We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ally Weiss a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Ally thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Grip Baby was built on the foundation that babies are meant to crawl, but modern surfaces make it hard. After having my first son, I noticed how much he struggled to gain traction on our hardwood floors. He’d get so frustrated trying to move, and it broke my heart. I went looking for a solution and was shocked to find there wasn’t anything out there that directly supported crawling, one of the most important developmental milestones. So I made one!
Before founding Grip Baby, I worked in marketing at companies like Google and Pinterest, where I learned how powerful it is when a product not only works, but also makes people feel seen and solves a real problem. That experience gave me the confidence to trust my instincts, follow the data, and build something that solved a real, everyday problem. I started prototyping onesies with traction built right in, testing, tweaking, and researching the science of early motor development. And that’s how Grip Baby was born: out of equal parts motherhood, curiosity, and the belief that innovation should start where it matters most, at home.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Hi, I’m Ally Weiss, founder of Grip Baby, mom of two, and a lifelong creative obsessed with solving real problems through smart, beautiful design. Before starting Grip Baby, I spent my career in marketing at places like Google and Pinterest. I learned how to tell powerful stories, build communities, and launch products people actually want. But everything shifted when I became a mom.
After my son was born, I found myself navigating all the baby gear, and honestly, I was shocked by how much of it was cute but not actually functional. What I needed didn’t exist: a simple, effective way to help my baby learn to crawl on our slippery floors. Crawling is such an important developmental milestone, it builds coordination, strengthens muscles, and lays the foundation for walking, and yet there wasn’t a single product designed to support it. So I made one.
Grip Baby onesies with built-in traction to help babies gain confidence on slick surfaces like hardwood and tile. It’s designed to support developmental milestones while making parents’ lives easier. No more watching your baby faceplant every time they try to move. Our mission is simple: to support little movers on the go!
What sets us apart is that we’re not just selling clothes, we’re rethinking the babywear category through the lens of function and development. Grip Baby is patent-pending, and we’ve already helped so many families, many of whom tell us their babies started crawling confidently within days of using our product.
What I’m most proud of is that this brand is rooted in empathy. Grip Baby was born in the messy, beautiful, frustrating moments of early motherhood. It’s not just something I made, it’s something I needed. And it’s deeply rewarding to know we’re helping babies thrive while making parents feel seen and supported.
If you’re new to the brand, here’s what I want you to know: We’re here for your baby’s milestones. We’re here to bring ease into a chaotic season. And we’re here to prove that the best innovations often start on the living room floor.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
One of the biggest risks I’ve taken with Grip Baby, and also one of the things I’m most proud of, is that we don’t show babies’ faces in our marketing. In a world where social media is flooded with cute baby content, it would’ve been easy to follow the same path. Instead, I made an intentional choice from day one to protect the privacy of the babies wearing our product.
People told me it was a bad idea. That without showing a baby’s face, we wouldn’t be able to connect emotionally or drive sales. But I believed the opposite: that a great product should speak for itself. That we could create powerful imagery, emotional resonance, and a trusted brand without using kids’ faces as content. It felt like the right call, not just ethically, but strategically.
And it worked. Our ads convert, our community is growing, and we’ve built a brand that people trust. Parents and influencers I work with actually thank us for the way we’ve handled this. It makes them feel safer, and more respected. And I think there’s a bigger message there: when you lead with values and conviction, even if it goes against the norm, your audience will feel it. And they’ll follow.
This choice taught me that integrity is a growth strategy, and that you don’t have to compromise your values to build something successful.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.
We sell primarily on our own website because owning the customer relationship is everything to me. As a founder and a marketer, I know how powerful it is to connect directly with the families who use our product, to hear their feedback, build trust, and create a seamless, personal experience. That level of connection is hard to replicate on third-party platforms like Amazon or Etsy.
That said, we’ve been very intentional about select retail partnerships that align with our brand. We’re featured on Faire and Brixy, two high-end, curated platforms that focus on quality and innovation in the baby space, and we hope to. be carried in premium baby boutiques across the country. These partnerships allow us to reach design-conscious, development-focused parents in environments that match our values and brand aesthetic.
We also offer a wholesale program for retailers who want to carry Grip Baby in their stores. For more information, you can reach out to me directly at [email protected]. I’d love to connect.
The downside of skipping mass platforms like Amazon is that we’re not optimizing for sheer volume but that’s by design. This is a long game. I’d rather build a deeply loyal, connected community than chase short-term numbers at the cost of our values.
At the end of the day, control over your customer experience is priceless, and that’s exactly what we’re building.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.gripbaby.com
- Instagram: @gripbabyofficial
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gripbaby
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allyweiss/
- Other: TikTok @gripbaby
Image Credits
Photos by Womankind Creative http://womankindcreative.com