Muppets Give SpiritHoods Its Star Turn

When Marley Marotta, 29, and Alexander Mendeluk, 26, first started making animal-inspired faux-fur hats for themselves, friends, and family a few years ago, they were something they’d wear out at night, just to stand out from the crowd.

But then they started hearing a lot of “Hey, where’d you get that?” and strangers gravitated toward them, falling in love with the whimsical hats and chatting freely with the guys wearing them.

“The response was incredible. There was something inherent within the design that makes people giddy and happy,” says Mendeluk, whose background is in acting.

The giddiness affected one very big company. SpiritHoods recently scored a licensing deal with Disney Consumer Products to produce the animal-inspired hats in conjunction with the newly released movie The Muppets, which hit theaters today.

“We had just launched our children’s product, and it was Disney that contacted us,” Mendeluk says. “They saw that the brand was becoming popular and that it would just naturally work.”

The Muppets-licensed collection ranges in price from $99 to $169 and is available in Fred Segal stores, on the SpiritHoods website, and in some Disney merchandise stores. Miss Piggy's design is a glamorous pink shawl, while the Kermit the Frog-inspired hood is bright green with big eyes. Mendeluk couldn't get into the terms of the deal with Disney, but he did say that SpiritHoods was allowed to come up with the designs on its own and that working with the much bigger company was "a pleasure."

The groundwork for SpiritHoods was laid in January 2010, when the company started after a move for Mendeluk and Marotta from Portland, Oregon, to Los Angeles, when the pieces that they were making on a lark became a full-blown brand. Mendeluk became cofounder and head of research and design for the startup SpiritHoods. Marotta is the marketing director, and they’re joined by two other friends and cofounders: Chase Hamilton, 28, who is the director of operations, and Ashley Haber, 33, the creative director.

SpiritHoods went to its first trade show, the Pool Trade Show in Las Vegas, which is part of the larger Magic show for emerging brands, the following month, thanks to a $9,000 cash influx from Hamilton. That was a pivotal moment: Retailers loved the hats, and the company also found fans via stores like the online retailer Singer 22, a favorite of the Kardashians, and Fred Segal, a celebrity haunt in Santa Monica, California.

Buoyed by interest from celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Fergie, and Bruno Mars—all of whom caught on to the brand with no soliciting from the company—the startup went from 35 accounts after Pool to its current 400 retail accounts, with its goods sold online and in retail outlets around the world. So far this year, its sales are up 255 percent over 2010, Mendeluk says.

In addition to men's and women's hats, children are also part of the merchandise mix, with styles such as black wolf, snow leopard, panda bear, and rabbit. Ten percent of the net profits from each hat goes to an organization devoted to the specific animal that inspired the hat. For instance, the giant panda hat proceeds go to Pandas International.

There are now approximately 14 people working full-time for SpiritHoods, and with its manufacturing partners it has 100 more people crafting the designs. The fur comes from China and Korea, but the manufacturing is all done in Los Angeles.

“We’re already looking ahead to do some of the classics for the future, like Pooh and Mickey Mouse,” Mendeluk says. “You’ll see more SpiritHoods connected to Disney.”

For next year, the company also plans to reach out to college campuses with “Team Spirit Hoods” to represent various teams.

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Teresa Novellino writes for Portfolio.com