Green Mountain Diapers is well known as a cloth diapering store that sells natural fiber options as well as an incredible wealth of diaper information. GMD also has the well deserved reputation as making one of the top prefolds on the market branded under the Cloth-eez name but most often referred to as “GMD.” Their Workhorse fitted is also a consumer favorite. DDL asked Karen, founder of GMD and Cloth-eez, to tell us more about the company’s beginnings as a brand and not just as a store.
“GMD started in 1998 shortly after my second child was born. My son hit 20 pounds at 4 months old and the standard size prefolds just did not fit him. So I cut down the long prefolds and re-sewed them into a shorter and wider size to fit him. That was the beginning of my desire to offer shorter and wider prefolds but it took several years for me to be able to do it. We were the first in the USA to offer the shorter and wider sizes, and for quite a few years, we were the only ones with wider sizes. They caught on well.
We were also the first to bring prefolds made of organically grown cotton into the USA.
The first Cloth-Eez product in 2000 was a flannel and terry prefold diaper with snaps on the front and stretchy knit cotton sides, made in USA. That was the first Cloth-eez prefold diaper.
Our first custom-sized prefolds were the Rainbow Edge Prefolds which I think were in 2002 or 2003 and shortly after that we added more sizes and branded them with the Cloth-eez name. I think that was in 2004.
I enjoy pinning the diapers because I feel that pinning a prefold diaper (or a flat diaper) gives the very best fit of all. We give away free diaper pins to encourage people to try pinning. Once you learn to pin a cloth diaper, you see the comfort for baby and the effectiveness of it. But even if you don’t pin them, prefolds are a very versatile way to cloth diaper.”