Our Story
Aloha mai kākou!
We are so happy you are here! My name is Pōhai, and I am the māmā behind Kaleimamo Hawaiʻi. Kaleimamo Hawaiʻi is a small, ʻohana-owned business based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. We strive to create beautiful, reusable cloth diapers and accessories, which feature designs inspired by our indigenous Native Hawaiian culture and stories.
Kaleimamo Hawai'i is named after our daughter, and literally means, "the lei made of yellow lehua blossoms." Kaleimamo also refers to all of the keiki (children) or "mamo" everywhere. It is our hope that this business connects families throughout the world like a lei, so that we can leave our honua (world) a better place for our children and all generations to come.
We are so excited to be able to share all of our designs, stories, passions and hard work with you! Never in my wildest dreams did I think that we would own a business, much less a cloth diaper business! We are so grateful for your support and aloha. It truly means so much to us.
Me ke aloha,
Pōhai, ʻOlu, Mamo, & Kamanō
Our Cloth Diaper Journey
In 2019, we were overjoyed when we found out we were expecting! As ecstatic first-time parents, we quickly became interested in anything baby related. During our research, however, we came across a shocking realization: approximately 20 BILLION disposable diapers end up in landfills every year. On average, every baby uses around 8,000(!) disposable diapers from birth to potty. All of those diapers are thrown away, and take 500 years to decompose. Unsurprisingly, disposable diapers are the third largest single consumer item in landfills. Despite these alarming facts, disposable diapers are still the mainstream choice for diapering our keiki.
We thought to ourselves, there has to be a better way. How could bringing a child into the world create so much waste and harm to our beloved ʻāina? There had to be an affordable, eco-friendly solution that was also convenient enough for working parents and an on-the-go household. And there was - cloth diapers!
I know what you're thinking -- isn't cloth diapering a lot of work? Isn't it "gross"? Don't worry, I was right there with you. Learning about cloth diapers was overwhelming, and I had so many questions. In truth, I didn't want to use cloth at the beginning; my husband was the one who really encouraged me to give it a try! And I am so happy he did. It turns out that cloth diapering isn't as hard as it seems! As with anything new in life, there was a learning curve and troubleshooting along the way, but once we got into a routine, I was hooked. It was so satisfying to know that we were doing something good for our planet and our baby.
Then, a funny thing began to happen. Our family and friends saw us using cloth diapers and began to ask questions. After sharing our experiences, some even decided to cloth diaper their own babies! We were so excited! We thought, if we could share what we learned, and other people knew how easy cloth diapering could be, maybe cloth diapering could become more mainstream in Hawaiʻi and beyond.
Why Kaleimamo Hawaiʻi?
Despite our newfound love for cloth diapers, we always felt like there was something missing. We craved cloth diapers that accurately represented our indigenous Native Hawaiian culture and language, but there were none! Thus, we set out on a mission to create cloth diapers and eco-friendly products that celebrated our unique culture and people!