Business & Tech

Linden Hills Mom Turns Dreams Into Reality

For Sonal Gerten, business time is playtime.

As she launches into a description of , Sonal Gerten was all smiles.

“I had to find a way to merge my two projects—kids clothing, and creating a company that gave back to the community,” she said, eyes twinkling.

The result? A clothing company that’s giving back to the community and the world by donating a slice of every purchase to two budding charities which serve poor children in India and Tanzania, while it’s but a babe in arms.

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As she continued the Tumblewalla story, the Linden Hills resident positively exuded the giddy, playful energy of someone finally acting on a long-cherished vision. Her infectious enthusiasm isn’t just a personality trait, it’s an essential part of Tumblewalla’s clothing, too, Gerten said. Even the company’s name—a Hindi-English portmanteau meaning “one who tumbles”—is built on on romping around.

“My happiest moments are seeing my son play, and playing with him,” she explained.

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The clothes, she said, had to be all about empowering play anywhere and everywhere—durable, easy to take off in case of a mess, and bright, Indian-inspired colors and animals all over the kurtas, onesies, rompers, and trousers.

She may be turning a dream into reality, but it’s not been all roses and flowers finding a supplier whose workers enjoyed fair labor conditions, completing the paperwork, or perfecting the designs.

“I used my son as a model— It’s hard to tell the fit until you put the clothes on, even little detailing like how high should the buttons go,” she said. “I kept having to give him bunnygrams to get him to sit still. ‘Please, Devan? One more time. Come on.’”

For now, she says, her life is packed to the gills with merchandise waiting for a buyer, or local stores that might sell it.

“Every time I go to fill an online order, I’m stepping over boxes, around boxes. It’s a good kind of mess, though,” she said.


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