Sitting on a desk in the corner of Denise Harig’s home office is a small, glass vase with three strong sprouts of bamboo reaching out of it toward the sky.
Strong enough to build homes and buildings, yet able to be turned into an incredibly soft fiber, bamboo is a substance that Harig and her sister Deborah Bussell are hoping will grow their business, Midori Bamboo.
“It’s amazing that turns into this,” Bussell said, pointing to the plant and then back to one of the racks of specialty baby clothes or blankets made from the soft, fluffy fiber that feels almost like cashmere.
Midori Bamboo, an Internet-based business run out of Harig’s Kent home (Bussell lives less than a mile down the road) was born out the soft bamboo fiber, made by steaming, boiling and spinning the fibers of the plant.
Bussell said her husband, who has worked in the industry for decades, brought a sample of the material back from China and the women, both of whom have small grandchildren, thought it would make wonderful baby blankets.
“We couldn’t believe it,” Bussell said of its softness. “We decided why can’t we make blankets out of this bamboo fiber?”
Besides being soft, bamboo is also naturally antibacterial and antimicrobial, as well as organic and environmentally friendly. The women decided that there would probably be a market for environmentally friendly clothing and other baby accessories, like onesies and bibs, made from bamboo and decided to go into business together.
“We even have bamboo jeans!” Bussell said.
Harig explained she and her sister had been talking about going into business for some time, but had not found the right opportunity until now.
The name, “Midori,” is the Japanese word for “green,” and the sisters choose a dragonfly as their logo because their mother, Doris Otey, who died a few years ago, loved dragonflies. Bussell and Harig saw the new business as a way to maintain a thread through the family in the same way their mother had.
Though neither had owned a business before, the sisters knew they be good partners.
“We just wanted to work together and get a family thing going,” Bussell said.
Beginning with a capital-raising garage sale last summer, the business has already succeeded in pulling the various parts of the family together.
“It really has brought our family together,” Harig said. “Everybody’s pitched in.”
By shunning a traditional store-front in favor of an Internet-only business model, the sisters were able to save some money, but the money raised in the garage sale went toward getting the new company’s Web presence started.
With the idea taking root, the sisters selected custom colors – mostly pastels – and began designing baby clothes, made from a 70/30 bamboo/organic cotton blend. All materials are fair-trade and organic-certified.
“It’s the softest, purest material there is to put on a baby,” Bussell claimed.
All products are shipped in reusable bamboo boxes.
“Our packaging is what’s special,” said Harig.
“Bamboo clothes, bamboo boxes!” said Bussell.
Though they admit their product is slightly more expensive than similar products, Harig and Bussell said they know they are taking a “leap of faith,” but believe people are willing to pay a bit more for a higher-quality product, and said the environmentally friendly nature of their product was something they felt was missing.
“We tried to come up with a cutting-edge idea that could make a difference and was going to make money,” Harig said.
After nearly a year of working – all of which took longer than expected, part of the difficulty of doing business on the other side of the world – the Midori Bamboo Web site went live a few weeks ago.
Many of the challenges the women said they faced thus far are in dealing with Chinese suppliers, many of whom had to be convinced to take a chance on smaller orders from the new company.
“This stuff isn’t available anywhere else,” Bussell said.
Since launch, they have linked to Amazon and the Discovery Store, and according to Bussell, the reception has been “unbelievable.”
The women can’t wait until the day they see one of their blankets on a child at the mall and in the future, they hope to offer clothing and blankets for adults as well.
And with the green bend of not only their name, but their product, the women are proud to be doing their part for the environment as well.
“It’s a small way, but it does make a difference,” Bussell said.
“Everybody’s trying to do their part,” Harig echoed.
For more information visit www.midoribamboo.com.
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