A Huddersfield couple has turned a familiar parenting struggle into a new babywear brand built in their own garage.
Rob and Kate Wood from Highburton found themselves battling with poppers and zips during 3am nappy changes with their youngest child. Tired and frustrated, they decided there had to be a simpler way.
“Stretchaboo came out of one of those exhausted, slightly desperate parenting moments,” said co-founder Kate Wood. She commented that she found herself asking, “Why is this still so fiddly in 2025?” The couple set out to design clothing that would pull on and off without a fight.
With around 600,000 babies born in the UK each year and each one needing roughly 3,000 nappy changes in their first year, the numbers add up to 18 billion poppers clicked into place. Many parents do this while half asleep with a wriggling baby on the changing mat.
Stretchaboo’s answer is a soft baby grow made from 95% bamboo and 5% spandex. It stretches so parents can dress and undress their baby in one movement. The design features fold-back feet to eliminate the need for socks, and it also omits labels, as the Woods found that they cut most of them out anyway.
“So we poured our sleepless nights into coming up with Stretchaboo. The baby grows have fold back feet so there’s no messing with socks, and we’ve designed them to be label free as we always end up cutting them out of other sleepsuits. We’re really proud to launch something that helps real families like ours,” said Kate Wood.
The business is a full family effort across three generations, with their 17-month-old daughter modelling the outfits and Grandad as chief photographer. The Woods have two children aged eight and one, with their eldest attending school in Highburton. Rob has a background in marketing and Kate is a civil servant.
Stretchaboo aims to strip away zips, poppers and stress from babywear while still looking neat. The range launches in six colours and covers sizes from newborn to age three. It is available now at Stretchaboo.com.
The Woods say the mission is simple: make changes quicker, keep babies comfortable and give parents one less thing to wrestle with in the middle of the night.
