hope&plum

About hope&plum

Hope & Plum is a Minneapolis-based company specializing in size-inclusive and ethically produced baby carriers. Founded in 2018 by best friends Skye Amundsen and Mallory Mascoli, the company emerged from their personal frustrations with the babywearing market's lack of size inclusivity and stylistic variety. Skye, a corporate lawyer and mother of four, experienced a traumatic birth and found babywearing essential for bonding with her child. Mallory is a certified babywearing educator and mother of three who handles design and community support. The founders identified a gap for carriers that offered comfort across all body types and reflected the unique personalities of families.

The company's business model is direct-to-consumer, selling its products through its official website. Their product line includes various types of carriers such as ring slings, wraps, meh dais, and structured carriers like the top-selling Lark Baby Carrier, designed to support children from newborn to toddler stages. A key differentiator is the commitment to ethical and local manufacturing; all carriers are hand-sewn in Minnesota by a women-owned manufacturer, ensuring fair, livable wages for skilled sewists. This local production, within a 15-minute radius of their warehouse, also reduces the company's carbon footprint.

Sustainability is a core pillar of the brand's operations. They utilize high-quality, natural fibers like hemp, organic cotton, and linen blends, and all orders are shipped in 100% plastic-free, recyclable, or compostable packaging. To minimize waste, fabric scraps are repurposed into accessories such as key fobs and scrunchies. The company promotes a circular economy by offering carrier repairs, selling "Almost Perfect" items at a discount, and sponsoring a pre-loved marketplace for customers to buy, sell, and trade used carriers. Hope & Plum also engages its community by offering free one-on-one fit checks with babywearing educators, regardless of whether the carrier was purchased new or secondhand, to ensure safe and comfortable use.