MamaLila

Mama­Li­la today wor­ks almost exclu­si­vely with part-time mot­hers, who under­stand the value of baby wearing and are ready to che­er abo­ut-to-be parents on to the­ir new jour­ney. They make the­ir clot­hes with the parents and babi­es in mind. For exam­ple the­ir jac­ket zips move fre­ely wit­ho­ut allowing water thro­ugh, and the coating makes it weat­her­pro­of wit­ho­ut using any har­m­ful sub­s­tan­ces, in order to avo­id harm to the baby.

Some of the­ir pro­duct des­crip­ti­ons also sta­te to have been made in fac­to­ri­es that are GOTS and BSCI cer­ti­fi­ed, which ensu­res no use of toxic mate­ri­als and bet­ter wor­k­pla­ce stan­dar­ds.

Whi­le they have not sta­ted deta­ils of the­ir sup­pli­ers or pro­duc­ti­on loca­ti­ons, some pro­duc­ts are said to be pro­du­ced in Ger­many, and some mate­ri­als also sour­ced from Ger­many which ensu­res decent living wage con­di­ti­ons. Howe­ver the­re isn’t eno­ugh infor­ma­ti­on pro­vi­ded to con­clu­de ove­rall ethi­cal con­di­ti­ons of sour­cing and production.

All the­ir pro­duc­ts are FC (flu­oro­car­bon) and PFOA (per­flu­oro­oc­ta­no­ic acid) free, which means the­ir clot­hes are non-toxic, free of car­ci­no­gens and bet­ter for the liver. The jac­kets are impreg­na­ted (made water­pro­of) using envi­ron­men­tal­ly fri­end­ly ver­si­ons of the conven­ti­onal che­mi­cals. Such as- Bionic-Finish Eco texti­les which are Blu­esign and ZDHC (zero dis­c­har­ge of hazar­do­us che­mi­cals) cer­ti­fi­ed, and are known to be the most strin­gent in the field of texti­le fini­shing agents. They also use polyes­ter rated with a Gold Level Mate­ri­al Heal­th cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on, which means that the che­mi­cals and mate­ri­als used in the pro­duct have been selec­ted to pri­ori­ti­se the pro­tec­ti­on of human heal­th.

Mama­Li­la uses many syn­t­he­tic and semi-syn­t­he­tic mate­ri­als such as polyes­ter, polya­mi­de, polyu­ret­ha­ne, ten­cel, and nylon. The­ir web­si­te sta­tes the use of conven­ti­onal polyes­ter, recy­cled polyes­ter made from PET bot­tles by Sym­pa­tex, which is Blu­esign and BSCI cer­ti­fi­ed, and par­tly recy­cled polyes­ter by Ther­mo­li­te Eco­ma­de, which is cer­ti­fi­ed STAN­DARD 100 by OEKO-TEX, Glo­bal Recy­cled Stan­dard (GRS), and Gold Level Mate­ri­al Heal­th. Sym­pa­tex is also appro­ved by the Sus­ta­ina­ble Appa­rel Coali­ti­on (SAC) using the Higg FEM asse­s­sment tool that measu­res and eva­lu­ates the sus­ta­ina­bi­lity per­for­man­ce of companies. 

The polyes­ter is fini­shed using Bionic Finish Eco, which is desig­ned to mini­mi­se the envi­ron­men­tal impact during the enti­re pro­duc­ti­on pro­cess. They also make use of polyes­ter pad­ding by Ther­mo­re ARIA, which is a syn­t­he­tic alter­na­ti­ve to down. Both Bionic Finish and Ther­mo­re Aria are Blu­esign cer­ti­fi­ed, which con­si­ders the enti­re pro­duc­ti­on cha­in.

Mama­Li­la also uses natu­ral mate­ri­als such as cot­ton and wool. The­ir cot­ton is cer­ti­fi­ed by Orga­nic Con­tent Stan­dard (OCS 100, and the wool is GOTS cer­ti­fi­ed. Almost each pro­duct at Mama­Li­la has a unique mate­ri­ality, which shows the­ir com­mit­ment to ensu­ring as much sus­ta­ina­bi­lity as possi­ble in each garment. 

The com­pany has also been cer­ti­fi­ed as Cli­ma­te Neutral – the­ir spe­ci­alist for sus­ta­ina­ble babywe­aring clot­hing in coope­ra­ti­on with Cli­ma­te­Part­ner col­lec­ted all the rele­vant data for the Cor­po­ra­te Car­bon Foot­print (CCF). Infor­ma­ti­on regar­ding the­ir tra­vel and ener­gy con­sump­ti­on was then used to cal­cu­la­te the amo­unt of cli­ma­te har­m­ful gases pro­du­ced wit­hin a year. They then iden­ti­fi­ed poten­ti­al savin­gs, and addi­ti­onal­ly Mama­Li­la has made com­pen­sa­tory payments to a cli­ma­te pro­tec­ti­on pro­ject.

Mama­Li­la has com­ple­tely abo­li­shed polybags, uses old fabric ban­ners for pac­ka­ging, and reuses the­ir pac­ka­ging due to which they saved abo­ut 317 kilos of plas­tic and 803 kilos of car­d­bo­ard in 2020. The­ir used car­d­bo­ard boxes are given away as moving boxes, and the rema­ining are col­lec­ted to make fil­ling mate­ri­al for the­ir ship­ping. They are una­ble to chan­ge the use of plas­tic film used in the wrap­ped goods deli­ve­red to them on pal­lets, but they them­sel­ves use stret­c­hy tape ins­te­ad which is more envi­ron­men­tal­ly fri­end­ly. They are also orga­ni­sing a cle­an up for the­ir neig­h­bo­ur­ho­od to cle­ar the dit­c­hes aro­und the com­pany of rubbish.

Most of MamaLila’s syn­t­he­tic pro­duc­ts are 100% mono­ma­te­ri­al, which whi­le not ide­al, does ensu­re recy­cla­bi­lity at the end of use, but some of the pro­duc­ts con­ta­in both high per­cen­ta­ges of syn­t­he­tic and natu­ral fibre blen­ds, which makes them hard to sepa­ra­te and recy­cle later. Howe­ver the­re are very few of such pro­duc­ts on MamaLila’s onli­ne sto­re. They also have some pro­duc­ts made com­ple­tely from pro­duc­ti­on lef­to­vers.

The brand doesn’t sta­te the names or loca­ti­ons of the­ir sup­pli­ers, howe­ver some pro­duc­ts are sta­ted to be made in Ger­many and some made in the EU. They also use some fabrics pro­du­ced in Ger­many, all of which con­tri­bu­tes to reduc­ti­on of emi­ssi­ons caused by travel.

Mama­Li­la uses GOTS cer­ti­fi­ed mule­sing free wool, which ensu­res it being orga­nic and ethi­cal­ly sour­ced and pro­du­ced, avo­iding ani­mal cruelty.

This brand uses elastane/​spandex that is a regis­te­red tra­de­mark and has a very spe­ci­fic com­po­si­ti­on of the­se elas­tic che­mi­cal fibres that stret­ch up to eig­ht times its ori­gi­nal size and then return to its ori­gi­nal sha­pe. This mate­ri­al is also not sen­si­ti­ve to swe­at or deodo­rant, and is water repel­lant and win­d­pro­of but also bre­at­ha­ble. The­se fac­tors ensu­re lon­ge­vity of the jac­ket, the elas­ti­city and addi­ti­on of side zips to widen the jac­ket make it good for mater­nity wear as well, so the jac­ket can be used befo­re or after you have your baby.

The desig­ns are time­less to be used in harsh weat­her, so they can be used at any time in the year, des­pi­te hot or cool weat­her. The brand gives care tips for each pro­duct and mate­ri­al to keep them in use for lon­ger. And also sell cle­aning and impreg­na­ti­on pro­duc­ts and pro­vi­de ins­truc­ti­ons on how to use them so the cus­to­mers are empowe­red to keep the pro­duc­ts in use for as long as possi­ble.

Mama­Li­la pro­vi­des a lot of tran­s­pa­ren­cy regar­ding the­ir mate­ri­als and cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­ons and the­ir efforts regar­ding sus­ta­ina­bi­lity. Every pro­duct page sta­tes the mate­ri­als, che­mi­cals used in the pro­duct, and the ove­rall sus­ta­ina­bi­lity, and some even sta­te the loca­ti­on of the pro­duc­ti­on. They also pro­vi­de some tran­s­pa­ren­cy abo­ut the­ir sup­pli­ers thro­ugh storytel­ling, howe­ver deta­iled infor­ma­ti­on abo­ut that is requ­ired for more assu­ran­ce abo­ut the­ir tran­s­port emi­ssi­ons and ethi­cal­ness of the­ir pro­duc­ti­on and sourcing.