We recently connected with Natasha Pryngler and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Natasha, thanks for joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Kiboo Kids is a toy brand that diverges from the traditional toy industry in several ways. Our brand’s values are centered around diversity and representation, reuse and consume less, and ethically made by skilled hands. These values set us apart from the industry standard and are reflected in our products.

Our first collection features dolls with drawings of children from different ethnicities and origins. They all come in a printed white cotton canvas for children to color, which also opens up the possibility of choosing different skin tones. We believe it’s essential to represent the diversity of our children and showcase the rich universe that comes from being part of a multicultural community. It can help children feel seen, heard, and valued, promoting positive self-esteem and inclusivity.

Another way we diverge from the industry standard is by promoting the reusability of our products as a way to entice creativity, develop fine motor skills – as kids get better at coloring within the lines and coming up with different patterns over time – and also consume less. The traditional toy industry offers too much plastic and too little opportunity to play and transform each new toy. We want to change that by offering toys that are engaging and allow children to freely transform and wonder about, reuse and recreate.

Finally, we promote ethically made products by skilled hands. Since our goal is to promote joy through our products, we make sure that the persons who help us make them are paid fairly and treated kindly. Our goal is to promote joy through our products and that starts from the beginning. Most of our products are handmade with love by talented artisans who are skilled in following our drawings and shaping them into cuteness. This promotes fair labor practices, respect for human rights, and an appreciation for craftsmanship.

At Kiboo Kids, our mission is to inspire children’s creativity and engage them in unplugged manual activities and imaginative play – away from the screens. Our products are original, multiuse, and educational, and we work with education and child-development professionals to develop them. These products promote fine motor skills development, stimulate focus and creativity, and promote space for hours of creative activity and imaginative play. A child’s attachment to our dolls can also support them throughout the many first experiences and childhood transitions.

I guess, in conclusion, what set us apart is the thought that we gave to all aspects of bringing another toy to a world that feels saturated, but very scarce on meaningful, good quality products for children, and the responsibility of making them for all children, on bringing something that can be transformed and last, and making sure it creates joy from start to finish :)

Natasha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve been a lot of things in this life, so it just came to me that creating something that has transformation at its root might have been the epitome of that :) I’m Brazilian. I was a lawyer for most of my adult life, worked in big law firms, had my own firm, transitioned between practices, got a masters in law and economics, another in business, and got burnt out. My wife had a job offer to move to New York and I said let’s go. We came in 2018. I didn’t know what to do but was very interested in technology, innovation and had lots of business ideas, but did not know how to build things so I did a software engineering bootcamp. It was great to learn the nuts and bolts, but writing code was not for me. I then thought, I love reading and writing, so maybe I could do something more creative. I took a few courses on screenwriting, science fiction, creative writing, became a volunteer at the New York Public Library. And then came the pandemic.
It was surreal to have lived that in New York City – the city emptied out, awfully quiet, but for the sirens. And away from my family and friends in Brazil. Nightmare. As soon as I could I started volunteering delivering meals to seniors, working at food pantries. I was also daily in touch with my nieces in Brazil and my sister, that is a child psychologist, and started sharing with me on some psychology and education material, like the Montessori methodology, Rudolph Steiner, and current authors on neuropsychology – all pointing to the importance of wonder and play, as well as the sensorial stimulation – which kids certainly did not get with screens.
When I got in touch with my friend and now co-creator, founder, reason our products look so cute and unique, Deborah Tavares, she was just closing her business in Brazil because of the financial hardships the pandemic brought there. Deborah is the most talented illustrator I know and we always thought about creating something together. Seemed like the time has come.
We started iterating on product ideas, materials, and our values and came up with the first designs. As soon as New York City started to reopen, June 2021, I went to a street market near where I live called the Grand Bazaar, and started selling our products and gathering feedback. We started selling wholesale in 2022, mostly focused on specialty stores, and in a blink of an eye it’s been 2 years and we got many pictures of children coloring them, showing off their creations and even taking them to bed, a car ride, everywhere!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Trade shows have been the best source for us. Specially the general gift shows, much more than the toy ones. I believe that people shopping at gift shows are looking for new products and ideas, as curating is at the core of their business.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

When we are developing the concept and product I read the book from Blake Mycoskie, the founder of Toms shoes called “Start Something that Matters”. I think it profoundly made me believe in the importance of bringing good quality products to the world, while having a strong ethos and always finding ways to give back. We are small and not great at marketing these initiatives (or great at marketing at all – looking for help on that ;)) but we are always sending dolls to teachers/students in disadvantaged communities in Brazil and we recently sent dolls to a teacher and her students in Ukraine.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kibookids.com
• Instagram: @kibookidstoys
• Facebook: @kibookidstoys