One million bibs a year: How Konny built a K-parenting brand on product obsession

Interview with Im I-rang, CEO of Konny by Erin

A working mom's evolution of baby products

60% of sales from overseas — a K-parenting brand born from lived experience

From 300 million won in 2017 to 82.3 billion won ($54.3 million) last year — with a 1 trillion won target in 10 years

Im I-rang, CEO of Konny by Erin, speaks in an interview. [Konny by Erin]

"Konny's mission is to make parents' lives easier and more stylish. We built our products with the goal of improving parents' lives."

Every parent raising a baby dreams of clocking out of parenting duties a little sooner — a sentiment so common in South Korea that a portmanteau has emerged for it: "yuktoet," or "parenting clocking-out." Konny by Erin tapped into that desire by trimming baby laundry loads and cutting down the time parents spend agonizing over gear. Word spread through parenting cafes and mom bloggers, and customer requests poured in: "Please make something like this." What began as a baby carrier brand has since expanded into nursing wear, bibs and children's clothing. The company's "Konny bib" — ergonomically designed and made from a fast-drying fabric — became so synonymous with quality that parents coined a phrase for it: "You'll come back to Konny." One million sell every year.

"As a working mom, I was always short on time," Im I-rang, CEO of Konny by Erin, said in an interview. "I started the company because I couldn't find a baby carrier I liked, and every year I ended up making thermal underwear because there was nothing I wanted to dress my kids in." Im's business card lists her title alongside a personal one: "Mom of Ji-yong and Ji-heon." Products born from her own parenting experience carried a level of detail that set them apart — and that detail became the engine of the company's growth.

One bib every 30 seconds: Winning on product quality

As Konny's sales kept climbing even amid South Korea's deepening low birth rate, more people began asking about the company's marketing secrets. Im pushed back on the premise. "Did Tesla get famous because of great marketing?" she said. "A great product is the marketing. If you make something good, word gets out on its own — that's enough." Sales have borne her out: revenue of 300 million won when the company launched in 2017 grew to 82.3 billion won ($54.3 million) last year, roughly a 274-fold increase in eight years.

In practice, Konny has bet everything on product quality. The brand was the first in its industry to introduce what it calls a "smart care label" — a tag that tears off cleanly by hand, sparing parents the scissors-and-frustration ritual of removing stiff labels from children's clothing. Its T-shirts come with snap buttons at the neckline so a baby's head slides through without a struggle, cutting down on the daily tug-of-war at dressing time. The bibs, made from quick-drying fabric and reversible for double use, became a daily staple. These small details — the kind only parents notice — became Konny's competitive edge. With one million bibs sold annually, that works out to roughly one every 30 seconds. "The principle has always been: does this make life as a parent more stylish and easier?" Im said. "We constantly ask whether our product makes parenting easier than the alternatives."

Social media spread Konny's name globally, winning over parents far beyond South Korea. About 60 percent of the company's sales now come from overseas. Recently, the number of foreign tourists showing up at Konny's headquarters has surged — visitors who, while in Korea, pin the company's address on a map just to touch and buy the products in person, even though Konny has no physical retail stores. The brand has also attracted celebrity attention without any paid seeding — the practice of gifting products to influencers or entertainers. Actor Daniel Radcliffe, best known for playing the title role in the "Harry Potter" films, drew wide attention when he brought his three-month-old son to a Screen Actors Guild strike rally in the United States wearing a Konny baby carrier. "Because we poured everything into the product itself, a lot of customers noticed," Im said. "Ironically, not doing seeding is what made us famous. Models, idol-turned-moms and TV anchors started wearing our products, and word of mouth grew from there."

A model wearing a Konny bib. [Konny website]

Remote-first, 60% parenting: The road to 1 trillion won

The firsthand parenting experience of Konny's own staff also feeds into its product development. About 60 percent of the company's 137 employees are working parents. "Our employees who are raising kids contribute a lot of ideas," Im said. "They test the products on their own children and refine them from there."

The company's family-friendly culture has recently begun attracting talent leaving large conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics. Konny operates on a remote-first flexible work policy, which means some employees live and work from Jeju or Daegu. The company has recognized the value of in-person collaboration, however, and now supplements remote work with regular face-to-face meetings. "We keep remote work as the foundation, within the limits of what doesn't hurt efficiency," Im said.

Konny by Erin has set its sights on 1 trillion won in annual sales within 10 years. "If we grow 30 percent compounded every year, we get to 1 trillion in a decade," Im said. "The moment you think you've reached a stable plateau, I think you're finished. Being just a little faster than the pace of change in the world seems to be what works." She added, however, that the trillion-won figure is not the point in itself. "We're not running the company just to hit 1 trillion won — we want steady, sustained growth."

boo@heraldcorp.com