Good morning. Greetings to all our loyal and new followers. Welcome to JumbaJamba, a handcrafted animal kingdom where colorful & cuddly animal pillows live.
What is JumbaJamba and how did this Kingdom started?
Well, it all began in early 2011 where our founder, Windy Dhanutirto, decided to make hand sewn animal pillows. At the time, there were other local crafters making hand sewn toys and stuffed animals. To stand out from the rest, Windy needed to create a brand that not only offers functional benefits but also touches the heart of the consumers in a unique way.
So when you think of pillows or stuffed animals, you think of bedtime. Bedtime storytelling is a part of sleeping ritual between parents and their kids; a time for bonding over stories with unique characters. With this in mind, Windy created a Kingdom where her animal pillows reside; each having a name and unique characteristic written on their adoption card. So that when someone adopts JumbaJamba animal pillow, they welcome the animal pillow into their homes as a family member, not just a toy.
Since JumbaJamba is an animal kingdom, Windy wanted to use a name that has jungle elements to it. She took a word from the lyrics of Lion King animated movie soundtrack, “Jumba Jamba” as the name of the Kingdom. Originally, all the names of the animal pillows were Swahili words, but with the growth of the brand and the increase of animal pillow production, today the names of the JumbaJamba animal pillows come from many different languages from all over the world.
That same year, JumbaJamba was also invited to sell at bazaars and offered consignment deals with retailers and hotel gift shops. And we started producing other handmade goods like home living products and accessories under the label J by JumbaJamba.
So what was our biggest challenge in setting up this brand? It seemed like things were moving quite fast back then, and it felt that we were winging it most of the time (through trial and error) but it was exciting and we loved every bit of our journey. Drop us a question about JumbaJamba and we will share with you the answer in a separate blog post. Thanks for reading, xoxo – JumbaJamba.