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INNOVATE
10 •
PPB
• FEBRUARY 2015
INNOVATE
PROFILE
EAR THE BANKS OF THE CHARLES RIVER, a popular spot for rowing, dragon boating
and sailing, and down the road from Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, sits
Sharon, Massachusetts-based apparel supplier Charles River Apparel (UPIC: CRA).
The crew of 78 employees at this supplier is mostly family—either biologically or by choice; some employ-
ees have been with the company for more than 20 years. They’re led by President Barry Lipsett, who is joined at
work by his wife, Deb, sister Julie and youngest son Jason. Lipsett’s father, Walter, previously ran the company
and now sits on its advisory board. In 2012, The Northeastern University Center for Family Business named it
the Massachusetts Family Business of the Year in the mid-size category.
The company’s brand image is heavily influenced by rowing culture, which is characterized in part by recog-
nizing team achievements over individual successes.
“To take a term from rowing, one of our company mottos is ‘power 10’. It’s a call from the
coxswain to the rowers to do their 10 most powerful strokes,” Lipsett explains. “What we call power
10 is when we go above and beyond for our customers.”
Charles River also works hard for the charitable causes it supports. “We sponsor a number of
rowing groups, including some teams that are cancer survivors,” Lipsett says. His wife, Deb, focuses
primarily on the company’s philanthropy efforts, donating apparel to the community’s homeless
population and to children in need. Additionally, five percent of the supplier’s sales of pink products
is donated to cancer research.
Lipsett, along with his sister Julie and her husband, Steve Feinberg, have raised almost
$100,000 in the past 10 years for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through its Pan-Mass
Challenge annual bike-a-thon from Boston to Cape Cod. The cause is close to their hearts because
the two lost their sister Susan to cancer. Before her death nine years ago, Susan worked at Charles
River’s showroom in New York City’s garment district, selling apparel to retail stores nationally.
“We just feel that we want to give back,” Lipsett says.
Early Days
Lipsett’s father started Charles River in 1983 by resurrecting a defunct company that had sold
apparel to retailers such as Nordstrom, Talbots and L.L.Bean. The younger Lipsett joined the firm
three years later to build the company’s promotional products division. “I was what I would call an
intraprenur
, instead of an entrepreneur,” he says. “My father had read about the industry in an in-
A POWERFUL
CALLING
EXPLORE THE CAREER PATH OF CHARLES RIVER APPAREL’S BARRY LIPSETT
BY TAMA UNDERWOOD
N
Barry Lipsett, president of Charles
River Apparel, purchased the com-
pany from his father after running it
for several years.