Dear Ocean SF Loyal Followers and Supporters,
MERRY! MERRY! Holiday Season…
ON SALE NOW – Our 100% Cotton LOVE hoodie sweatshirts are on sale for 20% off starting Now through December 25th. You can now get two (one for you and a friend or loved one) for $100. They are cozy and warm and get softer over time.
Order now before they sell out!
Use Code “LOVE 2025”
Share the LOVE!
For the past four years, I’ve run a summer intern program for Ocean SF. I can’t remember exactly when this idea came to me, but it was in 2021 when I had both my daughters home from college due to COVID-19. I was also teaching leadership and management classes at UC Berkeley, and as part of my content, I focused on women in leadership. The statistics were astonishing, but not in a good way. One statistic stated that if a woman doesn’t find themselves in a leadership role in the first five years of her career, she never would.
In 2023, women held about 32% of management roles globally. This marked an increase from 29% in 2019, showing slow but steady progress.
As of 2023, only 8.8% of Fortune 500 companies had female CEOs, a historic high but still demonstrating the underrepresentation of women in top leadership.
Women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) make up less than 30% of the workforce and are even more underrepresented in leadership roles.
In the health sector, women comprise 70% of the global health workforce, yet they occupy only 25% of senior roles in the sector.
I was teaching leadership, but my sailing apparel company Ocean SF was going under due to the implosion of retail during COVID-19. All of the hard work I had put into finding investors, partnerships, and distribution channels had gone up in smoke overnight. I thought it would be a good idea to combine the two and at least begin to incubate women leaders. Being resourceful, I recruited my eldest daughter, Paris, who has strongly supported the brand since its inception. I tried to recruit my younger daughter, but she refused and could not be coaxed into spending her summer working for her mother under the direction of her sister. Paris, however, was enthusiastic and got to work. We found seven other interns to round out our team. I proceeded to teach the interns everything I taught in my classes at UC Berkeley. Paris was the project manager, and everyone learned to use project management tools. They alternated between leading their own projects and managing their own teams.
We had a ton of fun that first year, and we made good progress in building the company’s foundation, and it has continued since. This past year, we had another large group of kids who dug in and made a significant impact. We had three pop-ups and have grown our social media by over 1000%. We also transitioned to a San Francisco lifestyle brand. We are now partneing with a Shop Locally a website for local brands in and around San Francisco. It will be another avenue for us to sell our products.
It must be noted that we have also had boys intern with us as women need advocates and allies.
Sadly, I had to say goodbye to my interns a few days ago. I have to say it wasn’t easy. Motherhood has been my most treasured role in life, and being able to connect and bond with young people is something that I love. Now that my children are launched and working in the corporate world, I have the next generation to help shepherd toward their professional lives. I shed a few tears because I will miss them, but we will stay in touch and continue our initiatives with monthly meetings and check-ins.
Follow us on Instagram and TikTok. Like and share our content with your friends, and remember to buy sustainably and shop local and woman owned!
Ocean SF has been an incubator for leadership and development through our Summer Internship program, which began in 2021 with our first seven interns. Sydney Chaney Thomas, an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley, taught a course called Effective Leadership and Management that summer, and she began using the class content to educate her interns on leadership and management. She used the same leadership development instruments with each intern and began meeting with them individually, working with them to understand and development their core strengths and competencies. Each weekly Intern meeting would address one of the ten modules Sydney presented in her professional leadership course.
In addition to this layer, she began creating groups where each intern could use their leadership abilities for different projects. This allowed each of them to find and utilize their leadership styles. The group was extremely diverse, comprised of college students with various skill sets and backgrounds.
In addition to this, Sydney Chaney Thomas is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). She earned this certification while working in technology but uses it as an overlay to all of her projects. Learning to be a skilled project manager is a transferable talent across all industries and has been especially helpful in clothing manufacturing, inventory control, and management of webbased platforms and social media campaigns. Sydney teaches her interns how to create a project plan and utilize tools like Asana and Trello to manage project deliverables.
Each summer since 2021, Sydney Chaney Thomas has run this program. and in 2022, the program ran through January to accommodate an intern that had deferred at NYU that year. In 2023 the program ran throughout the entire year as Ocean SF becomes more than just a company and place to work, but a true calling.
This summer we are getting a later start, but plan to make great strides with our brand. Sydney Chaney Thomas is a corporate leadership consultant working for Villa Leadership with clients in the Silicon Valley, and a member the Executive Leadership Committee for the Fine Arts Museums of an Francisco, and is also on the advisory board for the Haas School of Business Innovation Squad. Even with this busy schedule Ocean SF and the leadership concepts she teaches through the Internship Program remain closest to her heart.
I am happy to share my knowledge through internships that use my clothing brand Ocean SF as a catalyst for learning and through my ability to teach complex concepts and help others find their path and thrive. It is my great joy to work with young people as they start their careers.
Sydney Chaney Thomas – Owner and Founder of Ocean SF
When Ocean SF was struggling to find footing during Covid and afterwards with so many retail closures one of the former Ocean SF interns suggested Ocean SF be used primarily to train leaders and that profitability could be secondary to the mission of Ocean SF which began as a vehicle to drive sustainable sportswear and rid the world of plastic.
Like many great companies Ocean SF prides itself on adapting and evolving as a business.
We invite you to apply if your interests are aligned with environmental causes, sustainability, innovation and leadership.
Contact:
Our leadership and entrepreneurial internship is back this summer by popular demand. We are kicking off in July and are seeking qualified candidates.
Interns Summer 2024
Ocean SF Leadership Development Internship
We seek highly motivated and creative individuals to join our summer intern team. Ideal candidates must be interested in all aspects of building a sustainable fashion brand and, most importantly, promoting environmental causes. This program will teach and develop entrepreneurial skills on all levels, including product development, marketing, fashion design, social media, advertising, technical skills, and management and leadership. Please DM me for more information.
Contact:
Sydney Chaney Thomas
sydney@oceansf.co
Recently I was interviewed for a local magazine that features artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs to share their stories. I am always happy to share my journey to help inspire other people. Ocean SF has had a slow 2023 due to inflation, the cost of materials, and high labor costs, but we are hopeful that 2024 will be a better year for us as we have worked hard to continue to build our foundation with Tiktok content and our new shop. We have also been applying for grants. We were lucky to have two great summer interns who led these initiatives. Great companies start slowly and build. Everything does not happen at once and it takes patience, time, and diligence to create something meaningful and lasting. Apple was started in 1976 and Amazon was started over thirty years ago to provide a few examples.
When I started Ocean SF officially in 2018 it came with so many opportunities for me to grow as a person both professionally and creatively. I have met so many wonderful people along the way. It is something that I can never give up on. I am looking forward to 2024.
Below is the copy for the Interview. I will send the link along with it is officially published.
We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sydney Chaney-Thomas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sydney below.
Ocean SF began six years ago when the founder Sydney Chaney-Thomas began crafting warm Merino wool clothing for sailing. While doing this, she discovered how harmful polyester is to the ocean and how many mostly women factory workers are treated unethically. Because of these values, Ocean SF was born foremost a sustainable and ethical brand.
While there were many obstacles ahead of our founder the largest happened early on when her husband died of a sudden heart attack leaving her to raise her two young daughters alone. She had a choice to make. Would she let Ocean SF die too? She chose to work 3 part-time jobs to continue to dedicate herself to Ocean SF.
One of those part-time jobs was teaching leadership at UC Berkeley as an adjunct professor. In her Summer Intern Program Sydney uses her teaching skills to turn her interns into future leaders. She teaches her interns how to use their unique talents and step into their power to be the leaders of the future. Sydney’s personal story, passion, and dedication make her a shining example for young leaders.
Ocean SF is a women-owned and operated business. Their products are made of natural fabrics or recycled materials. Production for the signature mid-layer is done in San Francisco on Jessie Street.
Today, Ocean SF has survived the pandemic and the economic downturn and continues working hard to develop environmental awareness, and creating sustainable and ethical products, and women leaders through internship programs.
I have a marketing background in tech, but I have always loved clothing and fashion. I had also always wanted to learn to sail. At that point in life, I thought if not now then when. I finally learned to sail about eight years ago. I had been a former ski instructor and had worn wool socks and long underwear in temperatures of 17 degrees without being cold. So, I decided to solve the problem of getting wet and staying warm with wool and I wanted to make a wool midlayer that was stylish like Lululemon that would keep me warm. I hired a former Gucci pattern maker in LA and made a prototype that was a huge hit with my friends. I decided to start a company and was luckily funded by two friends and one of my blog post readers. I had been writing for a local column and he invested $50,000.
Our products are made of natural fabrics or recycled materials. Production for our mid-layer is done locally in San Francisco on Jessie Street.
I am most proud of my story coming through the death of my husband and never giving up. I like that I can inspire other people, especially my two daughters and their friends who watched this all unfold, and my many interns who I work very hard to teach how to be strong women and leaders.
When I closed my first angel investment of $50,000 I did it sitting on the bathroom floor of an industrial kitchen in Oakland. I was wearing a rubber apron and peeled off my rubber gloves to answer my 11:00 a.m. call. The floor was cold, but it was quiet and private. I was able to sell my vision in 25 minutes in what was possibly the worst set of circumstances possible.
I put that money in the bank and worked the next fourteen days straight washing dishes, serving at wedding receptions, and bottling Gold Bar Whiskey on Treasure Island. The fact that I did this is something I am proud of. My husband had died unexpectedly a year and a half before. His dying in the middle of raising our children provided more challenges than I could have ever imagined but I did not want to let my company die as well so I took everything head on and worked incredibly hard. I still do.
The biggest lesson was the limitations for women especially women who gave up their careers to be mothers and then want to start a company or have a second chapter in their career. There are many stereotypes surrounding this even among my family and friends. A close friend of mine told me that NO ONE would want to fund a 50-year-old woman’s company! She discouraged me from doing fashion week and made me feel like I could NEVER succeed. Well, she was wrong and she wasn’t alone. After my husband died close family friends told me to move to a cheap apartment, sell my car, and get a job with the State of California! They advised me to give up on my dreams and play it safe.
I refused all of it choosing to believe that I could do it and I did, but there were many nights of soul-searching because on some level I believed what they were saying as well. Being too old is ingrained in our culture. Only young people can start things and succeed. I was considered washed up. The thinking is that older women don’t start sportswear companies. In the end, I learned and proved to myself that you can and should follow your dreams and that you are NEVER too old or too anything to do what your heart is calling you to do.
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