How to Sustainably Hand Down (& Hand Up) Kids Clothes | Business with Purpose Podcast EP 283: Kara Livingston & Nicole Boynton, Hand Me Up

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My guests this week are Kara Livingston and Nicole Boynton, founders of Hand Me Up, which sells pre-loved capsule clothes for kids. 

From high school friends going through each other’s closets for outfits to wear to the next party to mom life friends going through their kids’ closets to keep their growing kids clothed, they have been friends through many ages and stages of life, navigating high school, college, married life and now motherhood. 

They started blogging, podcasting and making planners as the duo Simply Whole Moms. They talked to a lot of mothers, and one thing they discovered is the power of moms to completely change the world. 

3:30 – Kara 101

• Her favorite thing is being a mom to her kids, 6 and 5.  
• She started Hand Me Up with her best friend.
• After working in corporate America, she decided she didn’t want to do that job anymore. She wanted to be a stay-at-home mom but also do some kind of work.

7:03 – Nicole 101

• She and Kara met I high school and have been friends for 20 years. She is married to her high school sweetheart, and they have two girls, 6 and 8. 
• She decided to be a stay-at-home mom, and Kara urged her to blog about ethical fashion. 

9:56 – Hand Me Up

• They send out a capsule bag of kids’ clothes that have been worn before. If the parent sends back some of their kids’ clothes, they’ll get $10 off their next bag. 

11:01 – The idea

• Their original concept was doing something similar to the company Stitch Fix. 
• They take clothes that aren’t up to par and turn them into dolls, headbands, etc. and they donate some clothes. 

12:27 – Logistics

• They talked to a lot of moms, especially those who were entrepreneurial, to get feedback about their idea.
• Moms gave them free clothes to help start their business. 
• The clothes come in, and they sort them. They also donate to teen moms. 

15:38 – What they learned

• They learned that people weren’t ordering clothes for young babies. First-time moms with young kids are pickier about what clothes their babies wear, and they also are gifted a lot of clothes. 

29:20 – The sustainable journey

• Start small when trying to create a sustainable lifestyle. Try starting with kids clothes.

33:54 – Difficult to change

• Kara’s hardest habit to change is shopping at Target. 
• Nicole struggles to buy her kids’ clothes second hand, even though that’s what she does for a business. She also loves shopping at Target. 

47:08 – Get to know you

• Favorite kids’ clothing brands? Hanna Andersson
• Example of true generosity? Emotional generosity is nice when someone will sit with you.

FEATURED QUOTES

Moms are so generous. Moms are just awesome. They just give us their clothes. – Kara

There are so many big, big things happening. – Nicole

I am in the phase where I am mostly just consuming second-hand clothes and bags. – Kara

I think people really have a desire to give their stuff somewhere intentional. I think people are starting to realize that dropping it at Goodwill is not that. – Kara

CONNECT WITH HAND ME UP:

• https://handmeupshop.com/

About Kara & Nicole: 

From high school friends going through each other’s closets for outfits to wear to the next party to mom life friends going through their kids’ closets to keep their growing kids clothed. We’ve been friends through many ages and stages of life, navigating high school, college, married life and now motherhood.

We started blogging, podcasting and making planners as the duo Simply Whole Moms. We talked to a lot of mothers, and one thing we discovered is the power of moms to completely change the world. Somewhere along the journey this idea hit us, and we knew we could make an impact.

Thank you to our partner of the show!

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