The Zizzz story – A family story
When little Carmen was born
When little Carmen was born, our lives changed forever. One of the first things my wife and I realised was how important sleep was - for all three of us.
In their first year, babies sleep for more than 14 hours a day (though not always at night, as new parents know!) Studies show that infants grow while they sleep and that the quality of infant sleep may affect later cognitive ability. That means that giving babies a warm, secure and comfortable place to sleep is vital.
Unconvinced by the products that I found on the market, I decided to start Zizzz.
For natural sleep
Many relatives gave us baby sleeping bags as gifts for little Carmen. Though the gifts were certainly well-intended, my wife and I noticed that they all contained polyester filling. Have you ever slept in polyester bedding in a cheap hotel? If so, you probably spent most of the night tossing and turning.
The problem with polyester is that it isn’t breathable - it retains heat and moisture. First, the polyester traps your body heat, which makes you sweat. But because polyester also traps moisture, the sweat stays between you and the bedding. So before long, you’re too cold. Now, imagine how your baby must feel, sleeping inside a polyester sleeping bag for more than 5,000 hours a year.
For a more sustainable future
The chances are good that your baby is sleeping inside polyester. Polyester is a type of plastic made from petroleum; in fact, the polyester used in clothes is the same plastic used in soda and ketchup bottles. Chemical engineers didn’t invent polyester to ensure good sleep, but designers use it in many products because it’s cheap.
At Zizzz, we only use 100% natural and renewable materials, which are designed to give your little one the best night’s sleep possible. We believe that our children, and yours, have the right to live a sustainable life - and to enjoy comfortable sleep.
For your baby's safety and healthy brain development
You probably know that good sleep is crucial for your baby’s brain development. Feeling warm and safe should help your baby fall into a deep and restorative sleep. While a cold baby can be easily woken up, a hot baby might become overheated. Scientists believe that hyperthermia, or increased temperature, is one of the causes of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
Zizzz uses materials that help your baby’s body to regulate its own temperature. A comfortable baby will sleep deeper and longer - and most importantly, safer.
How did we do it?
We live in Switzerland. One of the best things about this country is the fantastic skiing. We wear fine wool fabrics while skiing - this gave us an idea. It's no secret that many skiers and athletes use wool because of its unique qualities in extreme weather conditions. This is because wool keeps you warm when it’s cold and cool when it’s hot. It also keeps your body dry when you exercise.
Eureka! This would be the perfect solution for Carmen’s sleepless nights.
The challenge
The idea to use wool was just the beginning - finding the real solution was our challenge. Did a lightweight and washable wool filling for baby sleeping bags even exist? We searched far and wide, but finally found what we needed close to home: a wonderful fiber called Swisswool.
What is Swisswool?
Swisswool is a patented, natural filling material made from 88% virgin Swiss wool and 12% vegetable fibers. It retains all the unique characteristics of wool and is machine-washable. We’re sure your baby will like it as much as ours does.
Could we improve more than just the filling?
Our first step was to replace polyester with Swisswool. But we soon realized that there is more to safe and comfortable sleep than the sleeping bag filling.
For example, what covers the Swisswool? When babies sleep, their sensitive skin touches the interior of the sleeping bag, so we wanted to use the purest fabric available. The obvious choice was to replace normal cotton with organic cotton. Organic cotton has no traces of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides in it, so there’s no need to worry about allergies. At Zizzz, we only use fair-trade, organic cotton and OKO TEX textiles for our products.
And these are just two of the improvements we have made.
We keep it local
We produce our baby sleeping bags in Europe to ensure that no children are exploited in the manufacture of our products. Also, we don’t want our sleeping products to travel twice around the world before they reach you and your baby. It’s an enormous waste of energy.
Would you like your baby to feel warm and look chic?
The most important thing for us at Zizzz is that our products work properly. But that doesn’t mean that we should sacrifice visual appeal for functionality. So, we teamed up with some fantastic designers to give our sleeping bags a chic look. No stuffy, boring sleeping bags for Zizzz babies – have a look at our products and judge for yourself!
With our great duvets, Zizzz is for adults, too!
Many parents were so enthusiastic and satisfied when they saw how well their babies were sleeping that they asked us if we could also make bedding for them. So, our next step was to develop duvets for adults with the same great Swisswool filling. On the outside, they have a superfine fair-trade batiste. Zizzz duvets are made in Switzerland. Try one now and you will wonder why you slept that long with down or polyester filling!
We've also added pillows, pyjamas and bed linens
Once we had reached the point of making wool duvets, it was easy to start making wool pillows. From there, we branched out to organic cotton fitted sheets, duvet covers, pillow cases and pyjamas. What had originally begun as the idea for a breathable baby sleeping bag had grown to a wide range of high-quality, but also environmentally-responsible bed- and sleepwear.
Down duvets and pillows - how we completed our product range
Our entire family sleeps with wool products, and so do most of our employees. But we know that many customers also like down duvets. Throughout the years, many parents told us that they couldn’t find a locally-manufactured and environmentally-friendly down duvet, which inspired us to fill in this gap in the market ourselves.
This is why we now have two options available for down lovers: duvets and pillows made with either goose or duck down filling. Of course, they’re also covered with the softest organic cotton.
We only use high-quality European down
We only had to drive a few cantons over in order to find the Swisswool for our baby sleeping bags and wool duvets, but Switzerland doesn’t produce goose or duck down. In fact, the majority of down for sale on the market comes from China.
This wouldn’t work for us, as Chinese down is generally poor-quality, due to the fact that the weather there is rather temperate, which means the birds don’t need to grow high-quality down in order to keep warm. Moreover, we always try to procure our materials as locally as possible, which means Chinese down was out of the question.
This is why we eventually decided on Eastern European down. First of all, Eastern European down is known for its high quality - due to the cold weather, the geese and ducks grow thick, insulating down in order to stay warm in the winter. Second, European down is a much more local option than Chinese down, which is more in line with our principles.
Our down is also ethically responsible
Every down product in our assortment is DownPass certified. This label means that our geese and ducks must live in humane conditions; more specifically, it certifies that our down doesn’t come from animals that were force-fed or raised for foie gras.
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