Natalie Chow’s KIBO & Happy Baton: Sustainable Shoe and Toy Solutions in Hong Kong
- yanabijoor
- Aug 12
- 4 min read
Natalie Chow, a fashion and beauty industry veteran with over 15 years of marketing experience, founded KIBO and Happy Baton to address pressing environmental challenges. Chow launched KIBO in 2019 alongside her husband, Simon Chow.
KIBO, named after the Japanese word for “hope,” reflects Natalie's vision to create stylish, eco-friendly shoes that minimize waste and combat labor exploitation.
Her second business, Happy Baton, which Natalie co-founded with Jade Lee, emerged from Chow’s recognition of the clutter caused by toys in Hong Kong’s compact living spaces. Launched as an online toy library, Happy Baton offers a subscription service for high-quality, educational toys.
Both ventures showcase Chow’s commitment to conscious consumerism, driven by her personal experiences as a mother and desire to create a positive legacy for her children.
KIBO: Environmental Waste and Unethical Practices in Fashion
Fast fashion is contributing to environmental degradation through overproduction and reliance on non-sustainable materials. Additionally, labor exploitation remains rampant across global supply chains. Consumers pay high prices for branding rather than value, while the industry overlooks long-term environmental and social impacts.
KIBO attempts to solve this problem by producing sustainable footwear using upcycled materials like apple waste, leather trimmings, and recycled plastics, reducing reliance on virgin resources.
Its Apple Leather collection, for instance, repurposes juicing industry waste into vegan-friendly shoes, cutting carbon emissions by 20 times compared to traditional leather. KIBO also donates a portion of its profits to Compassion First, a nonprofit fighting human trafficking, addressing ethical concerns in production. The brand emphasizes transparency, using certified materials (e.g., PETA-approved Apple Leather, GRS-certified recycled leather) and works with BSCI-accredited factories to ensure fair labor practices.
Happy Baton: Toy Waste and Lack of Sustainable Play Options
In Hong Kong, where compact living spaces exacerbate clutter, children’s toys contribute to waste as they are quickly outgrown or discarded. High-quality, educational toys are often expensive and hard to find, and the constant purchase of new toys adds to environmental strain and living space constraints.
Happy Baton’s subscription-based toy library delivers curated, age-appropriate, and developmentally focused toys to families, reducing the need to buy new items. The service includes a pick-up option for unwanted toys, extending their lifecycle through reuse. Toys are sanitized with hospital-grade processes, ensuring hygiene while promoting sustainable consumption. This model minimizes toy clutter, reduces waste, and provides access to high-quality, educational toys that support child development.
How KIBO and Happy Baton Solve Sustainability Problems
By innovating with materials like Apple Leather and recycled canvas, KIBO tackles waste in the footwear industry. Its Recycled Canvas Slip-Ons, for example, use recycled cotton and rubber, reducing the water footprint by up to 98% compared to conventional cotton. The brand’s commitment to ethical production is evident in its partnerships with audited factories and its support for anti-trafficking initiatives. KIBO also educates consumers to combat greenwashing, encouraging informed purchasing decisions.
The toy rental model addresses overconsumption by offering a circular economy approach. Parents receive monthly boxes tailored to their child’s needs, reducing the environmental impact of toy disposal. The pick-up service ensures toys are reused, while rigorous cleaning processes maintain safety and trust. This solution aligns with Hong Kong’s space constraints and promotes sustainable play for children up to age five.
Why These Solutions Are Innovative
KIBO’s use of apple waste for vegan leather is a pioneering step in sustainability, blending innovation with style. The Apple Leather collection, incorporating up to 15 repurposed apples per pair, is a USDA-certified biobased product that reduces reliance on animal leather and minimizes food industry waste. By combining aesthetics, comfort (e.g., orthopedic insoles), and sustainability, KIBO challenges the notion that eco-friendly products compromise quality.
The toy library model is innovative in Hong Kong’s context, where space is a critical concern. By curating educational toys and offering a rental system, Happy Baton reduces waste while addressing the financial and logistical barriers to accessing quality toys. The service’s focus on child development and hygiene (using hospital-grade disinfection) adds value, making sustainable toys accessible for busy parents.
Impact of KIBO and Happy Baton
Since its launch, KIBO has seen significant traction, nearly doubling sales in the financial year ending March 2023, reflecting growing demand for sustainable footwear. Its use of recycled materials has reduced environmental footprints, with the canvas slip-ons cutting water usage by 98%. Socially, KIBO’s donations to Compassion First support child survivors of sex trafficking, aligning profit with purpose. The brand’s emphasis on transparency has also inspired conscious consumerism, particularly among millennials and Gen Z, who prioritize value-led brands.
The subscription has been “overwhelmingly positive,” with parents appreciating the variety and educational value of monthly boxes. Its pick-up service creates a circular economy for toys, resonating with environmentally conscious families in Hong Kong.
Areas for Improvement
One challenge is developing end-of-life solutions for shoes, as disassembling complex components (e.g., recycled leather, rubber, and plastics) for upcycling is difficult, particularly in Hong Kong’s limited recycling infrastructure. Chow is exploring how to solve this issue.
Additionally, overcoming consumer skepticism about upcycled materials remains a hurdle.
For Happy Baton, expanding the range of toys or age groups (beyond five years old) could be powerful, but requires careful curation to ensure developmental relevance.
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