This Is the New Way Parents Will Shop for Their Kids

Parents’ schedules today are undoubtedly jam-packed. They juggle myriad responsibilities related to work, social engagements, and school. One of those many tasks is shopping for kids’ clothes. It’s something parents probably want done as quickly and efficiently as possible, without sacrificing quality.

Enter Rockets of Awesome – the newest time-saver for parents. The aim of this e-commerce startup, created by entrepreneur Rachel Blumenthal,  is to change the landscape of how parents shop for their kids.

Yahoo Style spoke to four mothers who shared their most pressing issues, woes, and gripes about shopping for children’s clothing.

“The biggest shopping woe, as a mom of a boy, is the style,” said Katalina Villalba, whose son is now approaching 2. “There aren’t many options (style-wise) for boys, and most of the options are very basic: monster trucks, sports, TV characters, etc.”

Linda Le, another mom, agrees. “The biggest issue I have shopping for my 3-year-old son is clothing that is stylish yet comfortable (i.e. jeans that aren’t stiff and have an elastic waistband) for him to run around [in] at an affordable price,” she said.

“There isn’t enough originality for boys clothes, [but even] for little girls, it’s geared towards [being] too tween/adult-like,” says Thu Vu Novak, mother of a 3½-year-old boy.

Aside from the challenge of finding stylish, comfortable options for their children, sizing is also a big obstacle.

Anne Jackson-Metzger, mother of girls ages 6 and 9, says, “Inconsistent sizes across different brands” is the biggest problem. “Particularly because we do a lot of shopping online … it is hard to know what will fit properly.”

As a parent, do any of these problems resonate with you?

Rockets of Awesome tackles several of the problems above and blends the best of what subscription fashion boxes offer with the convenience of online shopping.

How does it work? It’s similar to a fashion company you might have already sampled — such as Fabletics, the athleisure line by Kate Hudson; Birchbox, a monthly curated beauty box, or FabFitFun, a lifestyle box company, which are all based on monthly subscriptions. The options for adults are plentiful, but for kids? Not so much.

So how do you get started? First step: Parents create a personalized shop on the Rockets of Awesome site based on a short survey that asks questions such as what sizes their child wears, what colors they love, to what they won’t wear, etc. It’s very simple — about seven or eight questions — and takes a few minutes to complete.

Then, every season — four times a year —  parents receive a box containing a curated selection of clothing (11 articles of clothing and one accessory) tailored to their shopping habits for their child and their child’s style preferences.

The clothing is made for children ages 2-14; all items cost less than $40, aside from their exclusive metallic bomber jacket priced at $46. You only pay for what you keep, and the shipping is also covered. The best part? There is no subscription, no membership fees, and no upfront cost to participate.

To fill the lull between the seasonal boxes, new styles are available for purchase intermittently on your child’s personalized web shop.

All the clothing is designed in-house by experienced industry personnel who have worked at established children’s clothing brands, including Gap, J. Crew, and Kate Spade. With a strong design team in place, the clothing company boasts that its apparel is on-trend, well-constructed, and offers a mix of classic and chic styles.

Founder and CEO Blumenthal is a mother of two, the founder of Cricket’s Circle, and the wife of Warby Parker co-founder Neil Blumenthal.

Rockets of Awesome officially launches today. Read more about the startup below, and click ahead to see a few of the adorable pieces that will be available for sale.

Yahoo Style spoke with Rachel Blumenthal, founder and CEO of Rockets of Awesome.

Yahoo Style: How did the name Rockets of Awesome come about?
Rachel Blumenthal: Kids have a magical, unpredictable energy and confidence. The brand Rockets of Awesome celebrates that over-the-top awesomeness. It’s the kids that are Rockets of Awesome.

What sets Rockets of Awesome apart from other curated shipment boxes? 
Rockets of Awesome not only makes shopping simpler for parents end-to-end, but provides stylish, high-quality kids’ clothing at an incredible value. We are the smarter way to shop for kids and the ultimate solution for parents. We combine the best of personalization, membership cadence and on demand e-commerce, all through a vertical apparel brand. Designing and producing our own product enables us to capture our customer’s feedback and directly impact the products we produce for them; it also enables us to deliver the value back to the customer.

What made you decide to opt out of having customers commit to a monthly fee/subscription cost? Is this policy ironclad?
Our mission is to simplify the lives of parents and be their shopping solution. Part of that solution is making it risk-free and not locking our customers into unnecessary fees. We’re really here to simplify and personalize the shopping experience by delivering high-quality, stylish pieces that parents and their kids will love – all at an incredible value. Shipping is free, and we do not charge any membership or subscription fees.

You mention the clothing is high-quality — can you elaborate about where the clothing is produced and what types of fabrics are used to create them?
Our clothes are manufactured in Asia and the Dominican Republic. Each piece is crafted with special attention to fabric and construction to ensure kids can still be kids. We design with kids in mind, that means every piece needs to be super soft and comfortable — the waistband of pants are lined in uber soft T-shirt fabric, we avoid tags whenever possible and we’ve add extra stretch.

How do you ensure the clothing will fit kids of all sizes?
Rockets of Awesome is pioneering dynamic retail. The first step is for customers to sign up on RocketsofAwesome.com. From there, parents will complete the style file, indicating their kids’ preferences, from style to color to fit and more. The Rockets of Awesome team then combines behavioral patterns (what shoppers are buying) with kids’ preferences (based on the profile parents create before their first shipment) to provide a highly personalized e-commerce experience and a curated delivery of kids outfits each season. The team is able to quickly cater to customers’ wants and needs using data from their preferences and purchases to inform future deliveries and collections. We get smarter every time you shop, learning more and more about what you and your kids love. In between your seasonal deliveries we unlock a personalized shop to purchase new styles and more colors and sizes of your favorite items. Our full size run is 2-14, but we’ll notify customers in between boxes if we think their kid(s) are ready to move up a size. Our sizing is very clearly communicated on our website and when you onboard in our size chart. Reliability, specifically in sizing and fit, is core to the customer experience.

How has your shopping experience for your own children inspired the creation of this company?
As a mom, I have always believed shopping for kids shouldn’t feel like work and that parents shouldn’t have to sacrifice style and value. Through my own experience and those of the Cricket’s Circle community, I knew I could create a solution for parents that answered the need for a highly personalized, thoughtful experience vs. the disjointed, time-consuming process that had previously been the only option. There’s no greater solution than a trusted, reliable service that will shop for me each season and deliver high style and value.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.