Calyn Bernard and Christina Carbonell met as executives in the marketing department of Quidsi, the parent company of Diapers.com. There, they learned the ropes of e-commerce and bonded over their hatred of shopping for kids’ clothes, which felt cheap for the price, leaving them to chase sales and sold-out items. They left Quidsi in 2014, convinced they could build a go-to brand for kids with affordable, high-quality essentials. The twist? The vibrantly colored T’s, pants, pajamas, and more would all be gender-neutral. Arming everyone they knew with a promo code, they launched Primary as a direct-to-consumer brand. Seven years later, Primary has over one million customers.
The idea for Primary came as much from our experience at as it did from our own experience shopping. We couldn’t figure out why things were gendered. I have twin girls who don’t like pink, and ended up buying them an orange
