Claudent is Making Sun Protection Chic ☀️
Meet Emma Gerber, co-founder of Claudent, a brand making sun protection look good.
GM everyone! Happy Friday.
Today I’m thrilled to have Emma Gerber, co-founder of Claudent on today’s newsletter. Claudent is a clothing brand that makes sun protection actually look good, offering a collection of chic garments that protect from the sun’s UPF rays.
Sun protection seems to be more prevalent in the discourse than ever before, and is at the top of many people’s minds this Summer. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation can lead to premature aging and other skin related issues, and Claudent is stepping up to meet the challenge of mitigating harm, while still looking good.
Claudent sits at an interesting intersection between fashion and wellness, and I think how Claudent communicates their value, while remaining fashionable and creating excellently creative directed branding, is something worth talking about.
Emma joins Who Do You Know? to discuss her background in fashion branding, the challenges of founding Claudent, finding a perfect co-founder, and what brands she’s loving this Summer.
☀️ INTERVIEW WITH EMMA GERBER ☀️
Jake Bell: Tell me a bit about your career history!
Emma Gerber: I graduated from USC with a film degree and thought production was where I wanted to be, but I fell into an internship at the denim line RE/DONE and have worked in the industry ever since. After RE/DONE, I was able to really sink my teeth into fashion and beauty through my time in marketing for brands like Simon Miller, Set Active, and Boy Smells. Now I am focusing my efforts on Claudent with my co-founder Mia Zee; we also act as consultants for select brands focusing on marketing and social media.
JB: Why did you and your co-founder start Claudent?
EG: Mia and I have worked together intermittently since 2017, so it was a natural fit. Mia was diagnosed with a sun allergy in her late 20s and started looking around for Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF) clothing and found that nothing out there was speaking to young adults… brands were mostly catered towards children or adults 60 and up. She approached me about starting a brand that created protective clothing that you wanted to wear, not that you had to wear to stay protected. We’re now about a year into building Claudent!
JB: Why should customers be concerned about UPF protection?
EG: There are so many reasons why it’s important to protect your skin from the sun. Not only is 90% of premature aging caused by UV damage, but the American Academy of Dermatology Association also estimates that 1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime.
UPF measures how much of the sun’s broad spectrum ultraviolet radiation is blocked by a fabric before it can reach your skin. The higher the UPF rating, the greater the sun protection (the gold standard being UPF 50+). We assume that all clothing provides adequate protection, but people are routinely exposed to the sun’s harmful rays through their day-to-day attire. The average white cotton t-shirt only provides a UPF rating of 5 - 7 when dry and about UPF 3 when wet. This allows about 1 out of 3 UVA/UVB rays to penetrate your skin and leaves you unprotected against sun damage. All Claudent pieces are UPF 50+ which means that at least 98% of the sun’s UVA and UVB rays are not able to reach your skin, with the fabric acting as a barrier.
JB: What were some of the challenges with starting the brand?
EG: Is it too much to say… everything? Starting Claudent was by far the most challenging professional experience of my life but also the most rewarding. If I had to pick, it would be finding and creating the fabric. We must’ve sampled hundreds of UPF fabrics from mills around the world, but we couldn’t find a fabric that met both the criteria of being inherently UPF 50+ (as opposed to being chemically treated) and felt as close to a natural luxurious fabric as possible, so we set out to create proprietary fabrics. This led to rounds and rounds of sampling, expensive ordering and shipping mistakes, but ultimately led to our three fabrics that I’m very proud of.
JB: When it comes to building a clothing brand, what are some tips for success you can offer readers?
EG: Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses and find someone who is better in the areas where you aren’t as successful. There is no way I could have done this without Mia, and we balance each other out very nicely. I’m more creative, visual, and need days to process, while Mia is incredibly proactive, analytical and organized. While we both come from similar professional backgrounds, having different strengths and areas of expertise for Claudent has been indispensable.
JB: What's next for Claudent and yourself?
EG: Hopefully lots! As far as Claudent, we’re expanding into wholesale starting with two very exciting pop ups at luxury resorts in Hawaii, as well as two online retailers I really love (and can’t wait to share more about) once they’re live. We’re also finishing up new styles and colors for next year to continue expanding on the perfect UPF50+ summer wardrobe.
JB: Any brands or products catching your eye this Summer?
EG: This summer I’ve become a crazy Roz Hair addict. I was anti-any-and-all hair products (besides shampoo and conditioner…) until I tried these. I can’t go a day without the Milk Serum or Hair Oil, especially when my hair gets super dehydrated after being outside in the LA heat.
Want more perspective on starting a clothing brand? Read my interview with Kailee McKenzie, founder of STAATSBALLET here.
Takeaways
This emerging category of scientifically focused wellness brands (whether it be supplements like AG-1, sunscreen, or purposeful clothing) always has a risk of leaning too far into the science and looking bad.
The wrong people at the table, can easily drive a brand in the wrong direction.
Emma and Mia have great taste, and have built Claudent thoughtfully, intentionally balancing a fine line between communicating their brands value proposition and looking like something people want to wear.
As Emma stated, this category was lacking good design, and Claudent has filled this space with some incredible lookbooks, nicely designed clothes, and intentional branding.
I’ve been having more and more conversations with founders who, like myself, graduated from film school and now find themselves working at the intersection of brand, design, and marketing.
My takeaway from why people like Emma succeed is that the storytelling techniques you learn in film school are incredibly valuable when it comes to telling a brand story that resonates.
At the end of the day, brand is a reaction to a companies output across their product, marketing, and every single touch point.
Being intentional about how that output reaches consumers will vastly affect how they perceive your ‘story’ and people buy stories, not products.
So if you’re thinking about starting a brand, or work in brand consulting, I’d recommend taking a step back and remember that oftentimes the thing consumers (or investors) want to buy into is a great story, which can be told through your packaging, website, lookbooks, social media, etc.
Manhattan Project Run Club Update
I am still training to run the 31 mile perimeter on Manhattan in a few weeks. I just ran from the Upper East Side to the World Trade Center last night after work.
I’ve a lot of musings on my diet, training regimen, and mindset as I train, and next week I’ll be writing a few newsletter within this newsletter breaking those thoughts down.
In the meantime, the Manhattan Project Run Club will take place again tomorrow morning.
Come run an easy 5 miles with me and let’s get coffee or smoothies after and talk about whatever you want.
SATURDAY 6/29 8AM
MEET AT TOMPKINS SQUARE PARK
5 MILES
Jake Bell is a content marketing, creative strategist, and designer based in NYC. He specializes in brand building, content creation, branding, art direction, creative strategy, and making things cool.
Want to chat? Email me: jake@jb.studio