The Zoo is celebrating 100 years in 2016 – Happy Birthday!
Since MAM developed its first pacifier in Vienna in 1976, it has evolved to become a world leader in innovating and developing top quality baby care products for nearly 40 years. The company combines technological innovation, medical function and contemporary design to develop superior baby care products such as award-winning pacifiers, bottles, cups, teethers, oral care items and coordinating accessories that support a baby’s development from day one. Today, all MAM products are 100% baby safe: BPA-free, PVC-free, lead-free and CPSIA-compliant; and are used by families in over 60 countries and on five continents.
MAM recently joined forces with the United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life Campaign, matching all gifts made to Shot@Life up to $25,000 during this year’s #GivingTuesday, which began on December 1. The Shot@Life campaign is rallying to support for polio immunizations around the globe. Polio, a disease that once crippled hundreds of thousands of children each year, is now 99% eradicated and only remains endemic in two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Polio anywhere is a threat everywhere so we must remain diligent in our efforts to combat this horribly disabling disease,” says Devi Thomas, Director, Shot@Life campaign. “With support from MAM we hope to raise funding and awareness for polio so we can put an end to this disease for good.”
Last year, MAM helped support Shot@Life’s efforts to provide thousands of pneumonia vaccines to children in developing countries during the #GivingTuesday campaign.
“For nearly 40 years, MAM has created products that promote the healthy development of babies,” says Isaac Cohen, Vice President of Marketing. “Our partnership with Shot@Life will enable us to further support our mission and reach more children across the globe.”
All gifts made to Shot@Life from December 1 through the end of 2015 will go to support ending polio globally.
In addition to its $25,000 matching contribution, MAM has created a line of Shot@Life branded pacifiers. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the limited edition pacifier sales will benefit Shot@Life.
MAM recently promoted Jennifer Mitchell to the position of Chief Executive Officer for North America effective January 1, 2016. Mitchell currently holds the position of V.P. of Sales for MAM North America and will succeed current CEO Fritz Hirsch who is retiring. Hirsch will continue to act as an advisor to the company.
Alexandra Morali has been sewing and knitting since she was a child, inspired by her French mother and Italian grandmother. “I have a passion for gorgeous fabrics, vibrant colors and vintage buttons, beautifully tailored gowns and old Hollywood glamour,” she says, “I still sew and collect stunning velvet ribbons.”
After Alexandra met her future husband in London, they were married in Italy and established their home in Manhattan. “Since our children were born, I have been working at making beautifully soft pajamas for them to enjoy as they are our toughest critics.”
Thus began Petidoux, from the French “petit,” which means “small,” and “doux,” which means “soft.” Alexandra’s classic collections of luxurious pajamas, modern play-sets and bib-gowns for girls and boys come with many benefits:
The Petidoux collection features original designs inspired by Alexandra’s children, from space exploration dreams (“We watch a lot of NASA videos…”) to books they read together at night (the Petidoux blog features some of them), to cooking or reading French Elle or Harper’s Bazaar – “I design all the prints myself in our atelier in the Flatiron district of Manhattan,” Alexandra says.
She also suggests that nothing replaces the experience of seeing and touching these soft garments in person – and I agree. Peruvian Pima cotton will blow you away! So visit your favorite children’s boutiques and ask to see –and touch- Petidoux.
Micuna SL, the market leader in Spain and one of Europe’s top manufacturers of children’s furniture and accessories débuts in the U.S. with signature furniture lines. Micuna is represented in the U.S. through a partnership with another Spanish company, Babyhome.
“We are excited to be partnering with Babyhome to bring the Micuna brand to the U.S., providing parents with stylish, durable and eco-friendly new choices, delivered with a unique international design. Our research has shown that there is a niche in the juvenile furniture market for high quality, handcrafted and safety compliant furniture.”
–Marcos Garcia Martin, CEO Micuna USA
With more than 40 years of industry experience, Micuna is renowned for the production of high quality, eye catching products that ensure the comfort and safety of a baby. Micuna’s trend-setting products are handcrafted from the company’s state-of-the-art, 35,000 square foot factory in Valencia, Spain.
The Micuna U.S. collection will include:
OVO High Chair – Micuna’s award-winning posh and stylish high chair that combines comfort and safety with elegant design. OVO is made with solid beechwood that comes from sustainable managed forests. This striking chair is incredibly practical too; it evolves so that it can be used until a child is six years of age.
SMART FRESH Bassinet – Perfect for baby’s early development and a striking addition to any modern nursery, this mobile bassinet can be near a parent for peace of mind. The bassinet’s main characteristic is its completely transparent and breathable fabric which allows parents to see baby all of the time without having to get out of bed. The stylish oval shape is comfortably padded to envelop baby and to make them feel safe and secure. The bassinet’s six wheels allow for it to be easily moved from one room to another.
LIFE Crib – A crib with endless combinations and constructions, the LIFE crib is designed for parents looking for something original and different that will make baby’s environment a special place. Parents will have fun designing their own customizable easy to assemble crib with a range of bar shades and crib bases. Made from solid beechwood and eco-MDF.
HARMONY Single Evolutive Crib – The innovative HARMONY Single Crib offers the perfect solution that links practicality and space saving. Characterized by its originality and sharp modern design, this crib is for those seeking baby products with exceptional features, quality and most importantly, safety. The HARMONY crib can easily evolve from crib-to-twin size bed as a child grows with the use of an optional kit for conversion to bed. Made from solid beechwood and eco-MDF.
One of the first Spanish companies to comply with stringent European quality and safety standards, Micuna is quality control certified by AIDIMA (Technological Institute of furniture, wood, packaging and related). With a conscious commitment to the environment, Micuna also was the first baby furniture manufacturer in the world to achieve the ISO 14001 environmental certification. All Micuna products are made with wood obtained from sustainable forests and their coating process is performed with water paint.
Micuna will be available at juvenile goods retailers nationwide beginning late December 2015/early January 2016.
Baby Chateau™ is a contemporary online boutique exclusively designed to cater to boys. It’s full of luxury clothing, accessories and gifts for both baby and toddler boys.
Lorraine Lilavois brings her love of art, fashion and entertainment to the online-based, baby boys clothing boutique powered by a team of motivated home-based Moms who curate an inventory that’s just as adorable and gorgeous as any collection designed for girls. By investing the time, money and energy to supply you with genuine choice, the Moms at Baby Chateau hope to make shopping for your little Prince Charming a fun and fascinating experience.
The result is a high-end baby boys clothing company dedicated to delivering premium wares for fashion-forward mothers and fathers all over the world.
“Raising boys to become gentlemen is hard enough. Dressing them well shouldn’t have to be,” is Lorraine’s key sound bite. She goes on to give a hardy warning to parents everywhere: “Today’s boys clothing market is flooded with cheap products made from inferior materials and manufactured under questionable– if not unethical – conditions.
Companies have become so concentrated on profit margins and annual revenue figures they’ve forgotten about their most important statistic, you and your prince.”
At Baby Chateau, parents can buy only the finest goods available, intelligently tailored boys fashion from leading global designers that is personally chosen to provide authentic clothes for their baby boys that are ethically manufactured with integrity and quality. The company requires their designers and manufacturers to complete a comprehensive Due Diligence survey to authenticate the excellence of their processes before they can list their products on Baby Chateau’s digital shelves.
Not only does Baby Chateau welcome feedback, they thrive on it. Baby Chateau buys in limited quantities until their valued customers give them the “seal of approval” on a product through reviews, comments and shared experiences. Connect with Baby Chateau today.
West Virginia-based Sing Your Name creates a variety of gifts for children that are personalized with music. Special music. Singing-Your-Child’s-Name kind of music. The kind of gifts that make children smile and feel very special.
“My daughter Allysa and I have been partners in this venture for a little over a year,” Rebecca Kesling tells me. Rebecca launched the company after she gave her grandson, Anders, a little green puppy that sang and spoke his name for Christmas.
“He carried his little green puppy around by the neck everywhere he went, and at night, the little green puppy cuddled with him in his bed,” Allysa says. “Seeing his eyes light up at the sound of his name got his Grammy’s gears turning.”
The folks at Sing Your Name West Virginia believe children should be nurtured as very special individuals. “Every child feels special when his or her name is associated with a cherished gift from someone who loves them enough to choose a gift that sings out their name. It makes them giggle, it makes them happy, it makes them smile.” It makes adults smile, too.
Personalized music CDs, movie DVDs, alarm clocks, Plush Create-A-Critters, name poems, growth charts, Tiny Twins dolls and more. Ideal for birthdays and special occasions, with personalized songs they can sing along to, they can learn their ABCs and numbers from; make your child the star of a Storybook CD; create a plush toy and add a song, a sound or a scent. Personalized lullabies for babies, birthday songs, even songs to learn a morning get dressed routine. Tiny Twins are perfect for personalizing your work desk, cell phone, car’s rear view mirror or the top of a wedding cake. Creations are limited to nothing but your imagination.
Visit the company on Facebook, Twitter or Website and sign up to receive newsletters with discount savings.
I’ve been enjoying a free subscription, and it looks like a great resource. Macaroni Kid publishes weekly, hyper-local e-newsletters and websites featuring events, activities, products and places for moms, kids and families. Joyce Shulman and Eric Cohen created Macaroni Kid with two goals in mind: to enrich communities and empower moms.
Macaroni Kids connects local families with the libraries, schools, rec centers, community centers, organizations and businesses that create programming and fun for kids. They host local events and parties and connect with their communities through social media.
On top of 500+ local editions, Macaroni Kid publishes seven national editions focused on special interest content:
The company empowers moms by giving them the tools, training and the platform to build a publishing business that can become a force for good in their communities.
Each community is managed by a local Publisher Mom or Dad. They know their local communities and their local communities know them. And they’re more than happy to let everyone know about the amazing opportunities available to the neighborhood via Macaroni Kid publishing. To learn about becoming a Macaroni Kid Publisher, email Team@Macaronikid.com.
Receive a free weekly e-newsletter highlighting all the great things for kids and families to do in your community, subscribe HERE. To partner with Macaroni Kid to connect your brand with moms across the nation, email Eric Cohen at eric@macaronikid.com.
The début collection of contemporary boxed tissues from one of the UK’s newest lifestyle brands, Atissu, is quite distinctive. What we really like – experienced brand expert, packaging designer and creator Sam Dumont is pluck enough to include the kids’ rooms in her designs.
These days, parents are keen to complement the beautiful modern interiors of their homes with equally beautiful accessories – including tissue boxes. Why hide them when they look like this?
“I hope you will love (as much as we do) and will agree that our tissue range is spot on for children’s bedrooms and playrooms,” Kerry O’Connor, who runs PR for the company, says. “These little boxes often sit next to carefully curated items like ornaments, prints and favorite toys; things that people have taken time, energy and money to source.” The launch collection of 12 new contemporary boxed tissues is designed and made in Britain, and the folks at Atissu work closely with like-minded suppliers to source materials sustainably.
“Parents tell us that there’s nothing available that they actively like, and certainly nothing that compliments their children’s bedrooms; their children just adore our new designs, we’ve been told!”
Apart from choosing a fabulous name for a tissue company, Sam and her team like to work with select illustrators, artists, textile and graphic designers on original box designs that please the eye. For the premiere children’s collection, they collaborated with illustrator duo Loopz art. Four different boxes are available with four little buddies on each side of each box, totaling 16 cute but cool characters: Fox & Co, Tiger & Co, Bear & Co and Panda & Co. The box designs are printed on matt board from well-managed forests so as to not compromise on sustainability or quality. “We print locally in London using only vegetable based inks and water based varnishes,” Kerry tells me.
For those little delicate noses, the tissues are made from 3-ply super-soft FSC material.
In addition, Atissu has just launched a beautiful new collection of Giclee prints. As Sam likes to say, it’s just “a little bit of lovely every day.” Available wholesale and online.
“I launched Ollie & Olina to deliver a little piece of function and beauty to new mothers,” Founder Erika LaPean says. “They deserve a memento of their children’s first months.”
Handmade in the USA:Introducing Ollie & OlinaOllie & Olina is a brand new collection of heirloom-quality baby quilts, bibs and burp cloths designed “to be used today and cherished tomorrow.” The collection features 100% cotton and cotton terry paired with the exclusive “Hello, Bear” woodland-inspired prints by designer Bonnie Christine. Each beautifully crafted item is designed to endure everyday use while retaining its keepsake status –quite a feat, I might add- the absorbent premium cotton and faux-chenille design maintains its tactile softness with each washing.
“The journey of parenthood spans many memories – from the time we bring our children home from the hospital to when they start their own family,” Erika says. “Wouldn’t you want to have a lovely keepsake as a poignant reminder of those cherished moments?”
The folks at Ollie & Olina believe that the Earth matters and that moments matter. They also believe in packaging it all up into one unforgettable gift.
Ollie & Olina quilts measure approximately 30 by 40 inches and are available in a variety of wilderness-oriented designs that delight, with prints that feature bears, bucks, leaves and morel mushrooms. A matching newborn bib and burp cloth completes the collection. The three-piece set comes in an elegant gift-ready box.
A trio of Ollie & Olina baby bibs in complimentary prints are available in newborn size eight by 10 inches or toddler size 10 by 13 inches. All bibs have plastic double-snap closure at the neck. Burp cloths may also be purchased in a set of two coordinating prints. An ideal practical yet lovely baby shower gift, these sets are packaged in gift-ready boxes as well.
By ethically sourcing the highest quality materials and proudly manufacturing in the United States, Erika and the team at Ollie & Olina hope their products will give families lasting memories that will be passed down for generations. Available at www.ollieandolina.com.
Children's Retail Today 