022720...R MISHMOCCS 1...Poland...02-27-20...Micheline Thompson of Poland works in her basement making moccasins for children...by R. Michael Semple

POLAND — Micheline Thompson’s career caused her to be away from home a good deal, so much so, “I got to see the TSA officers more than I got to see my kids, my husband,” she said.

Tired of the travel and with global consumer company Unilever, for which she was director of business development for the U.S. and Canada, about to downsize, the writing was on the wall for her to get out of the corporate grind.

So she did, and she took a break. A non-compete clause she signed prohibited her from working for another company in their beauty sector so she figured she would look for work elsewhere in the business world, but a job that required her to travel less.

And the offers were abundant, but she decided against returning. Instead, she said, she opened her soul and searched for what she truly loved — children and a deep appreciation for the military, and then lightning struck at a stop light at Federal Plaza.

The rest of her story

Rewind a few decades on the same block with her then boyfriend and future husband, Mark, who were at a traveling exhibit protesting the Gulf War staged in the downtown. She recalled it was rows and rows of empty combat boots and dog tags.

Stopped again at the light in 2017, she wondered out loud whatever happened to those boots.

“He (Mark) said I bet they’re sitting in a warehouse accumulating dust, and right then I told him I knew what I was going to do next,” Thompson said.

Her idea was to find and refinish old military boots and remake them into shoes for children. She even had her slogan — “From our soldiers’ footsteps to our children’s’ first steps.”

The concept didn’t last, however. She quickly learned the cost to process thick leather combat boots into children’s shoes was prohibitive, so she went another direction — source leather from a U.S.-based company to make the footwear, work with military veterans on production and contribute part of the sales to disabled veterans.

But there were just a couple of problems: She couldn’t draw and didn’t know how to sew.

Determined, she headed to design school toward the end of 2017 in Chicago. MishMoccs launched in May 2018. The moccasins are handmade in the basement of her College Street home in Poland.

“We’ve gone direct to consumer, we’ve been doing trade shows, we’ve been doing pop-ups,” Thompson said.

And now the company, which has a strong following from the Mahoning Valley to the Greater Cleveland area, and has picked up a lot of orders from a U.S. military base in Germany, is growing and ready to expand.

Her company has been approached by a retailer in Canada that wants to carry MishMoccs in 136 stories.

“It’s time to scale,” said Thompson. “I feel very blessed. It’s a wonderful problem to have, but in order to do that, we need the funding.”

Military veterans

Thompson, 52, was born in the middle of civil war in Beirut, Lebanon, that ravaged her neighborhood. Her appreciation for the U.S. military comes from American troops stationed in her community and their efforts to stabilize the hostile situation.

She married a man in the U.S. Navy serving in Beirut she met as a translator, but he was killed in a bombing in 1983 six days after their nuptials. She also acted as a translator for American troops in the area.

“I have a great sense of appreciation … our military contributes in so many different ways that our family and friends here in the U.S. don’t get to see firsthand,” Thompson said. “I got to see it firsthand before I came to this country, way before I became an American.”

She donates a percent from every sale to the food pantry at the Youngstown VA Clinic that serves veterans. Depending on the margin of profit of the item sold and whether it’s a wholesale or direct-to-consumer order, she donates 3 percent to 10 percent to the food pantry.

And as her business grows, she wants to continue supporting the clinic through bus passes for patients who need transportation to and from medical clinics.

Competing to grow

Thompson and MishMoccs are competing in the FedEx’s Small Business Grant Competition for a chance to expand her company.

The competition provides cash and printing services to the winners. The top winner receives $50,000 plus $7,500 in print and business services from FedEx. There is one silver prize winner of $30,000 and $5,000 in business services and 10 bronze prize winners of $15,000 and $1,000 in business and print services.

Individuals can vote once per day through March 8. Thompson has links to voting on her company’s social media pages or people can go directly to FedEx Small Business Contest online to cast a ballot.

rselak@tribtoday.com