Isis of Burlington designs outdoor women's apparel

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 combined experience in the outdoor apparel industry. Cooke's background is in sales and marketing. She was vice preseident of sales at Merrell footware 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 and 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 and 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.

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