Bestaroo

Bestaroo’s new holiday collection is here!

Bestaroo‘s new winter wonderland-themed mommy & me pajamas give back all profits to the Canines for Disabled Kids scholarship fund, which provides scholarships of up to $5,000 to children 18 and under who are receiving service dogs. Your purchase will help to increase independence for children with disabilities and their families by supporting the creation of child-canine service teams. The scholarships offset the cost of dogs for kids with physical or psychological disabilities. One hundred percent of the donated funds will go toward scholarships, which are rewarded quarterly to children across the country.

The happy snowmen and snowflakes print pictures here is designed by six-year-old Isla, winner of their recent drawing competition.

Known for the “yummiest, softest, most cozy fabric to touch baby’s skin,” Bestaroo’s buttery-soft pajamas are made of the breathable and sustainable fabric, Tencel Modal). Baby loungewear for newborns up to 24 months retails for $28 while women’s styles retail for $48. Available online at www.bestaroo.com.

Children’s Retail Today publishes new articles each week about innovative, imaginative and inspiring products for children. Contact me today with your great idea!

SUNS Shoes

Cool kicks with a cause for kids and their Moms.

SUNS Shoes is a unique collection of footwear made from an innovative material that comes to life with vibrant color and hidden surprises when exposed to the sunlight.

Created by Craig Reingold of Sperry Top-Sider & Toms shoes, his wife Jeanette, Dave Mesicek of Sperry Top-Sider & Common Soles and his wife Lisa, SUNS uses the positive energy of the sun to not only a fun pair of shoes, they are bringing sunshine into the lives of others by inspiring acts of kindness, empathy and gratitude to make the world a better place for all.

Simple Acts of Kindness (AOKs)

As they like to say, at SUNS their product is footwear, yet their mission transcends the brand. As parents, these founding couples have witnessed the detrimental impact that bullying, negativity and violence can have on kids. Two of their daughters came up with a plan and started an initiative at their school to increase and spread positivity through a program based around being kind to one another. It caught on amongst the other students at their school and other schools in the area. The SUNS creators are inspired by their efforts, making SUNS mission to join the movement to make the world a brighter, happier place through simple acts of kindness.

The idea is very simple – an act of kindness, no matter how small can make someone’s day better. If we all try to be nicer to each other, the outcome has a ripple effect of spreading smiles. Who couldn’t support that?

Smile-Worthy AOKs

Hold the door for a stranger.
Tell a friend you appreciate them.
Send a thank you note to your teacher.
Take a co-worker to lunch.
Tell a family member you love them.
Help a friend with a project.
What would you do to make someone’s day?

“The culture that SUNS promotes isn’t about ignoring problems, it’s about doing the little things that everyone can to help us get through those cloudy days,” they say. “It’s about remembering the sunlight right behind the rain, that helps us feel empowered to perform acts of kindness that can help make our world brighter each day.”

Children’s Retail Today publishes new articles each week about innovative, imaginative and inspiring products for children. Contact me today with your great idea!

Kambia Kids

A clothing line company that envisions people getting together to help each other change the world. Crazy, right?

Los Angeles, CA-based Kambia Kids children’s apparel is inspired by diversity and creativity. The recently launched ungendered children’s apparel line for ages two through seven offers premium “NYC style” with a focus on streetwear to sleepwear.

The Kambia Kids team aspires to champion a child’s own individuality by creating a safe atmosphere where they can be who they are – live in their own skin, so to speak.

“We believe we can change an entire generation by supporting the personal growth, development and individuality of each independent person regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or status,” they tell me. “We can encourage the children we are raising to step outside the standard and challenge the status quo, and help them become the people they are met to be.”

How Does a Children’s Clothing Company Do This?

The Kambia Kids team cites this statistic: just 20 weeks into pregnancy, 85 percent of soon-to-be-parents are already designing their new nursery depending on the predicted gender of their newborn. Even before their baby sees the world where they will soon grow up, parents begin to program them as to how they should live, act, play and dress. “We live in a society with various gender roles, stereotypes and added limitations labeled onto all of us at such a young age. For things to change, we have to make a change.”

Kambia is driven to inspire and educate both parents and children by promoting brilliance, independence and originality. Kambia teaches power and peak performance. In addition to proving clothes for boys and girls, Kambia Kids believes in the value of helping children around the world. “We are gearing up to start a movement where every action we take has a positive impact on someone else:

CUSTOM DESIGNS

Each season, Kambia Kids introduces a custom design benefiting a cause. Click here to see this season’s shirt (pale moon swae tee), benefiting Trina’s Kids Foundation. To collaborate or send future ideas, please contact Kambia Kids here.

Kambia Kids understands how quickly children grow out of their clothes. The company offers loyal customers the opportunity to ship back used garments purchased so their designers can recycle the fabric and give your worn clothes to someone in need. The process is simple: shop with Kambia Kids, ship the clothes back when your little one has out-grown them and they will send + share them with someone in need. Learn more about their give-back program here.

Kambia Kids is 100% made, sourced and designed in the USA, paying close attention to detail and hold each hand-made piece to a high standard of excellence.

Children’s Retail Today publishes new articles each week about innovative, imaginative and inspiring products for children. Contact me today with your great idea!

National Association for the Exchange of Industrial Resources

Children’s retailers, are you suffering from inventory headaches? Five ways you’re triggering them.

Do children’s retail products inventory managers enjoy a good headache? Why else would so many waste time, drain profitability and divert focus away from core business priorities by mismanaging excess inventory? Whether you prefer a pounding or splitting headache, here are five surefire ways to trigger one now or later. By relying on these common strategies, you might as well just be banging your head against the wall anyway.

Make like an ostrich…put your head in the sand!

Ignore a problem and it will surely go away, right? Just put off decisions about what to do with your slow-moving children’s inventory. You can deal with the growing inventory, expenses and taxes later.

Lease additional space.

Out of sight, out of mind. Lease additional warehouse space and spend your company’s money by contributing to the profitability of storage and logistics warehouse companies.

Liquidate.

Go ahead, sell excess inventory at a dime or pennies on the dollar. Or better yet, give it away to employees as a bonus, and watch it pop up on eBay or in other secondary markets. Then wonder why old inventory is competing against your company’s efforts to sell current stock, why everyone seems to be waiting for your next giveaway or price reduction, or why you’re fielding calls from unhappy customers because your inventory is cutting into their sales and profit margins.

Continue selling it.

Do the same thing over and over again – maybe you’ll be the first person to get a different result. Children’s items are outdated and stale, sales are stagnant, but hey, maybe things will pick up.

Send it to a landfill.

You must really be looking for a public relations headache. Because when the media finds out that your perfectly good merchandise is taking up space in a landfill, you’ll have a doozey.

Seriously, though, don’t you already have enough headaches?

Luckily, there’s a way to eliminate inventory headaches without even popping any pills, and it’s a solution that turns a problem like excess inventory into a positive – for the company’s reputation and bottom line.

IRC Section 170(e)(3), a little-known section of the tax code, allows Regular C Corporations to donate excess inventory and receive an up to twice-cost federal tax deduction. Donating your excess inventory to a gifts-in-kind organization not only will significantly reduce your tax obligation, it will get your excess, non-selling products into the hands of qualified, deserving nonprofits across the country.

Gifts-in-kind organizations solicit donations of valuable, new merchandise from American corporations and redistribute that merchandise to their members, which include schools, churches, government agencies and other nonprofit organizations in need of supplies. The donation process is easy, secure and flexible, and many gifts-in-kind organizations provide a range of free services to donors. They can accept shipments of supplies ranging from one box to dozens of truckloads, and in many cases, the freight charges to ship a donation to a gifts-in-kind program also are tax deductible. They also offer a great solution for companies that are consolidating warehouse locations. Gifts-in-kind organizations keep detailed records of merchandise donations and redistribution, so when tax time rolls around, companies know exactly who received their products and how much they received.

In addition, provisions in the tax code stipulate that donated product cannot be resold, bartered or traded and must be used in a manner consistent with the charity’s mission, which means your product won’t find its way back to the open market. Companies also gain brand protection through their donations. The allocation system for gifts-in-kind donations ensures that the products are distributed across a thinly closed market, providing protection from the brand and product devaluation that can occur when extra inventory ends up in the open market.

Typical Donation Items

office supplies
class materials
clothing and shoes
maintenance items
tools and hardware
toys and games
computer software
sporting goods, books, tapes and CDs
arts and crafts
personal care items
holiday and party items
janitorial supplies
and more

Many companies also take advantage of gifts-in-kind programs to manage items such as underperforming SKUs, discontinued models or colors, seconds, buybacks and returns.

Gifts-in-kind organizations offer a simple, pain-free cure for any inventory headache.

Guest Blog by Gary C. Smith

Gary is the president of the National Association for the Exchange of Industrial Resources (NAEIR), a gifts-in-kind organization based in Galesburg, Illinois. They like to say they are “in the Business of Empowering Generosity,” supporting communities by collecting merchandise donations from generous American corporations and giving it to those who need it most. For more information, contact NAEIR at (800)-562-0955 or donor@naeir.org, or visit www.naeir.org.

Children’s Retail Today publishes new articles each week about innovative, imaginative and inspiring products for children. Contact me today with your great idea!

cuddle + kind

Together, the company + their customers have given 1,151,798 meals to date.

If you enjoy social media, you’ve probably spied the fabulously adorable posts from cuddle + kind. The company makes ethically produced, hand-knit dolls that help feed children.

Every cuddle + kind product you purchase will provide 10 meals to children in need. “Our goal is to provide one million meals a year,” says Jen, Derek, Ethan, Brooke and Rachel Woodgate – the family behind cuddle + kind. And they have.

Reflection of Values

The Woodgates started cuddle + kind to reflect their values. The parents have a background in health, and recognize the crucial role nutrition plays in a child’s development. “As parents, we believe all children should have enough food to eat and the opportunity to thrive,” they say. So they created cuddle + kind to make a difference.

Not only does the purchase of one doll provides 10 meals to children in need, each doll is lovingly handcrafted by incredible women artisans in Peru, providing them with a sustainable, fair trade income. “We’re proud that our dolls are made with natural, high-quality cotton because it’s important to us that they’re safe, soft and cuddly.”

Look through The Giving Book, cuddle + kind’s 2016 annual giving report, and you’ll fall in love, too.

Children’s Retail Today publishes new articles each week about innovative, imaginative and inspiring products for children. Contact me today with your great idea!

K.I.D.S./Fashion Delivers = Delivering Good

This Mother’s Day, Honor a Woman Who Inspires You. Make a Donation in Her Name to Delivering Good (formerly K.I.D.S./Fashion Delivers)!

Help us make this a memorable Mother’s Day by honoring a special woman in your life with a donation that will help Delivering Good offer hope, dignity and self-esteem to millions of people in need. Your donation, of any amount, helps provide much needed essentials -including apparel, accessories, shoes, home furnishings, toys, books, school supplies and other items- to women, children and families touched by poverty or natural disaster.

Submit the name of your inspirational woman here.

The national 32-year-old charity will add both your names to the 2017 Women of Inspiration Honor Roll that will be displayed at the Women of Inspiration Luncheon, which honors three leaders in the licensing, wholesale and fashion community.

June 7 a Big Day for People In Need

Not only will the Women of Inspiration Luncheon take place on June 7 in New York, the charity’s name change to Delivering Good will be complete. The new website, www.Delivering-Good.org, goes live! Helping to celebrate the milestone will be the luncheon honorees, fashion designer Tracy Reese, Gaye Dean of Target and Lana Todorovich of Ralph Lauren. Delivering Good’s social media sites are now live: @DeliveringGood on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The charity’s current website (www.DonateProduct.com) will provide updates on the renaming progress until the switch on June 7.

Delivering Good is the new name for the national charity formerly known as K.I.D.S./Fashion Delivers, and launching a new era of reaching millions of individuals challenged by poverty or natural disaster. For 32 years, the charity has helped millions of kids, adults and families affected by poverty and disaster resulting in over $1.6 billion of donated product that has been distributed through a network of community partners. In 2016, nearly 400 companies donated approximately $200 million of new apparel, accessories, shoes, home furnishings, toys, books and other useful items, distributed by more than 500 community partners to people in need. The name change reflects both new and continuing efforts to fight poverty and tragedies through the gift and delivery of new products. The models for helping others are changing nationwide and worldwide, and the re-launch will allow Delivering Good to better communicate its mission of delivering hope and dignity to people in need through community nonprofit partners.

“As our charity has evolved, we wanted to have a name and brand that could be embraced by our product donors, our financial donors, our community partners and the broader audience of consumers,” says Board Chairman Allan Ellinger. “Our programs are expanding to include donations and drives by children, company employees, community groups and more. Recently in Los Angeles, our staff was on the ground Delivering Good by personally handing out sandwiches and new socks to homeless men and women. At the other end of the spectrum, we have brands like BOBS from Skechers, who are Delivering Good by donating 8.4 million pairs of children’s shoes over the past six years, with another million pairs this year.”

Delivering Good receives high ratings from a number of organizations for low overhead and the ability to help people effectively. The charity efficiently leverages cash donations to achieve its mission – for every $10 of cash contributed, over $100 of donated new product can be provided to kids, adults or families in need. Delivering Good distributes product donations through a network of community partners to offer hope and dignity.

Renowned design and branding firm of Graj + Gustavsen has developed the new name and logo for Delivering Good. The law firm of Pryor Cashman has also supported the rebranding initiative. Board of Directors Vice President Milou Gwyn led this effort in her role as chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, together with President and CEO Lisa Gurwitch.

Children’s Retail Today publishes new articles each week about innovative, imaginative and inspiring products for children. Contact me today with your great idea!

4Everly Adorned

Adding an artsy flair to a child’s room, while informing, inspiring and contributing toward the conservation of animals.

Jennifer Hiser created her brand-new company, 4Everly Adorned, to inspire children with art. Jennifer makes hand painted, one-of-a-kind furniture pieces and accessories that not only add exciting flair to a child’s room, they personify originality and self-expression.

“I wanted my daughter’s first room to be alive with vibrancy and unconventional style,” Jennifer says. After she is less than impressed with the one-note, flat and mass produced furniture and décor of department stores, she puts her own background in the arts and her love of color and design to work. “I created one-of-a-kind, hand painted pieces of furniture for my one-of-a-kind baby girl.”

Jennifer explores numerous creative outlets ranging from working at well-known fashion magazines in New York City, to designing soft accessories for a global fashion brand in Chicago, until she finally finds her own artistic niche. “Designing my daughter’s nursery led me to discover the area of design I was looking for.”

Jennifer values the importance of inspiring children, and educating them as well. Her passion for animal rights grew while on safari in South Africa, and she immediately wanted to do all she could to help. “We have teamed up with a nonprofit that helps to create awareness about wildlife conservation,” she says. “We hope to connect and collaborate with other local artists, and to globally educate as many young minds as we can.”

Children’s Retail Today publishes new articles each week about innovative, imaginative and inspiring products for children. Contact me today with your great idea!

Indy “Talk” Shop

Kickstarter Campaign Launches Today!

Indy “Talk” Shop, a new creative educational toy startup for kids ages 0-3, produces toys that easily guide playtime with your kids for better bonding and learning. The company is launching a Kickstarter campaign today (February 28).

As You Read, You Play, and You Learn, Naturally

Based on new research in child development and play methods, Indy “Talk” Shop is creating a line of playboxes that is qualitatively different. Each playbox comes with an original story about a cute yet clumsy dragon named “Indy” and a matching classic toy, such as a puzzle, blocks, train sets, etc. Each story guides a reading-while-playing experience that prompts playtime with your kids and enables an interactive dynamic between parent and child to enhance developmental areas that are critical for their growth. While essential for a child’s early learning, the playboxes also offer parents the tools they need to help their kids learn.

Indy “Talk” Shop’s Kickstarter campaign offers backers an opportunity to donate the first playbox in a series, Indy and the Farm (an original story with a matching farm puzzle), to one of three New York-based national charity partners that support the education and advancement of children: K.I.D.S./Fashion Delivers, Family Health Centers at NYU Langone and Room to Grow. When you support Indy “Talk” Shop through the campaign, you will also buy Indy and The Farm for children in need.

About Indy “Talk” Shop

Indy “Talk” Shop is co-founded by Frida Matute, M.A. CCC-SLP, a New York-based medical pediatric speech-language therapist, and Alex Adarichev, an architect and designer. Frida’s inspiration comes from tying her clinical experience, research and love of watching kids and parents learn together. Their five-person team has been working diligently to make this launch a success.

Indy “Talk” Shop’s method is to embed tips and hints into the story’s pages, treating text with graphics, punctuation, capitalization and bold-faced type, so parents can read to their kids in a sing-song voice. This technique is “dynamite for language development,” says Patricia Kuhl of the Institute for Learning and Brain Science at the University of Washington. The combination of embedding tips for parents and encouraging an animated reading of the story while playing with the matching classic toy helps kids naturally repeat core vocabulary words and sounds. It also lets children practice early cognitive skills like problem-solving, matching and categorization.

Play research has been going on for years, although not all toy companies are embedding this research directly into the design of toys Like Indy “Talk” Shop is. “Preschool children learn better when an adult is involved,” says Dr. Jenny Radesky, a pediatrician specializing in child development at Boston Medical Center. In other words, guided play is best for kids’ development, to help parents and kids bond, learn and play more effectively. “When parents keep the conversation going, rather than simply trying to get their children to hear as many words as possible, they are preparing their children for later language and school success,” say Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnik Golinkoff, child psychologists and researchers at Temple University. Further research explains that healthy brain development relies on guided play between kids and parents. Indy “Talk” Shop playboxes guide parents through a playtime interaction that will make a difference in their kids’ development, whether they have five minutes or an hour to play.

Children’s Retail Today publishes new articles each week about innovative, imaginative and inspiring products for children. Contact me today with your great idea!

Kelsey MacLean

Named one of Oklahoma’s 50 most powerful people in 2015, Kelsey MacLean is offering her line directly to you.

The Kelsey MacLean brand of fine clothing and accessories for babies, children and adults the epitomizes timeless country club style. Named after founder and creative director, the custom-embroidered luxury apparel features classic designs expertly crafted in Peru of “decadently” soft Pima cotton and other fine textiles for superior comfort and long life.

Create One-Of-A-Kind Clothing

Using the latest technology, Kelsey MacLean is one of just a few companies in the United States to offer such an extensive personalized custom embroidered collection. Kelsey MacLean craftsmen can personalize most garments by adding monograms, names, logos, icons or text embroidery to create a truly unique one of a kind piece. Choose your text, font and thread color for monograms and names – or select a logo from the company’s list of charities and non-profits and support you favorite – it will receive a portion of the proceeds.

Personalized in the USA

All aspects of the personalization process, including artwork design, embroidery, hand finishing and pressing- are done at the company headquarters in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania to ensure that your custom piece is not only what you envision, it is made with the highest quality. For instance, the embroidery machines use very small needles, which help make the personalization crisp and clean.

Founder/Creative Director Kelsey MacLean launched her line in 2013. Once only available in high end hotels, resorts, country clubs and golf clubs, her company Fore Kids Golf has earned Preferred Vendor status for The Ritz-Carlton Hotels, and is an Official Licensee of the Tournament Players Club (TPC) Network. Named one of Oklahoma’s 50 most powerful people in 2015, Kelsey is offering her line directly to you through KelseyMaclean.com.

Children’s Retail Today publishes new articles each week about innovative, imaginative and inspiring products for children. Contact me today with your great idea!

Lofty Elephants

Boutique toddler clothes handmade from beautiful, unique printed fabrics.

Farah Chherawalla is owner of Lofty Elephants, what she calls a “lofty endeavor to provide boutique toddler clothes made from beautiful and unique fabrics and prints at department store prices, while employing men and women in desperate need of income to feed their babies or put their children through school.”

Handmade in India

This Mom-owned and operated online apparel business sells children’s clothes that are handmade in small batches in India, using materials from small businesses. “Most of our prints cannot be seen anywhere else, and chances are they will not be repeated,” Farah says.

Part of Lofty Elephants sales proceeds benefit the operation of an education center that empowers women by teaching them skills, which make them employable. In return, Lofty Elephants aims to employ most of these women.

How to Buy

Due to technical difficulties on http://loftyelephants.com, Farah asks that you email info@loftyelephants.com with any interest in buying. “We will soon be available on Amazon.com,” Farah says. “Sorry for the inconvenience and we promise you an even more exciting collection soon.” Stay in touch with Lofty Elephants on Facebook.

Children’s Retail Today publishes new articles each week about innovative, imaginative and inspiring products for children. Contact me today with your great idea!