The request to talk about how we started WildBird never gets old. The older our story gets, the more fun it becomes to tell!

 

IT STARTED WITH A LOVE FOR BABYWEARING

 

These stories commonly start with a baby, and ours is no different! While pregnant with our first baby boy, I did a lot of reading about pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and newborns. My husband, Nate, and I had several friends with kids, but we were both pretty new and uninformed about the whole thing. As a nurse, I loved diving into the research, learning and really thinking about how we would take care of this new little baby.

 

I found myself spending a lot of time reading about babywearing. I was just so captivated by the benefits. They were all so unique, and I knew it was something I was really going to want to do as a new mother!

 

When our son was born there were several babywearing options available. We tried almost all of them, and for us, the sling easily became our favorite carrier. I loved that it was helpful, quick, easy, and beautiful--all while letting me be close to my baby!



HATCHING WILDBIRD

 

I was not excited to leave my new baby to continue working as a nurse. At the same time, Nate was ready to move on from his job. We both had pictured more for our careers. Looking back, I can see that we both had an unspoken desire and ambition to start something. So with a brand new baby, I made the hard decision not to return to nursing, and Nate decided to leave his job as well. It was scary, but we were excited for the opportunity to do something we love!

 

From the start, we specifically searched out baby/parent-related product ideas. In the short time we had experienced being new parents, we knew that we had a message for parents of our generation. We just needed the right product to be the carrier for that message.

 

At the time, ring slings were around, but were somewhat unknown, and we felt like we had happened upon a pretty amazing way to carry a baby. It was something I was passionate about, and something that I thought more parents should know about! We knew that we could bring a fresh pallet of beautiful, neutral colors to the ring sling. We knew that we could create an amazing brand and community around our product. A message and aesthetic that would appeal to a wide demographic of moms and caregivers. We locked in the idea and we were all-in. Financially all-in, every weekend all-in, and every free night all-in. Our social life took a back seat and every extra minute was spent on developing the brand and site, and building our inventory.


 

Five months later, WildBird went live to the world on Nov 18th, 2014. That night we sold just five slings. I’ll be honest, I was confused and disheartened. However, we kept going, and slow growth turned into quick growth, and five slings turned into thousands of slings. Our message was heard, and our slings were accepted by many!


BUILDING SOMETHING BETTER


Nate and I always had a desire to build WildBird into more than just its product. We are now building a brand that is transparent about its operations, mistakes, pricing, sourcing, etc. We’re speaking to customers openly about our manufacturing process and why we operate the way we do. We’re continually trying to create more opportunities for moms to work from home.

 

Thanks to those first five orders, and those that support us today, this business doesn't only support us, but it supports so many amazing moms that are working from the comfort of their home, to be by their children. It’s been an amazing journey, and we still have much more to do!

 

We’re hoping this blog conveys our message of inclusivity, and we hope it becomes a positive, safe space for our WildBird community to come learn (and share) babywearing tips, parent wins (or sometimes blunders), and life hacks.

 

Thanks for joining us, and please let us know if there are any specific topics you want us to cover!