Tired of the Baby Carrier Status Quo, Two Moms Built hope&plum to Do It Better

Flor Lark Kid Carrier. Photo via hope&plum website.

hope&plum began in 2018 with two new moms who were tired of feeling frustrated by the baby carrier industry. Co-founders and best friends Mallory Mascoli and Skye Amundsen saw limited sizing, confusing guidance, and bulky designs that did not work for many real families. Instead of accepting it, they built the company they wished had existed.

Today, hope&plum is known for thoughtfully designed carriers like the Lark Baby Carrier, created to distribute weight comfortably without unnecessary bulk and to truly fit a wide range of body types. Every purchase includes unlimited free fit checks, reinforcing their belief that parents deserve real support, not just a product.

Manufactured locally in Minnesota with a focus on natural fibers and responsible production, hope&plum reflects the founders’ lived experience as mothers who understand how much it matters to have something that simply works.

Check out the interview below. 

What inspired you to start hope&plum and focus on baby carriers that feel both safe and comfortable?

Hope&plum: Frustration, honestly. The baby carrier space was toxic. Engineered sellouts, secondhand carriers reselling for more than retail, very few plus-size options, and carriers that required weeks of "breaking in" before you could comfortably use them with your baby. 

My co-founder and best friend, Mallory Mascoli, and I were both new moms deep in the babywearing community, and we kept running into the same wall. So in 2018, we decided to build the company we actually wanted to exist. We're both mothers. We knew what parents needed; we just had to make it.

When parents shop for a carrier, what are the most common challenges or questions they face?

Hope&plum: Overwhelm is the biggest one. There are so many options, and much of the information out there is confusing, contradictory, or driven by brand marketing rather than genuine guidance. Parents also struggle with fit. Carriers that work beautifully on one body type feel completely wrong on another, and most brands don't acknowledge that. 

We offer a carrier quiz on our site to help match people to the right style, and every purchase includes unlimited free fit checks, including if you bought your carrier secondhand. We want every family to feel supported, not just sold to and then left to figure it out on their own.

You make all your carriers in the U.S. Why was that an important choice for your brand?

Hope&plum: We manufacture within 15 minutes of our current Minnesota warehouse (soon to be 2 minutes once we move!), and we know the people making our carriers by name. That's not a marketing line, it's just how we operate. Local manufacturing also allows us to oversee the process in real time. If something needs to be fixed, we fix it; it doesn't get thrown away, and it doesn't get worse. 

With overseas production, a quality issue can repeat itself across thousands of units before you even see the product. We catch problems early because we're close enough to catch them. And frankly, we want to support our local community. The people sewing our carriers are our neighbors and that matters to us. Could we have deeper margins by going overseas? Sure. But that's not why we started this company.

The Lark Baby Carrier has gained a loyal following. What makes its design special compared to other carriers?

Hope&plum: The Lark was built around a simple idea: distribute weight across the upper back and shoulders rather than concentrating it, without using a bulky waistband. These concepts were inspired by traditional carriers like wraps and meh dais, which prove that support doesn't have to be over-engineered. The apron-style design keeps things lightweight and intuitive. Customers tell us all the time it's the most comfortable carrier they've ever used, including people who've been babywearing for years. 

We also obsessed over size inclusivity from the start. The Lark comes in two lengths and fits a genuinely wide range of body types. That's not an accident, it's part of our passion and ethos. Plus, we have pretty amazing fabrics and designs! We try to keep it fun because being comfortable and wearing a pattern you love makes babywearing even more enjoyable.

How do you guide parents on proper baby positioning without making it feel overwhelming?

Hope&plum: We keep it simple and human. Every purchase includes access to our free fit check service. No limit, no judgment, and yes, it applies even if you bought your carrier from a stranger on Facebook Marketplace! We also have video tutorials, a blog, and a team that actually responds. 

One of the things customers say most often is that they reached out with a question and heard back almost immediately. That matters. A new parent at 2 am trying to figure out if their baby is positioned correctly shouldn't have to wait three days for an answer.

Every carrier comes with a free consultation. How does that one-on-one support make a difference for families?

Hope&plum: It changes everything. We hear from parents constantly who say they'd nearly given up on babywearing before their fit check. The carrier felt wrong, the baby seemed uncomfortable, and they assumed it just wasn't for them. Then they got on a call with someone who actually looked at what was happening and guided them to make a few small adjustments, and suddenly it clicked. 

One customer told us her baby went from fussy and unsettled to calm and asleep within a minute of getting the fit right. That's not just a product story, that's a relationship. We take that seriously.

Sustainability is part of your mission. What does that look like in the materials you choose and how you make your products?

Hope&plum: We prioritize natural fibers. They breathe better, feel better against a baby's skin, and hold up longer than synthetic alternatives. We also pay attention to the fabric standards we source, working toward certifications that verify safety and environmental responsibility throughout the supply chain. Beyond materials, local manufacturing itself is a form of sustainability. 

Shorter supply chains, less waste, and a production process we can actually see and control. We also don't use single-use plastics in our packaging and work hard to recycle as much as we can (even our pallet wrap gets saved and donated to an organization that turns certain plastics into benches). There's always more to do, and we're honest about that.

Your carriers are both functional and stylish. How do you find the right balance between comfort and design?

Hope&plum: We don't consider the two as competing ideas, but rather friends that work well together.  A carrier that looks incredible but doesn't fit well gets returned, while a carrier that fits perfectly but looks boring gets left in the closet. We started hope&plum partly because we were tired of baby gear that assumed parents had to choose between the two. 

Our prints are bold, our colorways are curated, and we work with artists and designers who bring real creativity to the fabrics. The function has to come first: safety, fit, support, but once that foundation is solid, there's no reason the carrier can't also make you stop and stare.

Have you heard stories from parents about how babywearing has changed their daily lives or confidence?

Hope&plum: All the time, and they never get old! We hear from parents who say babywearing helped them bond with their baby after a difficult birth, or that it got them through the fourth trimester when nothing else was working. We hear from plus-size parents who say ours was the first carrier that actually fit their bodies and let them babywear the way they'd always wanted to. 

We hear from new moms who say they saw us on TikTok, reached out with a question, heard back immediately, and ordered within the hour, because being actually heard by a brand was so unexpected that it won their loyalty on the spot. Those messages are why we do this.

How has your own experience as a parent shaped the way you run hope&plum?

Hope&plum: Completely. Mallory is a babywearing educator and mother of three. She has carried babies through grocery store meltdowns, toddler tantrums while on vacation, and more diaper changes than either of us wants to count. I came to babywearing after a traumatic birth, and it became how I bonded with my daughter when other things felt hard. We're not building products in a boardroom. 

We're building them as mothers who know what it feels like to be exhausted and desperate for something that just works. That passion and ethos have helped us connect and build more than just a brand; we now have a community, and it is incredible to see.

Are there common myths about babywearing that you want to clear up?

Hope&plum: The biggest one is that babywearing is complicated. It has a learning curve, like any new skill, but it's not inaccessible, especially with good support. That's part of why we offer unlimited fit checks. We also push back on the idea that "passes safety testing" is a meaningful differentiator. 

All carriers sold in the U.S. must meet the same safety standards. Brands that lead with that claim are doing marketing, not education. Real babywearing safety is about positioning, fit, and knowing what to look for, and that's what we focus on. The other myth we fight constantly is that bulky equals better. 

Parents see a carrier loaded with padding and structure and assume it must be more supportive. In reality, all that bulk often leads to overstimulation and discomfort, for the wearer and the baby, and parents end up giving up entirely, convinced babywearing just isn't for them. Lightweight doesn't mean unsupportive.

Beyond carriers, how do you hope hope&plum can continue supporting families as they grow?

Hope&plum: We want to be the brand families trust throughout their whole babywearing journey. From the first days home with a newborn, all the way to a preschooler on your back. Our product line already spans from newborn to 65 pounds, so the infrastructure is in place. But beyond products, we want to keep investing in community: the lending programs that put carriers in the hands of families who can't afford to buy first, the birth workers and educators who reach families we never could on our own, and the content that helps parents feel informed instead of overwhelmed. 

hope&plum started because two women got fed up and decided to do something about it. And we're determined to prove that ethics and growth can coexist; that you don't have to choose between doing right by your workers, your customers, and your bottom line. It took us five years to truly take off. We didn't wake up overnight as a success story. We built it slowly, made hard decisions, kept our values intact, and kept going. That's the part nobody talks about enough.