How We Became One of Kourtney Kardashian's Wholesome Obsessions

Soooo this happened...

Safe teething toys https://t.co/LlK8RIdHgc

— Kourtney Kardashian (@kourtneykardash) March 1, 2017

With that, Kourtney Kardashian announced to the world that Wholesome Linen's 100% Organic Bib & Teether Gift Set is one of her new favorite obsessions on her personal blog and twitter feed

To be honest, Wholesome Linen was really surprised to land on Miss Kourtney Kardashian's radar. We had just added this particular item to our line-up of Baby and Toddler Unisex Essentials only a few weeks back and put it up on Amazon Prime. We had done zero PR on this product and out of nowhere, Kourtney Kardashian included our newest products on her personal blog and tweeted it out to her 22 million Twitter followers.  This is the kind of celebrity endorsement that comes after years of navigating your way through infinite layers of PR & Brand Marketing.

Backstory on How We Became Kourtney Kardashian's Newest Obsession

When we started, we decided to focus on quality at the core of our company. We keep it pretty simple - to make natural organic baby & toddler essentials from the best material for a good value. Wholesome Linen's process when designing and launching a new product is one of careful contemplation. We start with the basic ethos of making high-quality baby & toddler essentials out of 100% organic linen.  We only make things that we believe every single parent on this planet needs. We also believe that flax based plant fibers that make-up linen fabrics are more sustainable & eco-friendly alternative to cotton making for a stronger, longer lasting product with any number of positive health benefits.  As we proceed through the phases of product design & research we always seek feedback from our friends and more importantly their babies :) because really, is there anything more honest than a babies reactions? We observe their intuitions,  absorb them, iterate the details & improve our overall products. If you are any kind of designer, you know this process is the same whether you are making baby products or mobile apps.  The key to good product design is to understand the end user and the problem you are solving for them.  If we get this part right then we have done our job. The point to all this is we do not start with influencers or bloggers in mind, we think the safety and comfort all parents strive to provide to their babies.

Sure our products are photogenic and but it is not because we designed them specifically to look good in front of the camera or Instagram & Pinterest feeds. We have found this simple truth, that if you pair simplicity with natural materials you get get the desired effect that appeals to everyone from Kourtney Kardashian to all the #WholesomeMamas out there.

So once we have a product we can be proud of, it's our job as company founders to turn on the marketing machine to get the word out to people who need our products.  So when we finally work out all the kinks and are ready to launch we do arduous searches, making lists of bloggers & influencers in to reach out to. This part of the process is never the simple, and very difficult to get right. More often than not, in the early stages of a company when a brand is unknown, it's really easy to be ignored by the very people you need to get the word out about your beloved products.  

This part of the process is never simple, and very difficult to get right. More often than not, in the early stages of a company when a brand is unknown it is really easy to be ignored by the very people you need to get the word out about your beloved products.

To be totally honest, our naive expectation was that others are should be as excited about our products as we are and therefore would be thrilled to get one in the mail to write about.  Alas, this is not the case.  There are protocols that need to be followed when reaching out to bloggers and influencers and if you get it wrong, don't expect to get a positive reply, if any reply at all.  When you do get replies it is often a standardized response with a rate sheet outlining how much it costs to get your product reviewed and to get you the exposure you need. 

We get it, in this day & age when social influence has become commoditized in the form of analytical data in the form of click-throughs and conversions we do understand why bloggers and influencers request to be paid for a decent day work for reviewing our products and posting it to audiences that they have skillfully built over time.  There is clearly value in getting a shout out from the right person.

This brings us back to Kourtney Kardashians and her recent blog post that included Wholesome Linen as one of her favorite new obsessions.

We know we are taking a long road, but this does come full circle....

 When brainstorming a list of #wholesomamas and dealing in the economics of influencers Kourtney Kardashian would probably rank pretty close to the top of the list. According to this Forbes Piece, in 2016 Kourtney Kardashian earned 10M and 10% of that came from social media endorsements. So far at the top of the list that we probably would have likely neglected to even attempt to contact her with an assumed expectation that as a fairly new company she was out of our league.  This woman and other members of her family are known to get upto 1M for full product endorsements.  We did not solicit her or her 'momagement' or PR reps to be included on this list of her favorite 'Non-Toxic Teething Toys.' but we certainly do appreciate it immensely.

I guess that is what makes her blog mention about Wholesome Linen literally - SO PRICELESS

To be totally honest, we have absolutely no clue how she or her team found us, but they did.  We started seeing spikes in traffic on our analytics coming from her blog and thought that maybe someone had mentioned us in her comments section.  We investigated the links further when the traffic kept coming and voila, lo and behold there we were on her latest posts and at the top of her 'Kids' section.

We would like to think that perhaps we were included because we made a great product. Maybe Mason or Penelope Scotland or more likely Reign Aston (since he is in our products age range) used one of our products and they loved it.  Kourtney is, after all, a mother first looking for the best products for her own children.  This is why our advice to anyone trying to design & launch a product would always be to think primary user first. It may be counterintuitive but the influencers will come.  It's so much more rewarding to have people notice and review your product because they found it useful, not because you pay them to do it.

Here we are, full circle with a lesson learned: Trust in your belief that if you make a great product the right people will find you.

Thank You Kourtney!

Here is Kourtney Kardashian's Best Non-Toxic Teethers List 

*To our dear readers, we decided to run through all the products which Kourtney chose and give you our thoughts and insights

1. Vulli Sophie La Giraffe Rubber Teether, $24

This product is a thing of legends amongst successful baby products.  They have actually been making these in France since 1961.  It is has become Amazon's best-selling baby product and with over 6.5K Amazon reviews, our guess is it is nearing peak product.  We like that this is made from natural rubber, food grade dyes since your bub will be chewing on this thing as soon as you put it into their little hands.

2. Wooden Story Bear, $27

This thing is adorable and one of the reasons we made a snap clasp on our Linen Bib, so that you can attach different cute wooden toys.  Our Bib Set comes with a simple non-treated maple ring but you could easily attach a Wooden Story Bear, Owl Koala or Kitty Cat. They have 18 to choose from.

3. Cunill Sterling Silver Rattle, $298

Let's be honest, not everyone can afford to spend this kind of money on a baby rattle. Throughout history, those who could put silver into a baby's hands did so as a matter of life and death vs those who could not. The tradition of giving a baby silver to a newborn dates back to the middle ages as a measure of protection against the plague. Those "born with a silver spoon in their mouth..." were more likely protect against the illness because silver is known to disrupt bacteria. Cunnill carries on this tradition into the modern era with this beautifully crafted gift.

4. Little Standout Silicone Diamond Teether, $15

We like this because it also easily attached to Wholesome Linen's Bib and can easily go into the freezer and dishwasher.  Since these are made with a MakerBot 3D Printer, it would be great if you could design your own to order.

5. Sweet Tooth Baby Silicone Cone Teether, $15

This teether may your get your baby thinking how artificial ice cream is tasting these days. You could take a cute Instagram photo of this Silicone Ice Cream Cone in your babies hands but wouldn't a real milky - creamy - melty ice cream cone be way sweeter?

6. My Very Own Rattle, $25

We could see this lovely wooden rattle being handed down from one generation to another.  At $25 it is a great value gift for a baby shower.

7. Natursutten Rubber Teether, $13

This may not make for the best gift, but is well-designed with a cushion pocket in the center making it a favorite item to gnaw on those tough teething days.  This was designed in Italy and is being produced for 3 generations by Natursutten. This teether also snaps onto Wholesome Linen's Linen Bib.

8. Haakaa Silicone Cookie Teether, $19

Just like Sweet Tooth's Ice Cream Cone teether above, Probably makes for a few great flicks but unless you want to train your kids to eat Oreos at a very early age we'd stick with the more natural looking teethers on this list.

9. Wholesome Linen Teething Bib, $25

Babies get your gnaw and drool on, parents we got you our Bib is easy to clean because it is natural linen and perfect for Sunday dinner at Grandma's house.  Wholesome Linen's Bib Gift Set comes with two Linen Bibs and one untreated Maple Wood Teething Ring that attaches to the bib and a Gift Bag.  Try our Bib's and come back for other products like our Organic Sleep Bag or Infant Car Seat Liner and when your infant becomes a toddler they will graduate to their first Tiny Pillow.  

10. Lexy Pexy Wooden Balloon Teether, $25

Lexy Pexy uses maple wood for their cute machine etched product.  Excited for the day when these can be personalized on an order by order basis.  

11. Cunill Sterling Silver Rattle, $310

Here is another masterfully crafted sterling Cunill silver rattle available at Barneys which carries a wide range of silver and sterling silver items for babies.

12. Wood Story Heart Teether, $27

The more we look at Wood Story Teether's the more we get the urge to reach out to do a collaboration, Wholesome Linen Bibs and their wooden teethers make for the perfect baby shower gift.