About Tiny Bundles
The year - 1995
The time - before the rooster crows
The day of the week - Monday
The event - birth of a beautiful baby girl
The arrival time - 5 weeks early
The weight - scarcely tipping the scales at 4.09 pounds
A new adjective, a new concept . . . . the word “Preemie”
And so it began. Preemie clothing, never gave that a thought. We were not expecting an early arrival. And what about preemie diapers and pacifiers? A trip to our local grocery store showed us that none were to be found.
An idea: why not create a one-stop shopping ground for all of these very hard-to-find essential items. As they say, “necessity is often the mother of invention.” And that is how Tiny Bundles was born.
We started out as an internet website selling only preemie clothing, pacifiers and diapers. Over the years, we went through many twists and turns, learning the business from both the buyer’s and seller’s perspective.
Fast forward to 2003, we decided to take that next big step and create and develop our own line of baby clothes under the Tiny Bundles label.
We decided to carry baby “basics,” clothing that all babies wear the first year of life. Our collection currently consists of bodysuits, tee shirts, pull-on pants, diaper covers, socks, knotted caps, strap caps, blankets and a dress. All of our clothing is made out of 100 percent soft, quality cotton. The necklines of our bodysuits and tees are designed with ease of dressing in mind. We use stretchy elastic inside the waistbands and rib knit fabric for the leg openings.
We knew what we wanted to carry as far as garments. Because we know how quickly sweet babies grow, we decided to increase our once-only-preemie size to include newborn, 3-month, 6-month and 9-month sizes. Now came the tough part. Since all of our body pieces (with the exception of our colored pull-on pants) come to us white (called blanks in the industry), what to do with all of these blank canvases?
So, we enlisted the help of the business associates that we had developed over the years and asked for their input. A customer of mine who owns two retail stores suggested tie-dye. I had to be talked into this one. All of my experiences have shown me that the traditional, tried-and-true, pink-and-blue palette was the way to go. I acquiesced and decided to give it a go. I started out with subtle colors, and then, as I became more comfortable, I started to get bolder with my color choices. In keeping true to myself, I also developed our Applique Collection that is traditional in nature, sweet outfits with crochet appliques and coordinating pants. Much to my surprise, I found that the tie-dye collection was a complete and utter success. Ninety percent of our sales were generated from our tie-dye collection.
We have enjoyed the success of doing business with larger entities such as Bloomingdale’s and midwestern stores like Von Maur. We have also had the good fortune to do business with a wide range of boutiques as well as hospital gift shops.
Recently we have added a wonderful asset to our design department. Read all about her in next week’s blog. We are excited about the new directions which we will be taking in this brand new year of ours.
We thank you for visiting our blog. And we look forward to your return.
Until then, keep those bundles warm.
Patti
(keeping tiny bundles well dressed one bodysuit at a time)
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