Small Business Comeback Tour: Cougar Headquarters

By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso

CRANFORD, NJ (WCBS 880) — This local business is lifting the spirits of communities across New Jersey.

Donna Marino, the owner of Cranford-based Cougar Headquarters, is elated to once again be fielding inquiries from schools and community organizations for spiritwear and youth sports uniforms across New Jersey as COVID-19 cases ease and her business rebounds.

“We’re in more and more areas and hearing from more and more schools,” she said on the WCBS Small Business Comeback Tour, sponsored by PSE&G.

“We’re reaching much further areas in the varsity jacket business. We’re in Irvington, Jersey City, we’re going much further than the Union County area.”

Cougar Headquarters also prints lawn signs and does screen printing, which started out as an e-commerce business before the store in Cranford became available.

“I was in the men’s formalwear business for 17 years and I was in the garment business really my whole life until this opportunity presented itself,” Marino said.

The small business also creates fundraising websites for schools and non-profit organizations – a service that helped supplement their revenue loss when they were shut down. At the height of the pandemic, Cougar Headquarters created a Cranford Strong t-shirt fundraiser and raised more than $5,000 for the local food bank Cranford Family Care.

Watch the Small Business Comeback Tour video for more about Cougar Headquarters above.