Like many moms today, Ayla & Co founder Nikki Day struggled with her diaper bag.
The mom of four tried bag after bag, yet couldn’t find one that met her needs for functionality and organization — let alone a bag that didn’t exactly look like a diaper bag.
“We really wanted something that felt a bit more modern,” the 37-year-old Riverton resident says. It seemed the perfect diaper bag just didn’t exist.
“I found some diaper bags that were organized, but I just felt like they weren’t me,” she recalls. “I felt like I was giving up my old self. I wanted something I could feel confident wearing and using, but I didn’t want something that made parenthood more chaotic, messy and stressful.”
Then came what Day calls the “aha” moment after graduating to a minivan to accommodate her growing family. Day knew that if she was going to drive a minivan, it had to have all the bells and whistles, including an integrated vacuum system for cleaning messes.
At first, Day thought the vacuum was silly. “I’m never going to use this,” she recalls thinking. Quickly, it became her favorite feature of the vehicle. She’d vacuum the stroller before putting it into her trunk, and her four kids would vacuum out their seats to help their mom.
Day found herself thinking, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a portable vacuum that didn’t look like a vacuum that I could carry around with me everywhere, because after all, kids are messy?”
One solution to two problems
As a successful fitness franchise owner of FIT4MOM South Valley, Day began to brainstorm a business solution to both dilemmas: a diaper bag that felt stylish yet organized, and an on-the-go vacuum system for busy parents. Better yet, could she find a way to solve both problems with one functional item?
“There was nothing else like it on the market,” Day says of the original business model that would become Ayla & Co, a successful online diaper bag business that sells stylish and chic diaper bags, as well as the compact and cordless Ayla Vacuum system.
Day, who had never launched a product-based business before, felt intimidated. It was also 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic meant launching any business was a gamble.
“I felt like we were going to regret not trying more than we would trying and failing,” she says.
Day and her husband, Brody, spoke to patent attorneys. They became familiar with the potential business route, honed in on product development and testing, and identified a target audience. They also launched a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $30,000 in 24 hours.
Ayla & Co went live with its first product in September 2020: the trademark Ayla Diaper Bag and Ayla Vacuum bundle, which is still a top seller today.
The diaper bag is stylish and functional, just as Day always dreamed of, with a minimal vegan leather design and meticulously organized compartments. It also has plenty of extras not found in traditional diaper bags, such as a reusable snack bag and a vegan leather changing pad.
The Ayla Vacuum is the size of a tumbler and fits right into the diaper bag. It has dual-speed suction and a long battery life, as well as a USB charging cord and reusable filter.
“It’s lightweight and you can take it wherever you want,” Day says of the portable vacuum. “It’s TSA-approved, it’s quiet and you can easily use it in restaurants.”
Finding strength and resilience
Named after the girl’s name “Ayla” — which means “oak tree” in Hebrew and “from a strong and resilient place” in Scottish — Ayla & Co quickly took off.
Thirteen products currently make up the Ayla & Co brand, including tote bags and accessories. The Ayla Mini, a compact version of the original diaper bag, is the company’s top-selling item.
The Utah-based business has recently branched out into selling travel bags, luggage and fanny packs, a move Day says helps expand her audience beyond “just the mom world.” In just five years of operation, Ayla & Co has sold more than 110,000 net items.
“There’s so much untapped potential with the Ayla Vacuum,” Day says. “It can be for anyone, from college students cleaning out dorm rooms to a car vacuum or a pet vacuum.”
Over the years, Day has evolved Ayla & Co to be more of a bag company. The upward trajectory and business expansion haven’t been without hurdles — and the first year of Ayla & Co was arguably the hardest.
“Parenthood is chaotic and stressful enough, and your diaper bag doesn’t need to make you feel more stressed out.”
— Nikki Day
“It was a very difficult time to start a business,” Day recalls of the unique challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic posed.
There were the obvious hurdles, such as supply chain issues. Then there were the unexpected problems. Brody lost his job just before Ayla & Co launched. One of the Day children also developed serious health concerns, resulting in all four kids being homeschooled for the year.
To add to the struggles, Day experienced a million-dollar loss on a stolen shipping container.
“I became a full-time homeschool mom and a full-time business owner just dealing with the complexities of 2020,” Day recalls. “Looking back, I’m not quite sure how we survived.”
Standing out in the market
Still, the Days persevered and found the courage to remain true to their business dream.
“I call Ayla & Co my fifth child,” Nikki Day jokes. “I followed my heart.”
Today, Day works full-time as founder and CEO of the brand. Her husband assists on the sales side. Of course, their four children — now 13, 12, 10 and 8 years old — play a helping hand by teaching their parents valuable lessons about dependability, strength and parenting.
“Life throws things at you that you have zero control over,” Day says. “You either sink or swim … Running a business is never going to be smooth sailing.”
As CEO, Day wakes up every morning with a mission to solve business problems and keep Ayla & Co moving in the right direction. From finding creative ways to marry the brand’s original target audience of mothers to its newer, expanded audience of travelers, the work never stops.
Day admits to having “zero experience” with product development prior to launching the business. Ayla & Co partnered with a Utah company, Klugonyx, to develop products.
“We did a lot of market research,” she recalls. “We went through several rounds of ideation on what we were looking for, what would make us different and what was patentable.”
Day, who often has “five seconds to tell people on social media why they should buy her bag,” says the elevator pitch for what makes Ayla & Co diaper bags worthwhile is relatively simple. For starters, the patented portable vacuum system is a key market differentiator.
Yet it’s the diaper bags themselves that come with many attractive selling points. “The inside of the diaper bag has a removable and washable liner,” Day says. “Diaper bags get messy, and it’s nice to just zip that out, throw it in the washing machine and put it back in.”
Better yet are the 16 numbered pockets that help parents find everything they need in seconds.
“Imagine you’re talking to a spouse and you have a crying baby,” Day explains, “and you need to find the ‘binky.’ You can just say, ‘The binky is in pocket seven.’ As soon as I say that, you see this light bulb go off in people’s heads and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I totally get it.’”
Ayla & Co diaper bags also have a unique way of opening that makes retrieving items more accessible. “Most diaper bags open from the top,” Day says. “They’re just an endless pit. You can’t find anything. Ours has a lay-down front open that still keeps everything in place.”
Included as well are newborn essentials, such as an insulated bottle or snack pouch. But the best feature of the Ayla & Co classic diaper bag, according to Day, is the straps.
“You can wear it as a backpack,” she says. “You can also seamlessly transition to a messenger bag without removing, storing or clicking on any additional straps. I’ve owned other bags where they had that feature, but I always had to change out the straps, and then I would lose them … As a mom whose hands are usually full, this is my favorite feature.”
A plan for the future
Ayla & Co bags are made out of a specific type of vegan leather that Day says the brand tested extensively before choosing to carry. “It’s the most durable, sustainable and cost-effective,” she says. “It keeps our costs down and customers’ costs down while still giving a premium look.”
The brand’s bags range in price from $84 to $227.
Ayla & Co’s most recent products are the tote and stroller caddy. Day says she’s “super proud of” these products and that they’ve been met with great reception among customers who pre-ordered them.
“The tote is the one that really takes us away from just being a diaper bag brand,” she notes. “The stroller caddy, I think, is one of my favorite bags. I don’t even have kids in strollers anymore, but I use it as a car tote. I love the quality of it and I’m really happy with it.”
Although Ayla & Co has expanded to a successful business model with national reach, Day keeps the team behind the name small. While she partners with contractors on customer service, marketing and warehouse, she remains the company’s sole full-time employee.
“My mission is to make parents’ lives more convenient and easy without having them sacrifice their sense of self,” she says of the motto that has kept Ayla & Co going strong since day one.
While the phrase “never read the comments” often rings true in the business world (and to protect one’s pride), Day says she reads every single comment customers leave on her bags.
“I love getting reviews where moms say, ‘You can tell a mom designed this. I’m so grateful. It’s made my life so much easier. It’s my fourth diaper bag, and I can’t recommend it enough.’”
Seeing that validation, Day explains, “is just so rewarding.”
“Sometimes as a business owner, you get caught up in all the backend stuff and don’t deal with customers on a day-to-day basis,” she says. “I like seeing that. It reminds me why I’m doing this, because running a business is very difficult and way harder than I ever thought it would be.”
The little affirmations and confirmations keep her faithful in her business model.
“What we’re doing is actually helping people and people actually love the product,” she says.
As with any other business she’s launched in the past, Day stays realistic about the future.
“Whenever I start a business, I always go into it with an exit plan,” she admits. “I feel like, as a business owner, that’s the smartest approach because you have an end goal to work toward.”
Day hopes to sell the business in the next five years. While she plans to stay onboard in a creative or leadership capacity, she has a clear-cut path defined for the future of Ayla & Co — and the mission will stay the same.
“We want to make bags that people feel confident using,” Day says. “Parenthood is chaotic and stressful enough, and your diaper bag doesn’t need to make you feel more stressed out.”