Kudos diapers feature a 100% cotton liner that appeals to parents seeking natural product solutions. Why it matters: The U.S. baby diapers market totaled an estimated $7.97 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a 2.42% compound annual growth rate through 2029, according to Statista research. Finding eco-friendly diapers has become increasingly important for millennial parents in recent years, prompting several product innovations from both startups and national brands.
Kudos, the 2021-launched DTC subscription brand, features a 100% cotton lining—a key differentiating factor that appeals to parents seeking natural product solutions and also helped it land on Target’s shelves. Choosing the right diapers can be one of the most difficult decisions for parents of newborns and infants. Parents not only consider the baby’s comfort and health, but also the performance of the diaper and its environmental impact.
In fact, finding eco-friendly diapers has become increasingly important for parents in recent years, prompting several product innovations from both startups and national brands. Among those brands is Kudos, founded by Amrita Saigal, a former Procter & Gamble Engineer and graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She created Kudos diapers as a product that seeks to both minimize the environmental impact of diapers and provide a more natural alternative for parents, touting its 100% cotton liner as its signature, differentiating feature in the category.
The brand, which has also expanded into a line of wipes, received a big boost from a 2023 appearance on Shark Tank, where it earned investments from both Guest Shark Gwyneth Paltrow and Shark Mark Cuban. Since then, it has raised another $3 million from a group of venture capital funds. It also gained another big boost from retailer Target, which rolled the brand out last year to 375 stores nationwide and made it available on its website.
Kudos gains insights from DTC launch. Launching as a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand helped Kudos gather a lot of feedback from users of the product, said Moira Finicane, Head of Marketing at Kudos and one of its first employees. The company established a panel of consumer advisors early on, and Kudos consulted them on a range of topics related to their diaper purchases, from packaging to preferred brands and retail shopping habits.
“Consumers were most concerned about the parts of the diaper that came in contact with the baby’s skin,” she said. Kudos’ main target audience, millennial mothers, have increasingly sought out products that are deemed better for their health and better for the environment. The brand is “hyper-focused” on that mission when it comes to what's touching baby skin, Finicane said. “That’s what led to the 100% cotton lining.”
Another key finding has been that these core consumers tend to conduct extensive research before making a purchase. That led the company to take what she described as an “educational approach” to marketing the brand, with a focus on content that explains the benefits and an effort to present that content across the right platforms. That included extensive collaboration with the eco-friendly mom community on Instagram.
Differentiating in the $7.97 billion U.S. baby diaper market. The total U.S. baby diapers market is expected to total $7.97 billion in 2024, and is projected to grow at a 2.42% compound annual growth rate through 2029, according to Statista research. Kimberly-Clark, the parent of the Huggies Diaper brand, and Procter & Gamble, which owns Pampers, together account for about 75% of diaper sales in the United States. Private labels account for another 16% to 18%, and other brands, including Kudos, Dyper, and Hello Bello, account for just 3% to 4% but are growing their share of a sluggish diaper market overall amid relatively low birth rates.
But there’s a category bright spot. “The United States is experiencing a growing trend in eco-friendly baby diaper options, driven by increasing consumer demand for sustainable products,” the Statista report concluded. In addition, the pandemic heightened parents’ concerns around their babies’ health and increased their demand for transparency.
After a few years of growing the business and refining its brand through direct-to-consumer sales, Kudos caught the attention of a Target buyer at a trade show. Although that buyer was not responsible for the diaper category, they relayed the message to the right people at Target, and both companies realized that Kudos could potentially meet an unmet need for Target shoppers.
“Diapers are a really saturated market,” she said. “But [Target] recognized the [eco-friendly] white space because they are so consumer-obsessed in the same way we are.” Target also seeks to celebrate parents and parenting, Finicane said, which also aligns with the Kudos brand ethos. In fact, the company’s name—a synonym for “applause” or “commendation”—is meant to praise parents for their efforts.
Kudos has made a few adjustments in its transition from DTC to retail on Target’s shelves, including changes in its packaging. Kudos realized that the packaging would need to tell as much of the story as possible during a quick perusal by passing shoppers. “We knew that we had an important opportunity to catch the guests’ attention on shelf, so we were super deliberate about the packaging that we put out there, both on the messaging front and the design front,” Finicane said.
The boxes proclaim in large red letters that the product inside is “100% cotton-lined diapers. Not plastic.” With some advice from Target, Kudos also opted to lean into a single color in its packaging design. The Target and DTC offerings complement each other, Finicane explained, by allowing subscribers to use Target for fill-in purchases, for example.
Kudos also has a three-pack of high-quality, sustainable wipes, and is looking at further expanding its product line to include training pants, Finicane said. In the meantime, Kudos is also focused on ensuring that it can meet the unexpectedly strong demand that the Target rollout has generated. “We are thrilled with the success and the guest reception to Kudos that we’ve seen at Target,” Finicane said.