Fit for a Kid

Jeff Bender’s daughters have always had distinct personalities. His oldest, now a teenager, has had a fearless, adventurous spirit from birth, earning her the nickname “Lion.” It was so apt, friends and family would get her lion trinkets anytime they traveled. When his youngest child, now a tween, was born, Bender was struck by how temperamentally different she was from her sister. A keen, wide-eyed observer who cherishes solitude, it was clear from the get-go that she was an “Owl.” The nickname not only stuck — it came to embody her spirit. 

While they each have their own personalities, the one thing Bender’s daughters share is a love of expressing themselves through their clothing — something that became increasingly difficult as they grew older and did not fit into the gendered categories that so often define the fashion industry. His eldest was drawn to the “boy’s” section of stores, opting for T-shirts, shorts, and, on one occasion, a blue winter coat that she was thrilled about until she was shamed by her classmates for wearing a “boy’s coat.” Bender’s youngest, a transgender girl who wanted nothing more than to comfortably wear leggings, also struggled to find clothing that spoke to her needs and style preferences. Their experiences gave Bender pause. 

“No one is making a real effort and consciously making decisions about what these kids’ needs are in terms of their clothes,” Bender says. “That’s where our mission lies: making it easier for your daughter and my daughter and your son to wear what they like that makes them feel good.”

Bender is addressing this need through Lion+Owl, a gender-free, sensory-friendly clothing line rooted in inclusivity and accessibility so that kids can feel empowered to be their true selves. Founded in St. Louis in 2023 and based out of O’Fallon, Missouri, Lion+Owl launched its first line of leggings, joggers, hoodies, and T-shirts in August 2024, all featuring kid-tested design details such as considerate and soft seams, fidget features, feel-good fabrics, bold colors, and empowering messaging — details that, in Bender’s experience, go a long way toward making kids feel good about themselves. 

Bender, who jokes that he could not sew a button before founding Lion+Owl, never envisioned himself as a clothing entrepreneur. A wine professional by trade and co-founder of the west county retail outlet St. Louis Wine Market, Bender’s first foray into the fashion world came after a casual conversation with his youngest daughter who simply wanted to wear a pair of leggings without feeling self-conscious. After chatting with her, he took to his computer to search for a pair of the athleisure staple designed with trans kids in mind. Surely they existed, he thought, but after scouring what felt like every corner of the internet, he came up with nothing. His shock quickly turned to disappointment. Then it became his purpose. 

“I figured there had to be some kind of legging or something that would help make my daughter feel more comfortable, but there was nothing — no options whatsoever,” Bender says. “At that moment, I was a parent with a kid who had a problem, and I wanted to figure out how I could fix it. It was like all of those awesome success stories we hear: I saw a problem and then I saw the solution.”

Design Stars

Bender continued to mull over the problem, not knowing where to begin until a chance encounter gave him the direction he needed. One day, while chatting with his parents about the concept in his wine shop, a wine sales representative approached him with an important proposition. She’d overheard his conversation and wanted to share his idea with her wife, who knew people in the St. Louis apparel industry. They exchanged information and before he knew it, Bender was having a two-hour conversation with his wine rep’s wife, who would go on to connect him with the Soulard-based apparel company Stars Design Group. 

Stars was instrumental in helping Bender turn his ideas into the Lion+Owl brand. The St. Louis apparel manufacturer and design firm — a major player in the international clothing industry  — was thrilled to lend its resources and expertise to what they felt was such a needed project. They also connected Bender with St. Louis-based designer Claire Thomas-Morgan, who has been a key player in Lion+Owl’s development. Like Bender, the issue of inclusive, gender-free clothing hits close to home for Thomas-Morgan, who has a niece who is transgender. Thomas-Morgan also understood the need for such apparel and was excited to help Bender bring his ideas into meaningful apparel. 

After listening to parents through Facebook groups and in general conversation, it became clear to Bender that there was significant demand for apparel designed for kids who are transgender but also gender non-conforming, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent with sensory processing difficulties, and beyond. It was clear to Bender and Thomas-Morgan that these communities were underserved in the clothing space, and it became important to them to be sensitive to those needs in their design process.

“We don’t want to design anything that doesn’t serve a purpose,” Bender says. “Every piece of fabric, stitch, and design detail is there intentionally and serves the purpose of making kids feel more comfortable, confident, and brave.”

Bender and Thomas-Morgan, under contract and with the support of Stars Design Group, collaborated on a collection that took into account the needs expressed by parents, as well as their own experiences. As Bender explains, the entire collection started with leggings, in particular the question of why it was so difficult to find leggings that lay flat in the front and are made without a front seam. The design team at Stars told him this is because leggings are traditionally sewn left leg to right leg, with a seam that connects them — something that can be cumbersome for people looking for a more discrete fit. The solution, they decided, was to sew leggings from front to back so that no middle seam is needed, creating a flat front. They also designed the leggings to be paired with a pouch-like support system in the front that prevents them from riding up on the wearer. 

These details might seem minor to the average consumer, but as Bender explains, they can make a world of difference to the many people who are uncomfortable, both literally and mentally, and self-conscious in traditional, front-seam leggings. 

“Something magical happens to kids when they wear our clothing,” Bender says. “It’s why we also have positive messaging built into our clothes that say things like Be Brave. Our leggings allow you to be brave, and we want that to be the last thought on kids’ minds when they are putting them on. We want them to see that message, then go out and conquer the world because we are providing clothes they don’t have to worry about.”

Finding the Right Fit

While the fit and design details are a major part of the Lion+Owl brand, Bender sees its mission as being much larger. Something that’s always vexed him — and is top of mind for the many parents he’s talked to over the years — is why clothing is put into gendered categories. To him, a hoodie is just a hoodie. And in his experience, kids more often ask for items based on their color or fit. To Bender, it’s an artificial and unnecessary categorization that he’s eager to dismantle. 

“The idea of boys’ clothes or girls’ clothes makes no sense when you break it down,” Bender says. “That’s the biggest feedback we kept getting from parents when we did our research. They are tired of going to boys’ sections or girls’ sections and want to simply take them to a clothing section and let them buy what they want.”

In this spirit, Lion+Owl has created a gender-free size and fit category they call ALLkids+ that allows parents to buy clothes based on sizes like small, medium, and large versus a boys’ small or a girls’ medium. To create this, the design team took one-thousand measurements of kids who identify as boys and kids who identify as girls for every age group: one-thousand 5-year-old girls, one-thousand 5-year-old boys and so forth, all the way through age 12. The result is a universal gender-free category that they hope will be adopted by the children’s apparel industry at large to make shopping easier for parents and kids. 

Beyond sizing, Bender hopes to break stereotypes that center on color and design details in clothing, something that is underscored by the brand’s prominent use of the traditionally coded colors of pink and blue. By intentionally using these colors in a gender-free manner, Bender hopes to reframe the narrative surrounding them and empower kids to select colors and designs based on their own preferences. 

Stars Design Group stands fully behind Lion+Owl’s gender-free approach and even encouraged Bender to write about it for the brand’s marketing materials. These writings quickly morphed into a book, Apparel Has No Gender, which was named one of the best books of 2023 by St. Louis librarians in a list profiled by St. Louis Public Radio. In support of the book, Bender has traveled around the U.S., where he’s encountered many parents and children who see his company as more than just a clothing brand — it’s living proof of the impact that having supportive families has on LGBTQ+ youth. 

Across the country, Bender has been greeted with a warm reception and grateful comments from parents who, like him, have been struggling with clothing needs for their children. It’s a need that is everywhere, although Bender is adamant that he has been successful thanks to the support of many people in the St. Louis region. Stars Design Group, in particular, has been a tremendous resource in terms of its expertise, global reach, and supportive approach to his nascent brand.

Due to the company’s deep fashion industry connections, Bender was able to develop Lion+Owl without having to go outside of St. Louis for any part of the process — something he wants more aspiring clothing entrepreneurs to know and take part in.

“Having Stars in St. Louis was a complete game-changer for me; their global access and access to professionals is really big,” Bender says. “I was able to do everything here — from creation to design to testing to production and delivery, it all took place in St. Louis. Everything we have tried to do locally we have been able to do.”

Help Along the Way

As impactful as it has been in creating the Lion+Owl brand, Stars is only one part of the reason Bender feels that St. Louis has been a great place to start his business. He points to SCORE, the small business resource hub that offers free and open-to-all business workshops, as being imperative to Lion+Owl’s development. Through SCORE, Bender has taken numerous classes and Zoom workshops and has received free help with everything from financial forecasting and grant proposal writing to website development, legal advice, and mentorship.

“I didn’t know where to start, so I reached out to SCORE and they walked me through every step of the process,” Bender says. “All of their classes are taught by local St. Louis industry professionals. I tell everyone who wants to start a business to reach out to them because they are unbelievable. To have that kind of knowledge available for free is so valuable. I don’t know if enough people realize the resources that are out there for us in St. Louis.”

Bender also praises the robust support he has received from the broader St. Louis community. Bookstores like the Webster Groves independent shop The Novel Neighbor have let him host events in the store and have been thrilled to carry his books. The independent children’s clothing store City Sprouts has been a wonderful partner as well; last year, the owner brought Bender to a buying event in New York City and introduced him to many important contacts in the fashion world, which has put him on the radar of key players in the industry. 

He’s also grateful for organizations like the Missouri Commission on Human Rights and the advocacy group PROMO for helping to create brand awareness and spread Lion+Owl’s message of inclusive clothing. Bender believes that all of these resources, working in concert, will not only help his brand thrive — they are indicators of the possibilities the city has for entrepreneurs who, like him, are trying to make a meaningful impact on their industries. 

“We want to be in St. Louis and we want to grow St. Louis,” Bender says. “In the early 1900s, St. Louis was the center of the apparel universe, and we believe it can be that again. We are pushing to bring that back and we love to see the community step up and support us.”