In partnership with Love Your Melon.
Shopping is completely different than it was even a decade ago, and one of the biggest shifts is that consumers now want to vote with their dollar for brands that share similar values. This has led to a huge rise in altruism and ethical companies that are just as devoted to helping others as they are to creating great products—which is the case for Love Your Melon. Founded in 2012 by college friends Zachary Quinn and Brian Keller, who were students at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis at the time, this lifestyle apparel company gives a portion of proceeds to nonprofit organizations that focus on groundbreaking pediatric cancer research, therapeutic experiences, and family support, all while providing a warm beanie to every child battling pediatric cancer.
As the name suggests, these hats are designed to keep heads warm and protected, and over the last ten years the brand has also expanded to include headbands, mittens, and scarves, other apparel, and even blankets. Recently, the brand alo added Hero Caps, bucket hats, and visors to help transform their offerings from seasonal and winter-focused into a line of products that customers can wear year-round. That means more options for every time of year, even if winter is the ideal time for a matching beanie moment.
Love Your Melon offers options for children, adults, and infants, which means the ability to match outfits within a family—especially mom and baby—is a huge bonus. Stocking up on a few colors and sizes for the little ones in your life is another great way to spread some love and support a wonderful cause in the meantime. Read on for why these are some of the best beanies and mittens to get for the kids in your life this winter.
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Size And Style Options For The Whole Family
Some parts of the Love Your Melon approach might sound familiar if you were an early fan of Toms, as the footwear company was a big inspiration for the founders. But their take on the model was to create something that both supported kids suffering from pediatric cancer, and create a lifestyle brand full of stylish, wearable options for everyone. Additionally, the brand’s goal was to give a beanie to every kid who is diagnosed with cancer, a worthy approach that they continue to focus on, and now wearing these snuggly hats is also a sign of solidarity with kids battling the disease.
Love Your Melon’s focus is not just on giving back, but teaching kids about why that’s important, and how to show care for others—all while looking cozy and cute in the meantime. And since they are one of the few brands offering similar styles in baby, toddler, kids, and adult sizes, the beanies can be a fun way to get the whole family in a matching look. Go simple with one of the best-selling hats in their catalog, the Black Speckled Beanie, a stippled gray colorway that looks good on everyone, from newborns to moms, or get something a little more modern with the Black Speckled Hero Cap, a more structured, traditional ball cap—that's made out of another of the brand's proprietary fabrics, with sun-protectant and moisture-wicking properties woven into it—with the same black and white stippling.
Both these styles come in a variety of other colors, if you want to take the matching look even further, and all the beanies feature a leather patch with the brand’s name on it affixed with their signature zig zag stitching. Since beanies are the brand’s original product, there’s also a whole slew of variations on the theme, slouch beanies, cuffed beanies, and pom beanies, the most adorable of which is a Disney collection with Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse pom ears (these look particularly cute on babies and kids, who are usually pretty thrilled to match with their favorite characters).
Cozy Mommy And Me Looks Are Easy To Pull Off
Though we’re now past the holiday gifting season of Christmas and New Year’s, odds are there’s more than one expectant mother in your life who you’ll need to get a baby shower, birthday present, or a “just because” gift for in the near future. This is where Love Your Melon is an absolutely perfect fit, because of the wonderful cause it supports, and the cuteness of tucking a baby into their first-ever beanie. If there’s a matching set for mom and dad, too? Well that’s just gravy.
If you are the expecting mother yourself, why not lock down your first matching moment now? And you don’t necessarily have to wear the same exact thing to get the matching results either, a Baby Burgundy Pom Beanie and a pair of Burgundy Mittens achieve the desired effect just as well, especially for a cute winter photo opp. The fluffy poms on these thick beanies, all of which are double knit, are removable, too, and all of Love Your Melon’s products are washable—a Godsend feature for new moms.
The brand collabs don’t stop with Disney, either. If there’s an avid Harry Potter fan in your life who is a mom, getting them a Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff beanie from Love Your Melon’s Harry Potter collection could immediately catapult you to the top of their best gifts list. Look, the heart wants what it wants, and a newborn might be too young for the actual sorting hat process, they can still rock their allegiance for their parent’s wizarding house of choice.
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Outsized Impact for Those in Need
Since their launch twelve years ago, Love Your Melon has been able to donate almost $10 million to nonprofit organizations that are fighting on the frontlines against pediatric cancer of all kinds. That means a simple purchase of beanies and mittens could help fund research, as well as provide therapeutic experiences for kids who are suffering and offer support to families who are often overwhelmed with medical expenses. Along with funds, the brand has provided over 270,000 beanies to sick children, and these hats are an even more welcome accessory when it comes to dealing with chemotherapy and hair loss.
For kids who need the beanies to protect themselves during their courageous fight, seeing other people sporting the same hat is a welcome bit of support, and wearing a Love Your Melon beanies is a way of showing support for this important cause whether you know someone in the fight or not. This is the kind of unspoken care that sets the Love Your Melon model apart as a brand who actually cares about their cause, and isn’t just paying lip service to it.
Whether you’re shopping for some cute matching beanies, gifts for a new mom, a solid pair of mittens, or other items like scarves, headbands, and blankets, Love Your Melon is a brand that deserves your support. With their thick, double knit standard and the ease of at-home washing, these are the kind of accessories that can stand the test of time—but whenever you need to buy more, rest assured you’re donating to a great cause in the meantime.
Stay warm this winter with some matching mom and baby beanies from Love Your Melon.
