Please, Send us your Photos

We admit it, we love hearing from our customers. Of course we love it when you sing our praises :
I love your website. Your clothing is different from all the others. - thanks Nicole!
Thanks a million - you are great!!!! - thank you Tamar!

But we also love hearing about you! We love hearing about your children. We love helping you find the perfect outfit for your needs. We even love those of you who just want to chat and find out what the weather is like in Bozeman, Montana (if you want to save yourself the phone call, it's cold and snowing).

What we especially love, are customer photos! Here is one from a Tel Aviv customer taken while they were on vacation in Courchevel, France. I had to immediately research Courchevel, France and now I am pretty sure I need to visit! It looks like an amazing ski resort. The baby stayed toasty warm in her Patagonia Baby Down Sweater.

Submit a photo during the month of April of your little one sporting some Montkid outerwear, clothing or swimwear and we'll send you a coupon code good for 20% off your next order. You'll have 30 days to use it so get your shopping list started!

What's the Warmest Kids Outerwear?

We spent the morning researching the various brands of children's outerwear we carry at montkid.com to determine what we'll recommend when customers email or call us. Since we recommend all brands we carry for certain situations, we'll focus on the question we get the most: What brand of children's outerwear is the warmest? The best way to answer this question is to look at how many grams of insulation an item of children's outerwear has.

Children's Obermeyer
The top rated brand of children's outerwear for warmth is Obermeyer. The warmest kids winter coat for the season is the Girls Posey Jacket at 240 grams and the Boys Sport Jacket also at 240 grams. Both of these jackets are under $100 which is an incredible deal! Most of the other Obermeyer Kids Jackets are roughly 220-240 grams. Obermeyer Kids Snowpants are roughly 100 grams which seems to be the industry average. When we move up into the larger sizes of Children's Obermeyer Jackets (6-18) the insulation drops down to 140 grams.

Children's Patagonia
Patagonia ties for the top spot in our review of warm children's outerwear (Obermeyer gets a tiny edge in terms of number of choices, but we're not allowed to talk about style choices in this article). Patagonia's excellent construction, quality use of materials and strong environmental messages appeal to bajillions of parents. The Puff Rider Jacket features 200 grams of insulation plus a durable water repellent finish to keep them dry when the skies unload.
The good news here, is that this jacket, with all of it's warmth, is available from size 3 months to 14 years! Patagonia edges out Obermeyer in the snow pant department. The Puff Rider Pant features that same 200 grams of insulation but are only available in size 3 months to 3 years old. After that, the kids have to tough it out in the 100 gram Snow Bum Pant.

Children's Spyder
Rounding out our group of brands at the top is Spyder. Spyder's Mini and Bitsy kids jackets in sizes 2-7 feature 160 grams of insulation. The Spyder Girls and Boys Jackets are at 140 grams. Spyder's kids snowpants are between 60 and 80 grams. The warmest little girls and toddler coat from Spyder is the Noatak Down Jacket with 600 fill power goose down. Even though the Noatak is a kids down jacket, it has a water repellent finish.

Reima, Deux Par Deux & Bogner
Of course, we also love Reima for the babies with about 140 grams of insulation in their one piece snowsuits and sets. Deux Par Deux is extremely warm, but doesn't list grams of insulation so we couldn't compare them. Just based on the number of years we've been in the business and our uncanny ability to judge insulation based on touch, we're guessing they have about 140-160 grams for their snowsuits and sets. Bogner is another brand that we love, but does not list their grams of insulation. I think they think they are above such a thing because when we ask, they roll their eyes at us and tell us their outerwear is made of the finest quality materials in the world. The down from the underbelly of the Eider Duck (superior to the goose)! We agree it is awesome. Eiderdown tests at approximately 700 fill power so that's all we can really say about that.

Children's Columbia
Winter wouldn't be winter without a mention of Columbia. Columbia is a wonderful value brand. And warm, too - we think! Columbia is another brand that does not list insulation in grams. It varies piece by piece but we believe it has roughly 100 - 120 grams of insulation. Perfect for most climates -especially toddlers or babies who are not exposed for hours and hours. We especially like their sets, like the Arctic Andrea and the Whoosh.

Did you make it through all that? Has the wave of cold weather hit your area yet? Let's try another private sale. Enter coupon code: warm at checkout for 25% off all regular priced merchandise. Sale runs through November 20th. At which point, we will probably kick off our very public annual Thanksgiving sale (same discount). So, we're giving you the chance to shop early and get the best selection.

Farewell to Reima

Reima was founded in 1944 in Kankaanpää Finland. Reima is the Nordic region’s leading manufacturer of children’s clothes. They have been a personal favorite at Montkid.com for several years. Reima's development of it's Reimatec™ product family was a breakthrough for babies, toddler and children's outerwear that protects in all weather conditions.
All Reima garments are made of waterproof, windproof and breathable Reimatec™ material. Reimatec™ shoes – with the same qualities – protect feet against the wet and cold.

Some of our favorites and best sellers have been the Fivel one piece snowsuit for infants. The Liro one piece snowsuit for toddlers and the Reima Footwear such as the Frozen Flower and Panda. The single item that is always on our list of winter essentials, however, is the Reima Balaclava. Made from a super soft wool, the balaclavas protect those super soft, super kissable cheeks!

Sadly, Reima will no longer be distributing to the US market. Montkid.com bought up the remainder of inventory available for the season, but it won't last long. And once it's gone, it really, truly is gone.

So, we find ourselves on the hunt for a replacement brand. Something that is of equal quality and style. If anyone has any suggestions, let us know!

Trick or Treat - I'm guessing you'd prefer Treat

I think I've eaten too much candy corn. I'm having a hard time sitting still and I'm feeling extra joyous. You should make sure I have candy corn more often, because it makes me feel like having another one of my extremely spontaneous, keep-it-on-the-down-low montkid.com sales! After my last blog (a week ago or so??) I truly thought we were done with sales for a while. We're selling out and can't get more in stock! Then came the Candy Corn.

Why not use your savings to get something Orange? One of this seasons hottest colors - the ever optimistic and bright, Orange! The perfect antidote to winter blues and economic woes. Available from number of manufacturers including Reima, Spyder, Obermeyer (Obermeyer calls it Honeysuckle) and Bogner.

Now, on to your Halloween spooky savings. Try out coupon code: Treat for a 20% discount. It's only good until October 31st at the stroke of midnight. Well, that seems a little harsh. How about November 2nd?

Now Orange you glad you read this blog? Happy Shopping!

Disclaimer: If this coupon code doesn't work, I guess this was a trick.

Sneak Peek and Pre-Season Savings

If you're starting to think about getting your child outfitted for winter, you'd better get a move on. As quickly as we can get items loaded onto the web site, they are selling. Some of the best sizes, colors and styles are already sold out! I hate it when that happens.

I wanted to make sure that those who have stuck with us during our months and months of non-activity on the blog, are rewarded for their loyalty. How does a hush, hush private coupon sound? Good for anything not on sale, which means all of the brand new items from Patagonia, Columbia, Deux Par Deux, Spyder, Obermeyer, Smartwool, etc. etc!

Also, please ignore the very cute, very fashionable summer models still residing on our home page, montkid.com (well, actually, maybe you shouldn't ignore them completely, because there are killer deals on kids clothing right now).

Happy Shopping! Enjoy the use of coupon code: fall09 for 25% off all regularly priced items! This coupon expires Monday Sept. 28th and we don't have any other sales planned at this point.

Welcome to Montkid.com

Ok... The first post is a little overwhelming. I am way out of my comfort zone, but I have had lots of people telling me I should start a blog. I'm not even sure I like the word blog, but I love the concept.

The Introduction:
I have two jobs. My first is as "momma" to 4 little girls (Ella, Ashlynn, Cambelle & Seeley). My second job is the owner of Montkid, a children's boutique located in Bozeman, Montana that specializes in superior quality and fabulously fashionable outerwear and outdoor inspired clothing from brands like Bogner, Deux Par Deux, Patagonia, Spyder, Quiksilver/Roxy, Columbia and more!

The purpose of this blog will be to reward my loyal, faithful customers with first glimpses of new products, trend reports, and coupons! As a reward for those of you who were passionate enough about kids outerwear to find this blog and actually read it through to the end, I will announce our first coupon. The first coupon is for 30% off any regularly priced item (Regularly priced means it's new inventory by the way!). Go to www.montkid.com and use the coupon code: savebig at checkout! Offer expires Sunday, Sept. 14th at midnight.

Thank you for your time!
Christy