Gender Neutral Kids Clothing Startups

Several of the startups share a common origin: They were borne out of parental frustration with major retailers. Simply shopping in the opposite gender’s section isn’t the answer, these parents say. Cultural norms mean that as kids get older, designating certain items as male or female can confuse and frustrate them. A girl may not want to wear something designated for boys, and vice-versa.
“Most kids and parents are going to the big retailers and seeing all these messages of what its means to be a boy or a girl,” says Sharon Choksi, co-founder of clothing line Girls Will Be. Choksi’s daughter Maya, now 10, never liked sparkles or “feminine” colors, so the Choksis would shop for Maya in the boys’ section. As Maya got older, Choksi worried that “boy” and “girl” labels would unnecessarily upset her daughter.
Choksi, from Austin, started selling girl’s shirts in 2013 before expanding into hoodies and shorts. In an effort to encourage girls to move around freely, the fit of Girls Will Be tops fall somewhere between a traditional, fitted girl’s shirt and the boxy, looser fit typically marketed to boys. One design reads, “bold, daring, fearless, adventurous, so many things,” while another features a silhouette of a girl doing a flying sidekick. Choksi wants her clothes to fill a gap left open by big companies. “When are the big retailers going to wake up and realize that not all girls are the same and not all boys are the same?” she asks.

 

Read More: Gender Neutral Kids Clothing Startups – Bloomberg Business