Sharing blankets - it’s just the beginning!

We’ve got notes from some of our first conversations about what would one day become CommonKind and despite so much changing, the key to our ‘why’ remains the same - warmth should be accessible to everyone. We’re starting with one hundred blankets. 

Success to us is sharing warmth with those that might otherwise find it hard to access. But, we’re not interested in telling people how to live their lives or look after their children - instead, we want to share information about the benefits of wool for kids and make wool products more readily available to those that want to use it.

After speaking to teachers, parents, nurses, health industry professionals, social workers and foster carers the response to our idea was positive - they all agreed that better access to quality wool blankets is one small thing that could contribute to better sleep and health outcomes for children. Better health and sleep outcomes means energy can be spent doing kid things - like learning and playing. They also highlighted that there are many other complex issues that our community is facing. We acknowledge that it’s beyond our capacity to solve these issues, we’re just aiming to share a little warmth and joy where we can.

Why blankets? That’s just the first step. Eventually, we’re working towards a sustainable business that can provide other useful wool items for the home and bedroom - perhaps clothing and accessories as well. We hope to offer employment opportunities as the business grows, host workshops and work on other wool education projects. We’re open to learning and evolving our model - maybe we’ll find that buy one, give one doesn’t provide the support we need it to. If you’ve got any ideas, we’re all ears. 

For now, we’re starting with a pilot collection of beautiful, bespoke 100% wool blankets woven in Aotearoa that cover the cost of another designed-for-kids 100% wool blanket that will find a home via community organisations. The process of designing and producing these in New Zealand has taught us a lot, but the work is paying off - we’ll be opening the online store for pre-orders in just a couple of weeks!

Click the button below to hear when blankets are available for pre-order.