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The thing about boys is that there aren’t many cute yet cool clothes for the dirty and noisy gender. Wanting stuff to be durable seems to be asking too much. Oh, there’s a plethora of A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E. girl clothes so it’s a good thing I won’t drain the bank account dressing up a daughter. I’m using those funds on myself instead. And I’ll be starting my spree at Dress. Ahem. Boy’s clothes are as testosteroney as the toy aisles that bear images of doom, fire, ruckus, violence, and mayhem. Bird and Deal are 7 and 5 so gone are the days of cute whimsical critters and furry bears.
If Deal had it his way he’d don sweats and football shirts everyday. The kid is partial to anything bearing a jersey number. He throws a flat out fit over wearing a collared shirt. When we travel I pack all his collared shirts when he doesn’t have a choice, and I make him sport a collar for the first day of school and picture day. Bird, on the other hand, would rather I pick out his clothes and doesn’t mind wearing grown up button down shirts like Daddy’s. He’s plenty comfy in jeans or sweats, but when he wears sweats, he only likes the kind that zip on the sides (reminiscent of the Guess jeans I wore in high school).
Now that the boys have an opinion on what they wear, I can’t shop much without them in tow, unless I want to make a return trip to the store, which always ends up badly because I can’t hang onto a receipt for the life of me. I recently got to go to 77Kids, a new store for the younger set brought to you by American Eagle. The new store, nine strong so far, invited a group of Triangle bloggers for a little sneak holiday peek. I was pleasantly surprised and delighted at the quality, price, and selection. The holiday theme is playful and fun without being cutesy and over the top with Santa stuff. The store window has a fun little interactive racing game that the kiddos will enjoy.
Inside there are all sorts of fun gadgets and whatchamacallits for little ones to play with. Distractions for kidlets while mom and dad shop = a store that knows its customers. And being a consumer researcher/marketing consultant in my day job, that’s important to me. I love a brand that gets its consumer. What I do wish is that the store had a little section of books or something for the older set to be occupied while mom and dad shop. The interactive games will surely enchant Bird and Deal for a while, but books or games or something would be even better. I’ve already told them about the skater look featured in this season’s line, and the boys are psyched to see the skateboard ramp display. Deal is on board to get a collared shirt since apparently skaters wear flannel and rugby shirts and such. Bird will gladly say yes to anything so he can get a treat from the goodie bar at the check out counter.
I’ll take the boys to pick out a few items for our upcoming trip to Wisconsin. I’ll keep myself away from the back room where all the darling baby stuff is because this mama is done baking babies. And it’s a good thing 77Kids has a 77 wash guarantee because well, you know how boys wreck their duds. When I buy Bird stuff, I need it to last so the hand-me-down factor is huge in what I buy. Poor Deal never rarely gets anything that’s his very own so he will be thrilled to pick out some fun stuff. And trust me, I help up a few things to my five foot tall frame and have my eyes on a couple sweaters for myself.
Now here’s what I love about 77Kids. The store has a philanthropic angle to boost the holiday spirit in us all. Customers can donate 77 cents to help support their local children’s hospital. I love the hyper local angle. These are the benefiting hospitals around the country:
– Children’s Health and Wellness Center at Danbury Hospital
– Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
– Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
– Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper
– University Hospital (Cherry Hill/Philadelphia)
– Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital (Syracuse)
– WakeMed Children’s Hospital (Raleigh)
– Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (Hartford)
– Children’s Memorial Hospital (Chicago)
HOW IT WORKS:
In stores…
– When you donate 77 cents (or more!) to benefit your local children’s hospital, you will receive a snowflake to write your name and wish on, and then you can place the snowflake on the “blizzard wall” in the store for all to see!
– In addition to the snowflake, the customer will get a ‘you done good’ bumper sticker to take. The sticker also directs the customer to the interactive Wish-4-Snow microsite (details below).
Online…
– From the 77kids homepage customers will be directed to a Wish-4-Snow microsite, featuring a fun “catch the snowflake” game and giving visitors the opportunity to design their own snowflake to help 77kids reach their children’s hospital donation goal!
– 77kids’ goal for the microsite is for visitors to make a total of 100,000 snowflakes. I made a snowflake and had a much easier time than when I make paper ones with Bird and Deal.
– If we hit that goal, 77kids will make an additional $25,000 donation to the children’s hospitals on
top of the customer donations each store collects during the month!
– You can make as many snowflakes as you want – not just one! You’re asked to submit your contact
information only after the first snowflake.
– Creating a snowflake makes you eligible to win a $77 gift card from 77kids (one gift card given away
daily!) and enters you to win the ultimate grand prize: an awesome block party for you and 77 pals! Don’t get your hopes up here, folks, cuz I’m totally winning this.
Also check out 77Kids on Facebook and Twitter.
And 77Kids graciously offered bloggers a $50 gift to give away to our readers. In the spirit of giving and philanthropy, I’ve chosen (with 77Kids’ blessing) to donate my gift card to a family in need at my sons’ school. They need clothes for their kids and shouldn’t have to choose between a warm meal and a warm coat. Many thanks to 77Kids for their generosity! If you want a shot at winning a gift card, check out Adventuroo’s blog.
The fine print: I worked with The Motherhood on this event and received a stipend and gift card. The opinions are all mine.