Product Aims To Get Handle On Newborns

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Baby Box Co. wants to … well, put your baby in a box. With the lid off, of course.

Drawing from a Finnish tradition of giving expectant mothers a starter kit of clothes and linens inside a womblike cardboard box fitted with a tiny mattress an infant can sleep atop, the West Hollywood company sells its version to consumers, governments, nonprofits, corporations and hospitals, including Philadelphia’s Temple University Hospital, which will give the boxes to new moms starting on Mother’s Day.

The company’s basic baby box retails for about $70, though prices can climb as high as $225 for boxes stuffed with onesies, diapers and other goodies. All boxes also come with a membership to a website that offers educational videos for learning about pregnancy and baby health issues.

Childhood friends Jennifer Clary and Michelle Vick formed the company in 2013 after Vick found the birth of her first child incredibly daunting.

“She was well-equipped to be a mom,” said Clary. “But she felt so overwhelmed and challenged.”

Clary and Vick learned of the Finnish tradition and spent about a year developing their product, which meets safety regulations in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, Clary said.

Growth came rapidly – sales reached nearly $1 million last year, according to Clary, who noted the firm will have shipped 20,000 units by the end of the first quarter and is on track to send out an additional 55,000 by year’s end.

Even though it seems obvious, some people have asked whether they need to remove the lid with when the baby is inside.

“Oh, my God, yes,” she said, adding there’s a huge warning sticker that says so inside the box.

– Marni Usheroff

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