A local dad made a sleeping bag to take his baby camping. Now it’s on REI shelves
Tavis Malcolm likes camping.
But taking his son Morrison on his first trip after he was born in 2018 was a bit of a struggle.
“I looked and couldn’t really find a sleeping bag designed for babies that was going to be warm,” said Malclom, who grew up in Lakebay, lives in Olalla and was an Eagle Scout with Key Peninsula Troop 220.
Putting Morrision in lots of layers didn’t work.
“It just wasn’t quite right,” Malcolm said. “It was bulky, and he wasn’t very comfortable.”
So the new father took his sewing machine and some down blankets and got to work.
What he came up with was lighter and warmer.
“We really liked it,” he said. “It just sort of got me thinking.”
He figured other parents might be looking for something similar and ended up founding Morrison Outdoors.
Malcolm left his digital marketing job to pursue the company full-time, fine-tuned the design and got a manufacturer.
A 2019 Kickstarter fundraiser for the project raised $16,000 online.
Then, on a whim, Malcolm reached out to an REI buyer on LinkedIn, hoping to get on their radar.
“To my surprise, the kids buyer wrote me back and said: ‘I actually saw your Kickstarter and I think it’s pretty cool. Why don’t you fly up to Seattle and we’ll talk about it.’”
They ended up doing an order for 1,200 bags.
“Right away I had to triple our production,” Malcolm said. “... It’s been kind of a crazy ride.”
He said the company has sold about 12,000 to 15,000 bags on its website, at REI, on Amazon and on backcountry.com, and he sees selling another 12,000 to 15,000 this year. He’s also hoping to hire a couple people this year.
So far, the company has a sleeping bag for babies 6 months to 24 months, the “Little Mo,” and a larger one, the “Big Mo,” for kids ages 2 to 4.
They look like regular sleeping bags, but with arms. They have sleeves on them with openings that let kids have their hands free, and the zipper opens from the bottom to make diaper changes easier.
“One of the things that parents really like about it is that it really stays on them while they sleep,” Malcolm said.
Morrison, who is almost 4 now, outgrows his soon.
“I think we’re going to do one more size up, for 4 to 6 year olds, which is where kids bags sort of traditionally start,” Malcolm said.
Asked about safety, Malcolm said his wife is a pediatric nurse who has experience with safe-sleep guidelines, and he also consulted with pediatricians and a third-party safety team to look for potential trouble with the design.
He’d initially hoped to make sleeping bags for kids as young as 3 months, but they decided 6 months was safer. At that age babies can hold their heads up and rollover, he said, and have better control of their arms.
The pandemic proved an interesting time for a new outdoors company.
Product sales dropped dramatically at the start of the pandemic, Malcolm said, “but as 2020 went on, camping sort of emerged as one of the few things we knew was safe to do and got more and more popular than it’s ever been.”
The company gives 1 percent of net sales to charity, such as a program that gives winter coats to kids who need them. It also has a buy-back program and sells used bags at a discount.
Supply chain disruptions and shipping delays affected Morrison Outdoors, like other companies this past year, but Malcolm said he hopes to be fully stocked for the summer.
The bag won GearJunkie’s Best in Show Award at the Outdoor Retailer Snow Show 2020. It was also a finalist in the Outdoor Retailer Innovation Awards.
Malcolm was recently named one of “Forbes Next 1000” in 2021.
“This year-round initiative showcases the ambitious sole proprietors, self-funded shops and pre-revenue startups in every region of the country — all with under $10 million in revenue or funding and infinite drive and hustle,” the Forbes website says.
What does Morrison think about the sleeping bag created in his honor?
He and younger sister Leona, almost 2, like to grab theirs from the closet at home to play in the living room.
“It’s so funny,” their dad said. “They’ve had them their whole lives.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
