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Keewa Nurullah, founder of children’s boutique store Kido, is not the first person in her family to run a business. In fact, she is a fourth-generation entrepreneur, descended from a great-grandfather who owned his own tailor shop on Tulsa’s Black Wall Street.
While her family’s strong history is something Keewa works to honor in her shop—which is built around the principles of diversity, sustainability, and originality—it was actually wanting something better for the next generation that inspired her to go into business for herself.
We recently sat down with Keewa and talked about how an idea that began with a single onesie has flourished into an award-winning brick-and-mortar shop where a community of parents are able to bring their children for connection and culture.
Beyond the basics
When her son’s colicky stomach made it hard to keep up with his need for clean clothes, Keewa decided to step away from the growing laundry pile for a moment and simply buy him some more clothes. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to find much that excited her.
“I quickly realized that shopping for boy babies was very boring and uninspiring,” says Keewa. “It was shirts that were gray, navy blue, and said things like ‘Daddy’s little slugger.’ They were very basic options.”
Keewa had seen increased diversity and positive messages in children’s books and movies for years, but it seemed that this trend had yet to translate into clothing. Particularly clothing for boys. So Keewa created her first onesie and set out to see if there were potential customers for the brand that was starting to percolate in her imagination.
As we grew, we started connecting the sale of our products to putting on story times and fun activities for families.
Keewa Nurullah, Founder, Kido
“At first, I was selling at markets and festivals and events around the city,” Keewa says. “As we grew, we started connecting the sale of our products to putting on story times and fun activities for families.”
This combination of unique products with community-building contributed to the growth of the brand. After two years of selling online and at events, Kido opened as a physical location on Chicago’s South Side.
Getting people in the door
While the store was the perfect space to hold the growing selection of diversity-inspired books and toys that Keewa was curating from other vendors—sold alongside her own clothing creations—the transition to having an actual store had its challenges.
“Out of nowhere, here I was in a physical shop needing for my work to produce results for my livelihood,” says Keewa. “That was a lot of pressure, but it also was a steep learning curve that laid the foundation of what we have now.”
And what the store has now is truly remarkable. Every surface has an engaging selection of charming items, from puzzles of Chicago landmarks to a Stacey Abrams paper doll to T-shirts with positive affirmations for children.
But even with such great merchandise, Keewa has learned that bringing in customers takes more than just opening your doors.
“No matter what street you’re on, you are responsible for people coming into your store,” says Keewa. “I wish I had known earlier that to even get people inside of the shop required being much more proactive than just existing on a street somewhere.”
She’s since learned the multifaceted marketing side of the business, and Kido now has an active Instagram channel, email campaigns, and more to get customers through the door.
When your customers are your community
One of the ways the Kido crew has been expanding their customer community is by building on their pre-store success of running popular events, like a regular South Side Story Time and the New Mommy Meetup.
“Everyone was looking for where do families hang out, where do they connect?” says Keewa. “And so I became the connector, and in that, I think I gained the trust of my consumer and future consumers.”
Our strategy has been spreading joy. But we also sprinkle in cultural education so that people see value in following us.
Keewa Nurullah, Founder, Kido
Another way Kido connects with its customer base is through active social media channels. When determining what types of content to share, Keewa works to balance being the bright spot in someone’s day while also giving them some information that will help them create that bright spot in someone else’s day.
“Our strategy has been spreading the joy,” Keewa says. “But we also sprinkle in cultural education so that people see value in following us—which has translated into a certain amount of sales.”
Running a business while raising a family
The bulk of Kido’s community—online and offline—is made up of parents and grandparents. This is a group that Keewa knows all too well will face unique challenges when starting a business. Especially when it comes to things like trying to find childcare or trying to find equilibrium in what feels like rolling chaos.
“Someone’s always sick,” Keewa says. “Then the week after they get better, school’s out for two days. As a parent, you’re never able to really get on a roll and stay on a roll.”
This challenge was cranked up tenfold at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. While Kido had a solid foundation by then, it still ran the risk of collapsing. “I think the hustle in me just turned up 20 notches,” Keewa says. “I didn’t want this dream I’d seen start to grow just fall off a cliff.” So she tapped into her creativity and all of the available resources she could to keep the business afloat. And it paid off.
“It was just such a surreal experience as a parent having my attention divided like that,” said Keewa. “On the one hand, I was trying to hold down the business—but on the other hand, I was trying to keep our children safe. I think even 20 years down the line, surviving COVID-19 will still have been the business’s biggest challenge.”
Know your customer
When it comes to advice for fellow entrepreneurs, Keewa says it’s important to know your customer as well as you can before you open your store. “Don’t wait until you open the doors to figure out, ‘Who do I want to come in here?’ There should be some kind of enthusiasm or clarity with who your customer is before you even open your shop.”
Keewa also offers words of wisdom for small business owners who may be struggling. “I would encourage other shop owners or future shop owners that creativity is endless,” she says. “Even if you think you’ve put all your creative juices into this version of something, there’s always something around the corner. The things that are successful about your business can be transferred and live on forever.”
As for the future of Kido, Keewa hopes to someday turn the business into a fully realized toy, book, and children’s product company.
“When you ask most people ‘What’s the biggest Black-owned toy brand?’ they don’t have an answer,” says Keewa. “Because it doesn’t really exist.”
However, Keewa says she’ll be happy as long as she can continue bringing families together. “I would just generally like to have a presence in my community for families and children. That’s the most basic thing I’d like to sustain. Even if we don’t achieve our wildest dreams, I hope to continue to be a role model for other parents and children and continue to spread joy in our city and throughout the country.”
