Baby Week: Angry Birds at Swaddle Designs - Review, Interview, and Giveaway!

Call me a sucker for marketing, but I love me some video game themed swag. So when I heard that there was a new Angry Birds baby product line by SwaddleDesigns, you bet I was there all googly eyes over its game chic cuteness.

I got the chance to review a couple of products that were provided to me, namely the long sleeve body suit and the marquisette swaddling blanket. Both of these products arrived beautifully packed and labeled, which leaves me confident to purchase these items as a baby shower gift. The quality of the design as well as the quality of the items were excellent. The high quality open weave cotton of the marquisette blanket is breathable for warmer climates and soft to the touch, and the blanket itself is big enough to facilitate the swaddling process. What's unique about the SwaddleDesigns swaddling blanket design is that it includes a 3-step swaddling instruction label sewn right on the blanket, a cheat sheet even overtired parents can understand.

My 21 month old daughter saw these products and was very excited to recognize "happy birds!" which is what she calls Angry Birds. We're still working on properly labeling emotions. And on throwing the birds in the correct direction towards those evil egg-eating pigs. It's a work in progress!

Unfamiliar with SwaddleDesigns, I was curious to also find out more about this company. Snooping around for more details, I found that this was a Seattle-based company started by a husband and wife team. Who doesn't love a good success story! I was lucky enough to chat with Lynette Damir, the founder of SwaddleDesigns, who was willing to answer some of my questions about starting a business.

How did you land the deal with Rovio Entertainment Ltd for an Angry Birds line?

Our ten year-old daughter introduced us to the Angry Birds game in 2010. My husband is a techie from the wireless industry, and based on our research, we concluded that Rovio's Angry Birds had the potential to become a phenomenal success. I was confident that I could create fun, playful, colorful designs using the cute Angry Birds characters that would appeal to Angry Birds fans. We decided to approach Rovio and pitch the idea for Angry Birds Baby. Our timing was good - the Rovio team was preparing to make a decision for their licensee for Angry Birds Baby items. We were thrilled to learn that the Rovio team selected SwaddleDesigns based on our quality.

Are you a fan of the game?

Oh yes! We love the game, for all the reasons that the game has become the #1 game in the world - it is fun, easy to learn, engaging and reasonably challenging, and everyone in the family can play and have fun while learning about physics, strategy and using critical thinking skills. Sometimes we play independently, and sometimes we play as a family and take turns. We have all three games - and we are so excited about Angry Birds Space!

Do you have a geek in your family?

My husband has a technical background as an EE and years in the mobile/wireless industry. My son is thirteen years old and he is very technical. He taught himself Flash, has taken classes to write computer games, and knows more about computers than I do - perhaps, that makes him a geek, or perhaps, he is just a modern teenager. And my daughter has an aptitude to figure out new technical gadgets quite quickly. I come from a techie family myself – a family of inventors and problem solvers. My dad worked in the Space program years ago. As a designer, an RN, and former professional ice skater, I am passionate about ice skating, health care and design, and I have spent numerous hours over the last several years researching thermoregulation. I guess you can say I'm a diverse kind of geek.

How would you describe the process of starting your own business?

My inspiration for starting our business was to help new parents calm and comfort their newborns and help their baby sleep so they could get more sleep. After I shared my idea for the Ultimate Swaddling Blanket with my husband (he actually jumped off the sofa and waved my drawing in the air claiming it was brilliant – yes, I love that man), we evaluated the business possibilities and spent time developing the product. I did a lot of research, consulted with many medical experts including PhDs in the field of infant research. I sourced the key components, selected a manufacturing partner and we made early sales calls during the first year. We started shipping about one year after we decided to pursue the opportunity. Early on we decided that if we were going to start a business, it was going to be a business, and not a hobby. I was very focused on the brand and working to achieve our goals of helping parents comfort and care for their baby, designing and manufacturing quality products, and creating a brand that would be loved and trusted.

We worked hard and fast - but, we did not rush or cut corners - we believe it is important to do things right and delight our customers. We still ship the same blanket that was our very first product, SD-001, the Ultimate Receiving Blanket® premium preshrunk cotton flannel with delicate polka dots.

Our product was well loved from the beginning. The fact that our swaddling blankets fill an ongoing need and continues to help parents and babies, fuels the business. We’ve done very little advertising and have really grown by word of mouth – by what I call the power of the Mommy Network – a mom telling another mom how much our blanket helped her, her baby, her family, and how versatile the blanket is, what great quality it is and that it is a must-have for new parents.

When we created the company in 2002, swaddling was a lost art in our country and there was a real need for a well made and designed swaddling blanket. Around that same time, Dr. Karp published his book, The Happiest Baby on the Block, which featured swaddling as the cornerstone to calming a fussy baby, and a study was published in Pediatrics that proved that swaddled babies sleep better. In the years prior to 2002, when I was visiting families with new babies in their homes, I observed two consistent problems that caused new parents to struggle when trying to swaddle. First, their blanket was too small or the wrong shape, and second, they could not remember how to make a good secure swaddle. Based on my research of the market at that time, I was unable to find any good swaddle blankets available. I used by healthcare back ground as a nurse and my design education from the Art Institute of Seattle to design a multi-use blanket that was the right size, shape and fabric and I included a pictorial instructional label showing how to make a good effective swaddle sewn to the edge of the blanket. We filed for a trademark and a patent to protect our design and intellectual property. Before we had our first production unit, we had closed our first customer - a major hospital that purchased 4,000 blankets for their new parent departure gift. They loved the educational component of the blanket and understood the benefits of swaddling. In less than 2 years, we had been picked up by Nordstrom nationwide and soon after earned a position in the Inc 500 as one of the fastest growing companies in the USA.

Was there a period when you weren't sure the business was going to make it? How did you deal with that?

We were concerned when the recession hit in 2008, it was a scary time for everyone. However, the Spring before the recession hit, we had raised money to help the business grow. We held on and continued to innovate, invest and create, and we’ve thrived. People continued to buy baby products and they want good long lasting value which our products provide. People associate the SwaddleDesigns brand with quality and lasting value and this has helped our business to make it even in tough economic times.

Do you have any tips to anyone starting or thinking about starting their own business?

Be prepared to work very hard and be very nimble to survive and thrive. Do your research. Make sure that you have access to the funding that you will require to be successful. Make sure that you have a partner/founding team that has diverse skills, a commitment to quality, a common vision and good honest work ethic. It also helps to have a supportive significant other.

You have a patent pending on your Ultimate Swaddling Blanket design, how difficult is the patenting process?

We worked with a very capable attorney and law firm that specializes in intellectual property. We have pending patents and a multitude of trademarks and copyrights. It is important to have the right team in place to help navigate the intellectual property landscape in the US and abroad.

You founded SwaddleDesigns in 2002, how will you be celebrating your business's 10 year anniversary this year?

We are looking forward to our 10 year anniversary! It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years – it’s gone by very quickly. 2012 will be a record year for SwaddleDesigns in many ways. It is our first year in our much larger new HQ facility, and I finally will move my design studio out of our house! We are rolling out the Angry Birds Baby line, Disney Classic collection and Disney It's A Small World collection, along with several of my personal collections - Jewel Tones, the Sterling line and the elegant French palette inspired Taupe Gray Collection.

We are expanding into multiple new countries and expanding our distribution. And in conjunction with our partners, we look forward to the celebrations to kick-off our 10th year. In many ways, our company is a great example of how working hard and focusing on quality and our brand can lead to extraordinary and unanticipated opportunities - when we started the company in 2002, we never imagined that in 2012 we would be rolling out a collection based on the number one mobile game in the world and two stylish Disney collections - but, we are.

I have to admit I was never capable to swaddle. My husband and I could not understand why a simple three step process was beyond the grasp of two highly educated people! Why oh why is it so hard for new parent to grasp swaddling?

You and your husband are not alone. Many new parents struggle because the blanket they try to use is too small and you do need a good yet simple technique. It looks so easy in the hospital when you watch an experienced nurse swaddle your newborn, and when you get home you think, “HOW did she do that!” I heard over and over the pleas of new parents as they asked me to share the secret of the hospital nurses. And I happily obliged. My advice is very simple - first of all, you need to get a large square cotton blanket such as our Ultimate Receiving Blanket and you need to have simple to follow instructions at your fingertips when you are learning the art of swaddling.

Both my Ultimate Receiving Blanket and my Marquisette Swaddling Blanket are large and square and made from premium, breathable cotton, and both have swaddling instructions sewn to their edge, so the pictorial instructions are at your finger tips until the very last fold. With a little practice and this easy and effective technique, you will be swaddling like a pro in no time. If you need a little more help, you can visit www.SwaddleDesigns.com to observe a video and read other swaddling tips and safe sleep practices.

What are some of the best tips you have for new parents?

I have lots of tips for new parents, but I'll share my top three. Keep a flexible attitude, know that it will get easier, and be kind to each other and yourself during this transition time as you get used to the "new normal."

Thank you for your time, Lynette!

You can find out more about SwaddleDesigns' new Angry Birds product line on this press release. You can also follow SwaddleDesigns on Twitter, Facebook, and of course visit their website.

Last but certainly not least, a giveaway! To participate in our giveaway, please leave a comment with your choice of loot: body suit or marquisette blanket! Be sure to review the products to tell us your preferred size and bird design. Submit your comment before midnight on Sunday, March 11th, and we will pick a winner at random from all the entry received. Good luck!