Mom’s Choice Awards is excited to announce another post in our interview series where we chat with the inventors, designers, publishers, and others behind some of our favorite family-friendly products.

Hello, Mom’s Choice readers! Thank you for joining us for another honoree interview – we hope this finds you well! For this interview, we were honored to get the chance to speak with Kathleen Alley, MCA award-winning creator of The Babagoose Baby Throw! The Babagoose Baby Throw has a patented pocket on the reverse side for keeping a teether, pacifier, small kleenex, etc; the Babagoose Baby Throw is smaller in size, which was designed specifically for strollers. A small soft tie is attached within the pocket, and attaches to a pacifier with a small velcro tab. That quieting stroll around the block is easier than ever with the Babagoose Baby Throw. Keep reading to find out more about Kathleen and her award-winning product, the Babagoose Baby Throw!

MCA: Hi Kathleen! Thank you so much for catching up with us today to tell us more about your amazing, award-winning product, The Babagoose Baby Throw. The Babagoose Baby Throw is such a wonderful product that is an absolute must-have for every new parent. Tell us more about The Babagoose Baby Throw and how it came to be!

Newborn loving the warmth of a Babagoose blanket.

Kathleen: I will be brief here. I studied fashion design, a lifetime ago, at Stephens’ College. I simply enjoyed creating items, be it clothing, scarves, ties, or handbags. When I had young children I put the needles and thread away for 25 years. There were too many other things that required my time and energy. But, I always knew I would devise a small stoller-sized baby blanket with a pocket(s). It would be so much easier to get a baby out the door in the stroller if everything needed was already in the stroller! HENCE, the seed of the design behind the Babagoose Baby Throw.

I was 55 years old when another stormy chapter of life hit, and my husband passed away from a long-term illness. I had to keep my mind occupied and started creating the pattern and ideas for the Babagoose Baby Throw. There was not one baby blanket on the market at that time with a pocket for holding a pacifier/teethers/kleenex/small cell phone. This was 1995. I tried to use my own name, Kathleen Alley, as the Trademark, but it had been taken. So I kept seeking a name…everything was already trademarked. I am a watercolor artist and I took a break to look at my doodles of my dog, Goose. What does a baby say? bababababa. BA were also the initials of my late husband. So, I put it all together to get Babagoose. I filed the trademark and the patent for the design and then waited for YEARS to get approval for the Trademark and the Patent No. I did not want to take my product and have it manufactured before actually having the Patent finalized. Nearly 6 years passed.

People who have either purchased or received the blanket love, love, love it! The size is great for newborns up to a year for the strollers…it does not drag on the ground! Many women do like the pocket, which is sized for a small pack of tissues. These new moms keep the tissues in the pocket of the blanket. They also love having the pacifier handy, with an attached soft tie within the pocket.

Babagoose is a small company, manufacturing a stroller size blanket. That’s it. In the future, stroller blankets made from natural wool/cotton blends are a possibility.

MCA: Thank you for sharing that with us, we have no doubt that your small company is destined for big things! 

Kathleen: Thank you for taking the time to ask me about my company. It is small, it is my third ACT in life. But it brings to full circle what I started at age 17, at a women’s college I loved. It was Stephens’ College that gave me a scholarship allowing me to get a start on a college degree. Had I not attended Stephens for that first year, I would never have had the courage to finish college at all. It was also at Stephens where I had my first employment, which also set me up for future employment.

MCA: The third act is always the best act! Thank you again for giving us an update on your amazing company, we hope to hear from you again very soon!

You can learn more about Kathleen Alley and her award-winning product, The Babagoose Baby Throw by visiting her MCA Shop pages.