Wittlebee, a “Birchbox for babies” backed by LA’s Science incubator, is diving deeper into the products that form the core of its subscription-based kids’ clothes service: today it is announcing its first acquisition, the baby clothesmaker Cottonseed Clothing Company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition will mean that Wittlebee becomes the exclusive distributor of Cottonseed’s clothing: a selection of cotton basics in 24 colors. These will ship alongside clothes from other high-end brands, Wittlebee says. Cottonseed was Wittlebee’s earliest partner when the online service launched earlier this year.
The acquisition also makes sense in terms of company ethos: both Wittlebee and Cottonseed Clothing were started by parents looking for good-quality, simple-but-stylish pieces for their offspring.
“We love the fact that the brand was built by parents who inherently understood the challenge of finding fantastic looking kids’ clothes,” said Wittlebee CEO and co-founder Sean Percival in a statement. Erin Guitierrez, the CEO and founder of Cottonseed Clothing, will stay on to be involved in the manufacturing process.
The move to pick up clothing assets fits with a strategy followed by other fashion e-commerce retailers: Nasty Gal, which this week announced $40 million in funding, also designs and makes a part of its collection. The ability to have direct control over some of the stock helps the company differentiate itself among other competitors.
The move to offer subscription-based fashion is a strong trend at the moment. It’s something that companies like JustFab, Shoe Dazzle and many others have been using to great effect to keep customers from straying away to other sites and physical stores.
For $39.99 per month, Wittlebee sends users $100 worth of clothing — six pieces handpicked by Wittlebee based on parents’ size and colour specifications, with the age ranges starting at newborn and going to age 5. The regular supply of fresh clothes is a great idea considering how quickly kids grow and wear out their threads.
