Every brand has an origin story. Ours just happens to involve lots of poop, very little sleep, and several “what are we doing?” moments.

We’re sharing this story because Esembly didn’t come from a trend forecast or a perfectly timed business plan. It came from real life – from the chaos of early parenthood, from exhaustion, from necessity, and from a growing conviction that there had to be a better way to do this diaper thing.

What started as a neighborhood cloth diaper service for a handful of families became something much bigger than we ever planned. Not because we had it all figured out, but because we kept showing up, learning, pivoting, and saying yes — even when the timing couldn’t have been worse.

This is the story of how Esembly was built in the margins of real life. And why it’s always been about more than just diapers.

Sarah and Liz (two of our three co-founders) are working together at an ad agency called Wieden + Kennedy in NYC. Sarah has toddler twins, Liz is expecting her first baby, and together they’re doing what many creative women do: working impossible hours, trying to maintain their sanity, and occasionally remembering to eat.

Fresh off potty training her twins, Sarah has an objectively wild thought: “You know what I need more of in my life? Diapers.”

She writes a business plan for a cloth diaper service.

Sarah gets the wheels turning on her diaper service – Diaperkind – and quickly realizes that running a demanding ad job, raising two three-year-olds, and launching a company might be… ambitious. So she asks Liz to partner with her. Liz, in a postpartum haze, says “sure!” without fully knowing what she’s agreeing to.

Soon, Sarah, Liz, and their very supportive husbands are delivering clean cloth diapers around NYC to a small (but growing!) group of families. The demand rapidly outpaces their original spreadsheets.

When Liz’s maternity leave ends, it becomes clear they need backup. Sarah recruits her friend Marta (enter our third co-founder!) by luring her with cold beer, pizza, and the promise of days spent washing dirty diapers in a basement. Somehow, Marta agrees.

The three of them spend the next decade doing exactly that – washing diapers, eating pizza, wrangling babies and drinking the occasional beer.

Diaperkind is awarded Best Diaper Handlers in New York Magazine’s BEST OF NYC issue.

Sarah, Marta, and Liz finally quit their other jobs. 🎉

With the service thriving, the trio begins asking a bigger question: How do we help even more families ditch disposables?

They see firsthand how many diapers just a few hundred babies produce (spoiler: a lot) and how simple washing and reusing them can be.

They explore franchising the service vs. building a product line. Liz befriends the founder of the Ubbi Diaper Pail, who plants a different seed: Why not design your own system?

Suddenly there are sketches in old notebooks, rash balm prototypes mixed in KitchenAids, and long-neglected sewing machines resurrected to make early diaper samples.

Life does what life does.

Liz has another baby (yay! new tester!).

They get evicted from their Diaperkind space and have to move (boo!). 

Work on Esembly continues when they can squeeze it in. You know, in the shower, on bleachers during swim lessons, during baby naps, and at midnight during nursing sessions.

Prototypes for diapers, wet bags, and skincare products move forward. Diaperkind families become the first official testers.

So. Much. Testing.

Tweaks are made, factories get locked in, and everything begins to click — except detergent. Nothing on the market cleans diapers as well as the detergent system Diaperkind already uses.

So they call the chemist who originally developed it and present him with a wish list that makes him want to run for the hills (a powder that can be used in home machines that's powerful enough to clean the most disgusting laundry imaginable, extra gentle on baby skin, free of all the nasty junk that's bad for the planet, etc). Happily, he accepts the challenge and a year or so later they have it! The detergent that would become Esembly Washing Powder.

The products are ready. The money… not even close.

So they turn to the people who have been alongside them this whole time – the Diaperkind families. Several hundred invest and officially become partners in Esembly.

It’s one of the first signs that community will always be at the heart of this brand.

January - Esemblybaby.com goes live. Somewhere, a screenshot of the very first order still exists.

March - Covid. New York shuts down. Suddenly Liz, Sarah, and Marta are in their apartments, home-schooling kids, launching a startup, and running an “essential business” during a global crisis. No pressure.

April - Esembly is featured in Forbes, Today, and included in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas list. Orders surge. The three work around the clock to keep products in stock, supply chains moving, and everyone sane.

Summer - The first print collaboration launches with friends at Winter Water Factory.

It becomes the first of many collabs to follow (Reyna Noriega, Oliver Jeffers, Amanda Jane Jones, Mimochai, Phoebe Wahl, Black Pepper Paperie, Sara Boccacini Meadows, Flora Waycott, and more!).

Year’s End - The team gets a call from Target, inviting them into the Baby Accelerator program. Equal parts thrilled and terrified, Liz says yes. For the next six months they prep for a Target launch… while still parenting through remote school and navigating the pandemic.

At this point they realize they can’t run two businesses anymore. With love (and more than a few tears), they pass Diaperkind on to one of its customers, ending a decade of washing diapers for their NYC neighbors.

It’s a little unbelievable what can grow out of stolen moments – a business built during nap times, nursing sessions, shower thoughts, and late nights when everyone else is asleep.

Esembly exists because of community:
The families who trusted us with their babies (and building keys!),
The friends who showed up when we needed help,
The partners who took a chance,
And the babies who were our first product testers.

We didn’t set out to build a “brand.” We set out to solve a problem we were living every single day. To make something better, simpler, and more thoughtful for families — and for the planet those families are raising their kids on.

Esembly is still evolving, just like we all are. But at its core, it remains what it’s always been: real women, doing the work, learning as we go, and believing that small changes – made consistently – can add up to something truly meaningful.

Thanks for being part of this story. We’re so glad you’re here. 💛