Moms Do Their Thing With A Baby Sling
When Alicia Shaffer’s son Campbell was born in 2004, she was thrilled with the baby, but less than pleased with the alternatives for carrying the infant around. So the Pleasanton mom designed a baby sling, and before she knew it, a business was born.
Shaffer designed her own sling because she didn’t like the ones she saw for sale, particularly the fabric, which tended to lean heavily toward the pink-and-blue-animal-print end of the spectrum.
“I wanted something that was easy to put on, just throw and go, that was cute and fashionable,” she said. As soon as she began wearing her sling, “when I went to my mom’s groups, everyone wanted one. Within a couple of weeks we had 20 people asking to buy them.”
Now, almost four years later, her company, Goo-Ga Style Inc., has five full-time employees and $2 million in yearly revenues. The pouches, which have no buckles or straps to adjust, are sold in more than 1,500 stores nationwide, including Nordstrom and Target.com. And moms such as Brooke Shields and Scary Spice have been photographed using them.
Though neither Shaffer nor her husband Demetrious, who co-created the Peanut Shell sling, had no design experience, it was child’s play putting it together, she said.
“My husband and I cut out some newspaper and made a pattern. We took that to a seamstress and asked, ‘Could you make this out of this fabric and add a pocket here?’” Shaffer said.
The slings come in small, medium and large, so adjustments aren’t necessary. They cost $39 to $59 and can be purchased on the company’s Web site and, as of next week, Babies R Us, along with a number of other stores.
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