Glenn Cook and Heather Spire, two stay-at-home moms interested in returning to the work force, met as tennis partners.
Pervormance's Lisa Wood, Heather Spire and Glenn Cook show and wear the company's Cooline vests in the
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Now the Lancaster women are business partners, offering a hot new product that keeps people cool.
Cook and Spire last year formed Pervormance LLC, a company that distributes European-made cooling vests in the United States.
The vests, which cool by evaporation, not with ice packs, are being marketed to anyone who toils in the heat.
"The applications are really limitless," says Cook.
Factory and highway workers, firefighters, people wearing amusement park character costumes, pro football players and other athletes are prime candidates for the vest.
Other users could be military personnel, multiple-sclerosis sufferers (whose symptoms can be exacerbated by heat) and even animals, such as horses and dogs.
The short, quilted vests, which retail for $295 apiece, are guaranteed to stay cool for 48 hours after being submerged in cool water for just 6 seconds, says Cook.
These vests contain a high-tech fleece that absorbs the water and then releases it by evaporation, cooling the people wearing them longer than any other evaporative vest, she says.
Weighing 2½ pounds when activated with water, the vests' exterior fabric stays dry, allowing them to be worn comfortably over a T-shirt.
Cook and Spire, who expect Pervormance to post sales of $500,000 this year, have found interest in the product both here and across the nation.
After a trial last summer at Dutch Wonderland, costumed characters at both Dutch Wonderland and Hersheypark (which owns Dutch Wonderland) have the vests available to help beat the heat this summer.
The Philadelphia Eagles football team also tried them at a pre-season camp and will do further testing with eight vests at their training camp later this month and next, according to Cook and Spire.
Two other NFL teams, the New Orleans Saints and the Baltimore Ravens, also are trying them.
In addition, in Charlotte, N.C., a NASCAR pit crew, whom the company preferred not to identify, has been using them, Cook says.
There also have been discussions with the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., and vests are being tried by the American rifle and shotgun teams.
The 40-something Cook and 30-something Spire got into the cooling vest business via Spire's husband, Bill.
A venture capitalist, Bill was on a business trip in Europe and met there with his attorney, who also does work for Pervormance. The attorney told Bill that the company wanted to sell the vests in the United States but needed a U.S.-based distributor.
Coincidentally, the two moms had been talking about starting some sort of business together, since they both have children who were soon to be in school full-time.
Pervormance LLC, which rents offices in the Auntie Anne's headquarters at Prince and Chestnut streets, soon was under way.
Hersheypark was its first customer; it has bought 12 vests worn by people playing various costumed characters. Dutch Wonderland has two vests for use by workers wearing the Duke the Dragon costume.
The vests have had different receptions at the two parks. At Dutch Wonderland, the workers still seem to prefer the ice vests, says entertainment manager Trish Green.
"The ice is definitely much cooler," she says.
That's true, say Spire and Cook, but their Cooline vests are designed to cool the body's core for a longer time.
But at Hersheypark, entertainment manager Jen Paul hopes the amusement park can buy more Cooline vests. "We really like how they wear and feel," says Paul.
Among its other area customers are Donsco in Mount Joy. Carpenter Technology in Reading is trying out the vests.
Fire companies in Charlotte, N.C., and Myrtle Beach, S.C., have purchased them, although no local fire companies have as yet.
Pervormance has two regional sales representatives, Lisa Wood and Emily Forrey.
Cook estimates that Pervormance LLC will sell at least 1,800 vests in the U.S. this year. In addition, it carries Cooline helmet inserts, priced at $95, and there are plans to add a cooling towel for $295.
An online store will be added to the Pervormance LLC Web site —
www.coolineusa.com — sometime in August, Spire says.
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