By Candace Renalls
Duluth News Tribune.
One of the founders of Little Neetchers, an earth-friendly Duluth business that sells reusable cloth diapers and other natural baby products, is launching a new product line.
Under the new brand, Maymay & Co., Joy Herbert has created a line of baby clothing and accessories handmade in Duluth.
The effort, which Herbert calls social entrepreneurship, sprung from a desire to help exploited children.
With that goal in mind, she created the patterns for every product in the line and sourced their American-made components.
“Nearly all the materials used to produce these products are USA-made,” Herbert said. “The onesies are designed here, and the screen printing is done here.”
So far, the line also includes hats, scarves, band bibs, leggings and bracelets. Ten percent of the sales will go to support LOVE146, a human rights nonprofit that rescues and rehabilitates exploited children.
Representatives from Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault also will be at the launch to talk about ending sex trafficking in Duluth.
As with Little Neetchers’ selection of products, Maymay & Co. offerings are available at the Little Neetchers store in West Duluth as well as online.
Herbert and her husband, Joshua, started the cloth diaper business out of their Duluth home in 2009 with a desire to reduce the volume of disposable diaper waste in landfills. In 2011, they were presented with the prestigious micro-entrepreneur award at the annual Joel Labovitz Entrepreneurial Success Awards.
In 2013, the couple opened their brick-and-mortar retail store with an expanded selection of baby items, including carrier bags, baby feeding supplies, swaddles, wooden toys and organic lotions and salves. In 2014, they expanded into the adjacent storefront, which enabled them to expand their product line, including adding strollers.
The larger space also gave them more room for their offering of classes in prenatal yoga, baby nutrition and cloth diapering 101. They also make the space available for like-minded community groups.
