Before Harlow had a name, a logo, or a single baby carrier to sell, there was an idea I couldn’t quite shake.
The problem was, I had no idea what I was actually going to sell.
I wasn’t sitting around dreaming about starting a baby carrier company. I didn’t have sketches of a product or some big business plan tucked away somewhere.
What I did have was this persistent feeling that I wanted to build something of my own and that whatever I built needed to mean something to me beyond simply selling a product.
A lot of that probably came from the world where I've spent more than a decade working in.
My career has been in the nonprofit space, and over the years I’ve gotten to see firsthand what the right kind of support can actually do.
Sometimes it’s meeting a need in a difficult moment. Sometimes it’s giving someone access to an opportunity they wouldn’t have had otherwise. Sometimes it’s helping someone believe a dream might actually be possible.
I’d seen how one act of support could ripple into someone’s life in ways you don’t always get to see coming.
And somewhere along the way, one thing became pretty clear:
If I was going to build something, I wanted it to create some of those ripples too.
I knew the kind of company I wanted to build.
I just had absolutely no idea what it was going to sell.
Then I had a baby on me basically all day.
At the time, I was deep in the babywearing stage of motherhood.
And when I say I tried carriers, I tried carriers.
I had everything from a roughly $50 carrier to one that cost close to $400.
I wore them to get things done around the house. To have my hands free. To get my baby to sleep. To move through everyday life without having to put my baby down every five minutes.
I genuinely loved babywearing.
But I couldn't find one carrier that felt completely right for me.
Some were beautiful, but weren't as comfortable as I wanted.
Some were comfortable, but didn't really feel like me.
Some were inexpensive and felt inexpensive.
Others were beautiful and premium but came with a premium price to match.
And somehow, no matter how much I spent...
Why did none of these things come with a basic storage bag?! 😂
Seriously.
I'm spending hundreds of dollars on something I'm supposed to take everywhere with a baby, and when I'm not wearing it I'm just... shoving it into the diaper bag?
It was such a little thing.
But it got me thinking.
Maybe I could make this better.
I wasn't looking at babywearing from the outside trying to identify a trendy product category.
I was the customer.
I was using these carriers every single day.
I knew what I liked.
I knew what annoyed me.
And I started thinking about what I would change if I could make one myself.
I wanted something comfortable enough to actually live in.
Something practical.
Something that felt thoughtful.
Something I would feel good wearing.
And yes, something with a storage bag.
The more I thought about it, the more I believed I could make a carrier I genuinely loved.
But there was still a problem.
The world didn't exactly need another baby carrier brand.
There were already plenty.
And making a slightly different version of something that already existed wasn't enough of a reason for me to build an entire company around it.
I kept coming back to the same question:
If moms were going to support something I created, how could I make sure that support moved in both directions?
That's when the idea started becoming bigger than the carrier.
Maybe I could create a product that helped a mom in one way—giving her comfort, giving her hands back, making one small part of life with a baby a little easier.
And then maybe her decision to choose that product could help another mom in a completely different way.
That was something I could believe in.
The product could be good.
But the company could do good, too.
And I didn't want “giving back” to be something we added someday if Harlow got big enough.
I wanted it there from the beginning.
Before the first carrier was sold.
Before there was a community.
Before I had any idea whether this little company would actually work.
That belief eventually became the foundation for so much of what Harlow is today.
But those are stories for another day. 🤍
For now, I think the simplest way to explain why I started Harlow is this:
I believed I could make a baby carrier better.
But I believed even more in what we could build around it.
Alyce 🤍