(Susan laughs) (audience applauds)
Thank you, thank you.
Our year to growth, year to date has been about $350,000
and that's with me just being a solo entrepreneur.
I'm also dedicated to producing
and keeping needle trade jobs here on shore
because I believe in trade jobs.
I know a lot of people are talking about tech today
but I believe in trade jobs.
There's all these businesses out here
that are multimillion dollar businesses
but you can have a business that's making $350,000 a year
and sustain a good life.
(audience applauds)
So who wants to run warm with WhitePaws RunMitts?
(audience applauds)
Thank you. (audience applauds)
I practiced and I practiced, and I practiced,
and I was terrible.
I mean, I was trying not to cry.
I think the reason I was so nervous
is because I really needed this money this week.
I'm supposed to start production for mittens next week
and I don't have the money to start.
If I don't get financing, I have to delay manufacturing,
which will become this big snowball effect.
- When we're talking about manufacturing,
one of the scariest things that can happen to a company
is you're running to the the finish line
and you run out of money.
And this happens all of the time.
Wonderful companies with brilliant ideas,
traction, revenue, completely crumble
because at an inflection point
needed capital support and they weren't able to find it.
And there have been countless data points
that really show that African American women
are the least likely to be funded for a venture.
- When I was in high school,
I went to a predominantly male school.
It was hard for me to get in
because you had to have certain electives
that were not offered to girls.
Title IX was just being introduced.
You did girl things: you did dance,
you did Girl Scouts, you did all those things.
So I didn't think of myself
as ever running track or anything like that.
None of those sports were available to me.
And my brother ran track, he got me really started.
So we run this race and he's telling me how to run.
He's like, "Take your time, run slow, go at your own pace."
And then he meets me at like the quarter mile
towards the end.
And he's like, "All right, now it's time to sprint."
And I passed somebody
that I'd seen during the course who had said,
"Oh why are you running so slow?"
And then I passed him.
And I was like, "I like the way this feels."
(laughs)
Just didn't realize that normal people could do that.
I had an idea because I'm a runner.
I ran with Back On My Feet
and I was running with homeless people.
So I wanna be able to give some mittens to homeless people
and to people in shelters
so that they can get out and run
and they can feel good about themselves. And I want people
to say, "I had a problem, I wanna try to solve it
and I want to start a business from it."
- Susan, where do you have those available for sale?
- REI and my website.
- [Woman] Oh wow, I love these.
(group appreciating)
- Yay!
- Thank you so much!
Yeah!
- [Geoffrey] Hey Susan.
- Hi Geoffrey, it's so good to see you.
I'm really excited today.
- Me too, I'm excited to walk through your new website.
I think you're really gonna like it.
- I saw something on the website
and it just was like, "Oh my God, this is amazing!"
- According to your goals,
this site is really trying to accentuate
the product being warm and that it keeps you active.
- That's really good.
I really like that.
- [Geoffrey] And highlighting these top three things
about how unique your product is.
- I love the color.
I swear, I was like...
I wanna get a blue car just cause I love this color so much.
- And if you see here, we built your online store
in such a way that it's clear and simple,
and it's easy for people to purchase.
- Yeah.
- I don't always wanna rely heavily on retailers.
I wanna be able to be more direct to consumer
because I might not always have
that big order from a retailer.
- And my personal favorite section is this part:
We really wanna show the heart behind the company
and the story of who you are.
Authenticity is of course a big thing of online presence
but I also feel like it's a big part of your story
and that's really good
cause I think that's one thing that separates you
from the "big box stores" as well.
And that people can actually see who Susan is,
the authentic entrepreneur.
(tense music)
- The moment that we have all been waiting for:
M&T is pleased to award $25,000
to today's grand prize winner.
So without further ado, can I do the drum roll?
(everyone clapping)
Oh my gosh, "Susan!"
- Oh my god, my name just popped up on the screen.
Did that just happen?
(audience applauding)
- I don't even know how to feel I'm so...
I did not expect that.
I'm really grateful for this.
I'm really...
I'm gonna be really emotional
because this is a time when I need funding,
and I need that ecosystem.
I need the tech to help me grow the business.
It was like when I first started, I was just like,
"Hey, I'm just selling some mittens."
It's a simple idea but I want other people to realize
that you don't have to have these big, big ideas
to start a company.
You can be a hair stylist, you can be a locksmith,
you can do whatever you want.
You can do something small and you can be successful.
So I'm really, really grateful for today.
And I thank you so much everyone.
(audience cheers)
Oh my god, I just won the $25,000.
I can't...
I'm still like, I can't believe I won.
- What just happened was The Susan won,
that's what just happened.
She snatched everything
and she's taking home the funding that she needs to grow.
- So $25,000 to me is game changing.
Now I can say, "I'm on track.
I'm on track. I'm okay."
- She showed us her authentic self and for her to be nervous
and just think that she totally bombed it,
and then she won.
Couldn't have imagined anybody better
to have won that award today.
- You know, we were crying in the front
just listening to you because it's like,
"Yeah you just want to have a company
and serve people, and be of service, and live well."
- So many people come up to me today to just say,
"Thank you for just saying
"that it's okay to have a small company.
"You don't have to be these unicorns out there,
"trying to change the world.
You're just trying to have a good life."
(exhales)
I can sleep tonight.
- Coming up on Made in America,
Susan returns in episode four, but first,
- These are happy tears.
(laughs)
- I work a lot harder on my business than I did at a job.
That's the scary part of it, you betting on yourself.
Whatever happens, it's because of the choices you made.