Some of the biggest questions about what we buy begin with the smallest people in our lives.
What touches their skin? Where was it made? What materials went into it? And do the products we choose reflect the values we want to pass on to them?
For Düsseldorf-based children’s brand Cosy Roots, those questions have been part of the story from the beginning.
Founded by Karen, a mother of two, Cosy Roots grew from a very practical parenting challenge: finding shoes for little feet that were soft, flexible and stayed where they were supposed to stay. But there was another consideration that mattered just as much: what those shoes were actually made from.
The first answer came in the form of vegan baby moccasins. During her years living on the west coast of Türkiye, Karen found a small workshop that could bring her idea to life without relying on animal-derived materials. What began with shoes soon developed into something much broader: a children’s brand exploring thoughtful material choices across both footwear and clothing.
Today, Cosy Roots creates colourful collections for babies and children, from its characteristic vegan shoes to knitwear, fleece and teddy pieces and other textile essentials.
From vegan footwear to certified textiles
When we hear the word vegan, food may be the first thing that comes to mind. But vegan choices can extend far beyond what is on our plates.
Footwear is one example. Conventional shoes can contain animal-derived materials such as leather, wool or certain animal-derived components. Cosy Roots deliberately chose another route for its footwear, creating vegan shoes designed around the everyday needs of young children.
The brand describes its shoes as soft, flexible and washable, with thin, slip-resistant soles designed for little feet as they crawl, explore and learn to walk. Playful prints – from tiny hearts and woodland animals to lemons and colourful patterns – have become part of their recognisable character.
But as Cosy Roots grew beyond its original footwear idea, another question became increasingly important: how should the textiles children wear every day be made and processed? Cosy Roots received its GOTS certification in October 2021. Today, GOTS-certified textiles form an important part of the brand’s clothing collections.
This can be seen particularly clearly across pieces where the material itself plays a central role – including cosy knitwear as well as fleece and teddy styles designed for the cooler months. These collections bring the brand’s colourful visual world together with certified organic textiles and the requirements that come with GOTS certification. For products carrying the GOTS label, certification means more than simply using organic fibres. GOTS sets requirements for certified organic fibres as well as textile processing and manufacturing stages after raw fibre production, including environmental, chemical and social criteria.
That distinction is important.
Vegan and GOTS-certified are not interchangeable claims. They answer different questions within the Cosy Roots approach to materials. Vegan footwear reflects the decision to avoid animal-derived materials, while GOTS certification compliance with these requirements is independently assessed and certified by accredited third-party Certification Bodies.
Together, these choices show how the brand has developed from one practical idea into a broader approach to children’s products: looking not only at how something feels or looks, but also at what it is made from and which standards stand behind it.
Perhaps that is what makes the Cosy Roots story particularly fitting for children’s clothing.
For young children, ideas such as material choices, production processes or textile certification are still far too abstract. But the habits surrounding those ideas begin early. They begin with the things families bring into their homes, the questions parents ask before buying something and, eventually, the conversations children grow up hearing.
For Cosy Roots, that journey began with one mother searching for an alternative solution for her children’s feet. Today, those first small steps have grown into a colourful world of vegan footwear and GOTS-certified textiles – from cosy knits to soft fleece and teddy pieces – created for little people discovering a very big world.
