About Us

You can laugh, or you can cry. We vote laugh.

I love being a mom. Truly. Well, most of the time. Then come the 4 a.m. wake up calls and the days so sleep deprived you forget the word for spatula. On those days you can cry, or you can laugh. And it is a whole lot easier to laugh when the tiny source of all that joy and chaos has a skateboarding dinosaur on their little butt.

Hi, I'm Lorain. About fourteen years ago I started Doodle Pants from a desk in a tiny home in Maui, and that one small idea, make getting dressed a little more fun, has somehow grown into a whole zoo of 3D characters worn by kids all over.

It started with a diaper blowout

I was a brand new mom cloth diapering my son, and nothing fit him. The cute stuff was all for girls, and the boy stuff was, frankly, boring. Then one day, mid diaper disaster and fresh out of backup pants during an outing, a friend handed me a pair of her baby girl's leggings. I put them on my son and thought, wait a minute. Why don't boys get this? Cute, comfy, room to move, and actually fun.

So I decided to make it. I had never designed a product, did not know how to sew, and knew exactly zero people in the apparel world. I just had an idea and a very stubborn streak. Our first leggings had extra room to fit over a cloth diaper, a silly little doodle on the back, and designs any kid could wear. They sold out. And just like that, Doodle Pants was born.

The hoodie everyone said couldn't be made

For a while, we were a leggings company. Then customers started asking for a hoodie, and I had exactly one rule. I refuse to make a boring one. So we started adding things. Horns. Fins. Spikes. Ears. Tails.

Then came the turtle, and a thought that changed everything. A turtle carries its home on its back, so what if the shell was not just decoration? What if it was a real, working backpack? Honestly, I did not know if it could even be made. It could. We were the first to sew a functional backpack onto a hoodie, and we have been dreaming up 3D characters that nobody else makes ever since.

And here is the part I did not expect. A turtle carries its home on its back. I think that is quietly why this one will always be my favorite. More on that in a minute.

We're not really in the clothing business

Here is our little secret. We are in the joy business. Every single design has to pass one test before we make it. Will this make somebody smile?

Because something kind of magic happens when a kid zips into one of ours. They are not just themselves anymore. They are a turtle, a unicorn, a dinosaur, a capybara. Getting dressed stops being a battle. The morning gets a little lighter. And a kid gets to feel completely safe being exactly who they are, as quirky and weird and wonderful as that may be. That is the whole point. Everything else is just ears and tails.

Every place we've lived became a hoodie

Here is a funny little tradition of ours. We are a military family, which means we move every few years, and I have turned nearly every place we have lived into a product. Maui Hawaii gave us a shark and a mermaid. Cape Cod Massachusetts inspired a whole nautical collection. Tampa Florida brought the manatee, the flamingo, and the alligator. South Texas gave us a longhorn, cow, camo and our newest friend, the capybara. So when you wear Doodle Pants, you are wearing a little piece of wherever we were standing when it was dreamed up.

Remember the turtle? People ask if it is hard, not having one place to call home. But somewhere along the way I realized I am a little like that turtle. Home was never the house. It is a feeling you carry with you, and it goes wherever you go. That is what I hope these hoodies are for your kids too. A little feeling of home they can carry, wherever life takes them.

Who "we" really are

Doodle Pants is not a giant corporation. It is me and a small team, many of us work from home moms, plus the designers who turn my wild ideas into drawings, the factory that brings them to life, and the warehouse crew who pack every single order by hand. I could not do one bit of this without them, and I am grateful for them every day.

You will find our characters in zoos, aquariums, and museums around the country and beyond. But the heart of it has never changed. We are real people, making joyful things, for families like yours.

One last thing

Soon enough, your kids will not let you dress them. Right now, you still have all the power. Why not have a little fun with it?

Thank you for being here. 

We are so glad you found us.

Lorain Herder

Founder | Chief Doodler

Doodle Pants, and the whole team behind it