How I Run My Own Scrubs Company as an ER Physician

In 2019, burnout hit Laurie Boge like a hurricane. Like so many others in healthcare, the Miami-based emergency medicine physician had once again become overwhelmed and exhausted.

Laurie gave notice at her hospital, agreeing to work for a few more months. But, because of COVID, she stayed on through the first wave of the pandemic. In June 2020, Laurie finally stepped away for a much-needed break and an opportunity to branch out. She wasn’t sure if she’d stay in emergency medicine.

Laurie considered a few options. She explored opening a concierge practice. A lifestyle, preventive-focused business also crossed her mind. Then there was that thing she'd been thinking about for the last, well, two decades: starting her own line of scrubs.

“This idea that keeps resurfacing — it’s totally crazy. Let me start asking people in the fashion industry, friends, whoever I can, if they know anyone,” said Laurie. This is her Side Gig Story.

The problem with scrubs

As soon as Laurie began her career in medicine in 2001, she was drawn to workwear. That interest stuck with her for 20 years. In October 2021, she founded Cloud Lifewear (which was originally called GreenCloud Apparel). Currently, all Cloud scrubs are designed for women.

“I remember as an intern, I was so excited to get to wear pajamas to work,” said Laurie. But when she started residency, she picked up her hospital-issued scrubs at the OR and noticed a problem.

“They’re literally made for men,” said Laurie. “I had to roll them three times, otherwise I would be tying them around my chest to prevent them from dragging on the ground. I just felt like I was wearing my dad’s clothes, and I’m like, who’s going to take me seriously?”

Another factor was her team’s gender dynamic. Laurie did her medical training in the military, where she was the only woman in a group of eight ER residents.

“I felt like it was certainly a boys club,” said Laurie. “Through my career, I sort of made it a mission not to let anyone else ever feel that way because medicine is already a very lonely and hard place to work.”

The way Laurie sees it, part of that mission is accomplished through Cloud.

Starting her company meant closing another, perhaps easier door that she could have opened in the wake of her burnout break: retirement.

Laurie wore scrubs every day for two decades before she began selling her own, so she knew what would make a pair stand out to physicians. Upgrading the material was a must. “I've worn a lot of other scrub companies’ scrubs,” said Laurie. “I would always think that if I were to do this, I would make them a bit softer. Or that this one has a little too heavy material; the fit is still very masculine.”

Then there was the design issue. “They look like scrubs, like they still really stayed in the lane of scrubs. And I'm like, I think we can push that a little bit; we can expand the look.” Laurie cited brands like Rag and Bone, Nili Lotan, Alice and Olivia, Theory, and Rails as inspirations for Cloud’s catalog.

Her taste anchored her as she grew her small business. But these ideas — like how a seemingly innocuous pair of scrubs fit into a patriarchal healthcare field and the ways she’d tangibly (and stylishly) address that — were just the beginning of her entrepreneurship endeavor.

Building a business: how a Cloud is formed

Right now, Laurie is running Cloud on her own, but that hasn’t always been the case.

“I’m certainly not a fashionista,” said Laurie. “We all have our own style, but I had zero design background, zero fashion training.” To make up for that, Laurie found a local team of contractors: “Three women with over 50 years combined in the industry. They’ve worked with $100 million companies and have done almost every step of the process from opening a business, to running it, to growing it.”

That didn’t come cheap. “I thought I could start all of this with about $20,000. And it takes more than that,” said Laurie. “I wanted to own [the patterns and tech]. I probably spent about $75,000 just to get started.”

Fortunately, the financial decisions she made while working full time in medicine made it possible. “I ended up selling a couple rental properties that I had paid off in the 20 years before Cloud,” said Laurie.

However, starting her company meant closing another, perhaps easier door that she could have opened in the wake of her burnout break: retirement.

“I talked with my husband, you know, because he’s like, ‘You could probably just retire and do nothing and be okay with this income you’re getting from the rental properties if you just budget things a little bit better,’” said Laurie. “And I said, ‘No, I'm not ready. I want to try this.’”

“People send me pictures all the time of them wearing pieces to so many non-medical events. It just makes me smile every time."

During the three years she worked with her team, Laurie learned about designing and grading patterns. She also tested different materials for durability, softness, and machine-washer friendliness. “I love the idea of bamboo or more sustainable products, but then they would wrinkle or shrink,” said Laurie. “So [we learned] like, okay, we have to combine different materials.”

As if it wasn’t complicated enough, Laurie needed to balance sustainability, manufacturing, and price-point concerns.

Laurie initially bought material from Japan — “the softest, most luxe material we found that would work great for scrubs.” Then, she flew it to New York for manufacturing. But she realized that wasn’t a feasible business model in the long term. “Our margins were negative, and I wanted to reach many women in medicine,” she said. “I didn’t feel good about offering a product for such a high price, so we had to work backwards from there.”

A full-price Cloud scrub blouse (meaning before any discount) costs $49, and pants retail for $59 to $69. Cloud offers two styles of women’s scrub bottoms and two scrub top designs, along with vests, jackets, tanks, base layers, and socks.

Business forecasting: the future of Cloud

Part of the money from scrubs purchases goes to charitable organizations that Laurie believes in. She’s particularly passionate about promoting women in leadership; two groups she’s donated to are Women in Medicine, which holds queer-inclusive annual conferences for medical professionals and students, and Scrubs and Heels, which offers leadership training, networking, and professional development programs for women in medicine and surgery.

Additionally, Laurie donates the scrubs themselves — most recently to LA Wildfire victims, and on a periodic basis to Lotus House, the largest shelter for unhoused women in the US. Laurie has given lectures at the shelter and brought in other physicians to speak about various health issues, as well.

Laurie also speaks to medical school students about how her story can translate to their career paths. “You can be a physician and love it, but maybe after 10 years you say, ‘I want to do something else.’ That’s okay,”’ said Laurie.

One thing Laurie hasn’t done (yet)? Pay herself. She says she’d like to “at some point.”

She started Cloud during a burnout-induced career pause. And now she’s back to working seven days a week.

Fortunately, the chances of that happening look promising: “We have a 70% return customer rate, which I'm super proud of,” said Laurie.

One reason customers are responding so well, Laurie suspects, is that Cloud scrubs are designed to work both inside and outside the hospital. “People send me pictures all the time of them wearing pieces to so many non-medical events,” Laurie said. “It just makes me smile every time."

Cloud shoppers aren’t the only ones. Laurie wears her products during lectures, jogging workouts, grocery trips, and “every single day.”

Plus, Laurie does her own quality-assurance testing in the field: She returned to the ER on a part-time basis six months after she left in the summer of 2020. “I love medicine and missed it,” Laurie wrote in a follow-up email to Offcall. “I also wanted an excuse to wear the scrubs!”

Still, Laurie is vigilant for signs of burnout. After all, she started Cloud during a burnout-induced career pause. And now she’s back to working seven days a week — five on Cloud and two in the emergency department.

“When you really do love something and you have a hard time saying no, you’re setting yourself up over and over,” said Laurie. “So I’m aware and schedule accordingly.”

This mentality led her to take a (shorter) break at the end of 2024, right after the holiday spending rush. “I almost wanted to turn the website off,” Laurie said. “It’s okay if the sales go down. I needed some time.” She’s now back at it with Cloud; afterall, there’s a rebrand and new product launches to handle. NBD.