There is an eco-friendly manufacturing movement going on in our backyard, and one of the women leading the charge is Jennifer Porter.
Seattle’s Satsuma Designs was born after Jennifer became a mom and wanted to find more flexibility in her work. She found flexibility and a new business with a move from client-based work to product-based work — namely, baby products.
Satsuma Designs launched in 2008 with baby blankets in an effort to source greener, more organic materials for kids. As the business grew, it moved from blankets to include hats and booties. As Jennifer grew as a parent, she wanted to create products that would be useful, practical and make those never-ending parenting tasks more manageable.
“Parenting is amazing but also exhausting and hard, so I just want to make it just a little bit easier,” she says.
Smocks that your toddler can put on by himself, booties with attached leggings and pacifier clip sets are just a small selection of the goodies offered by Satsuma Designs. Each strives to be practical, sustainable and affordable. And the collection is 100 percent designed and made in Seattle.
In addition to designing and making baby products, Jennifer is also behind an initiative to help end hunger in the Northwest. A portion of every sale goes to food banks in Washington state. She started fooddrivingbox.org to help parents and kids get inspired to give back to the community.
Not only can you shop for great gifts for yourself or your family and friends, you can feel really good about it.
In 2016 Jennifer Porter opened a store in the Seattle Wedgewood neighborhood – Satsuma – offering clothing and accessories from Satsuma Designs as well as artistic and sustainable toys, children's classes and birthday parties