Search for Eczema Relief Leads to Business Opportunities – New York Times

Eczema entrepreneurs are often driven by personal experiences that they or their family members have had with the skin condition. Joe Paulo, for example, created Smiling Panda clothing after he had eczema as a teenager. But he and others, including Ms. Scott, have found that the path to a winning eczema product is not short or easy, in large part because there is no official testing process to get approval.

Everyones eczema is different, and not everything works the same way on every patient, said Julie Block, president and chief executive of the National Eczema Association, which tracks developments in the field but does not endorse products. The association does offer a certificate of acceptance for companies that can show they have clinical safety testing data for their products.

The only apparel company to earn the associations grade so far is Ms. Scotts AD RescueWear, whose wet-wrap therapy garments relieve itching by sealing in moisture. Medical studies have shown such therapy helps eczema sufferers.

Ms. Scott discovered the therapy while searching for a way to help Harrison, who will be 9 in September. As a baby, his eczema was so severe that he got a staph infection from scratching. Dr. Mark A. Ebadi, an allergist at the Colorado Allergy and Asthma Center in Denver who was treating Harrison, recommended wet-wrap therapy.

Ms. Scott dressed her son in wet cotton pajamas, and at Dr. Ebadis suggestion taped her husbands tube socks around her sons hands for protection. But the wrapping was cumbersome.

It was off-putting to wrap a child in damp clothing, she said. And cotton pajamas got baggy, and my son would get cold. We needed something for him that was close fitting so it would be next to his skin.

It took a lot of trial and error, but Ms. Scott, who is an interior designer, gradually developed a full body suit with flat seams almost like a long-sleeve onesie with covers for her sons nails. The suit has attached feet, like those found on infant and toddler pajamas, to prevent children from scratching their legs and ankles, where clusters of eczema are often found.

I knew nothing about clothing manufacturing, Ms. Scott said. Eventually, she found a family-owned company in Michigan that was willing to produce a run of her sample suit. It was made from the artificial fiber Tencel, which retains more water so the material holds its shape and stays closer to the skin.

She called the body suit the Wrap-E-Soothe suit, but customers later began calling it the rescue suit a nickname her company quickly adopted. It sells for $109 for children. The product line later was expanded to include tops and pants, which cost $74.50, and sleeves, which cost $34.95, to cover childrens arms and legs.

Ms. Scott began selling the garments in 2012, the same year that she teamed up with Anne McVey, an experienced marketer in Davenport, Iowa, whose daughter has eczema. To test reaction from doctors, they took samples to an annual meeting of allergy, asthma and immunology specialists, held in San Antonio in 2013. The garments received good reviews, but Ms. Scott said it was an uphill climb to attract customers online because the product was little known.

She did not share specific numbers, but Ms. Scott said sales increased 70 percent last year to around 10,000 items over 2015. Repeat customers, the eczema associations certificate of acceptance and a medical product billing insurance code have all helped raise the sites visibility and attract business, Ms. Scott said.

Were aiming for 100,000 pieces annually, she added, noting that the site is adding garments for adults.

Mr. Paulo, 23, has already made some inroads with adults seeking relief with his Smiling Panda brand, which he started after getting eczema on his arms. The eczema appeared after he moved from California to Philadelphia in 2012 to attend college.

His eczema, he said, got significantly worse when he had to wear professional clothing during college internships. When even bedsheets began irritating his skin, he started researching the properties of different fibers and how clothing was made. He chose a bamboo-cotton blend for his clothing because bamboo is soft and cotton fibers allow a closer fit, he said. He began cutting and stitching his own shirts, with flat seams and no tags.

When he wore his shirts to bed, he said: I went from having a really tough time falling asleep to having no trouble at all.

I thought there might be other working adults interested in this type of clothing, and that comfortable clothing would help them in the same way it helped me, he said. He found a small manufacturer willing to make a batch of sizes for women and men. He chose Smiling Panda as the company name and started a website in February 2016.

Mr. Paulo, an engineer for a construction company, sold only about 70 shirts last year at $40 to $50 apiece.

But we are on track to sell 100 shirts this year, he said, despite limited advertising, mostly on Facebook. He added that sales were expected to pick up in coming months.

Many of the men and women who buy his garments for workout wear, undergarments and sleepwear are repeat buyers and are so committed that, in March, he decided to add childrens sizes.

Mr. Paulo said he did not know if the company would ever be profitable. I like doing it because I feel like our products make a difference in our customers lives, he said. I know from personal experience how miserable clothing can be when you are itching from eczema.

A version of this article appears in print on July 20, 2017, on Page B5 of the New York edition with the headline: Personal Stories Drive Start-Ups In Eczema Products.

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Search for Eczema Relief Leads to Business Opportunities - New York Times