Welcome to our Coterie.

We engineer cleaner, higher-performing more sustainable diapering solutions. We take a stage-based approach—instead of arbitrary weights and ages, we design our products for important developmental milestones.

Coterie founder Frank Yu didn’t think much about diapers until he went to a baby shower halfway around the world and happened upon a brand of Japanese diapers that were so soft and luxurious that he mistook them for cashmere. He went down the rabbit hole of diapers and quickly found that the vast majority of diapers on the market haven’t changed since 1985. In fact, 80% of the US diaper market is dominated by two brands, which means that there hasn’t been any drive to innovate beyond aesthetics.

More than a diaper

Coterie isn’t about how Frank became an accidental diaper engineer (though if anyone wants to talk wicking, he’s here for that). It’s about the idea that parents and babies deserve products that are just as innovative, high-performing, and good-looking as the things we use in other areas of our lives. That’s why our small but mighty team obsesses over every detail of our diapers and wipes — the materials, the functionality, the design — to ensure that they work better, feel better, and look better than anything else on the market.

And at the end of the day, we make diapers. But if we can make diapering just a little bit easier — delightful, even? — how amazing would that be? Almost as amazing and funny as parenting itself.

Our Commitment to Sustainability

Many of us are parents, and preserving the planet for our children’s future is one of our top priorities, along with our babies’ immediate health and comfort.

Quality diapering products play a big role in those things. So throughout design and production of ours, we make highly considered choices to reduce our environmental impact and move toward earth-friendlier disposable diapering without compromising on superior performance and the safest materials.

With today’s technology, all disposable diapers (no matter the brand) need some synthetic components to function—otherwise moisture would seep through and they’d fall apart during use. No disposable diaper is 100% biodegradable or organic yet, and even reusable diapers require energy and water to produce and wash. The only completely natural, zero-impact choice would be no diaper at all, but as you can imagine, that could get messy.

There’s a lot of greenwashing going on in the industry, but we’ll always be transparent about our processes and materials.

Back in June 2019, we partnered with Diaper Recycling Technology® to bring the first diaper recycling plant to America. Due to the current international landscape, and uncertain timeline to achieve that goal, we’re ending this particular project. To ensure our sustainability initiatives are, in fact, sustainable for our business, we’re refocusing our efforts and funds into sustainable materials R&D—our ultimate dream being to crack the code on fully biodegradable or recyclable disposable diapers, and share our findings with the world.

You’ll likely still see mention of the Diaper Recycling Technology® initiative on our product packaging for the next few months. Throwing out those already produced and printed packs would create unnecessary waste, which brings us to our next point…

We reduce packaging waste wherever possible. Our shipper boxes are fully recyclable, packed efficiently, and we never use packing peanuts or plastic insulation (our diapers are plenty soft as is).

We carbon offset every order. That means for the amount of carbon dioxide emitted through our production process, we participate in programs that make equivalent reductions of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; from blueprint to finished product, we don’t create excess greenhouse gas emissions.

Our diapers are made with 25% plant-based materials from sustainably managed forests. There are brands that use higher percentages of plant-based materials in their diapers, but they don’t hold up as well against wetness—our top priority is keeping your baby dry and free of diaper rash or irritation.

Our wood pulp is TCF (Totally Chlorine Free) and there’s no fragrance, lotion, latex, rubber, dyes, alcohol, heavy metals, parabens, phthalates, chlorine bleaching, VOCs, optical brighteners, or animal testing.

Our wipes are constructed of 100% plant-based VEOCEL™ Lyocell (cellulosic fibers from renewable wood sources produced in a closed loop system), with a solution of 99% Water and 1% Vitamin E + Glycerin + gentle preservatives to ensure safety—no plastics, fragrance, latex, rubber, dyes, heavy metals, parabens, phthalates, chlorine bleaching, or animal testing.

They’re EWG Verified, have received the National Eczema Association’s Seal of Acceptance™, and are certified Home Compostable by TÜV Austria to be fully composted in less than 5 weeks (that’s faster than an apple core),

These measures are baby steps toward a future of fully sustainable diapering, but baby steps still get babies where they need to go (even if there’s some wobbling along the way). We’re excited for what’s to come, and will keep you updated with new developments as we build out our sustainability roadmap.