What’s in a Name?

If you’re peeling open this issue, you’ve probably noticed we have a new name…

You won’t be surprised to learn that it’s not our first update in 107 years. Looking back, George F. Earnshaw founded our publication in 1917 as The Infants’ Department. In the early 1930s, the name was tweaked to Earnshaw’s The Infants’ and Children’s Department, then became Earnshaw’s Infants’ & Children’s Review in the 1960s, and finally shortened to Earnshaw’s by the early 1990s.

We’ve come a little bit full circle, honoring our founder while putting the emphasis back where it began: kids. In fact, there are many parallels between then and now. In 1917, the U.S. had just entered WWI. In a time of uncertainty and political upheaval, culture and technology was plowing full-speed ahead. The telephone opened new opportunities for buyers, and the first commercial jazz recording was hitting airwaves.

We find ourselves at a similar touch point, where political uncertainty is met with rapidly evolving technology (looking at you, AI). Back then, retailers doubled down on what worked. In the December 1917 issue of The Infants’ Department, buyer Ady L. Collins wrote that every store should make shopping “as easy and pleasant as possible.” She suggested making mothers comfortable and even offering to take little ones off their hands so they could shop.

It’s really not so different from the advice shared by Christina Connelly, owner of New York boutique Tutti, our Retailer of the Year, who says, “Part of being a successful retailer is, you have to check all of the boxes — the client has to have the whole experience.” (Read more about the store’s “secret sauce” on page 42.)

This is the constant dance: learning to stay with the times without losing sight of the age-old tenants that drive success. That’s exactly the balance we aim to strike at Earnshaw’s Kids, and it’s a formula all of the brands recognized in this issue have mastered.

So as we celebrate these innovative Earnie Award winners under our new name, consider it our promise to keep moving forward without forgetting where we came from.