Sycha Slings is a woven wrap brand based in the UK, run by myself, Sally Sycha (also known as Sling Sally). I am a Slingababy trained babywearing consultant and run a UK postal sling library. I found babywearing crucial in my recovery from postnatal depression which was how I became involved in this wonderful community – you can read more about the ways babywearing can help with postnatal depression here. I am married to Ben and we have a son called Reuben who was born early 2014. We bought our first sling while I was still pregnant as a way to help with bonding and maintaining independence, as I had suffered severe antenatal depression during pregnancy. Reu and I have loved our ongoing journey with babywearing and Ben and I look forward to sharing this with our second child, who is expected in Spring 2017.
So it was from this background that I decided to set up my own woven wrap company. My main aim when starting Sycha Slings was to enable as many people as possible to experience babywearing for themselves. I wanted to support UK businesses, but also realised that due to UK production costs this excluded many people from trying woven wraps, so that’s why I decided to produce two ranges. The Main line is the Turkish produced range (Turkey has a strong history in cotton production and weaving), and the Studio line is the UK produced range. The designs aim to be a bit fun and lighthearted, to encourage people to smile when they see them.
One of my first thoughts when deciding to set up Sycha Slings, was that this could be a great way that I could do more to support various charities, especially those particularly close to my heart. I had a think about how best to achieve this and decided that Sycha Slings would donate 5% of the sales price of all wraps and ring slings sold by us to charity. Each colourway of each design has a specific charity associated with it, so you know exactly where your contribution will be going, and this allows Sycha Slings to support multiple charities. I chose this method so that we are always working on supporting these charities in the important work they do. So, if you spend £100 on a wrap or ring sling from Sycha Slings, £5 will go to that design/colourway’s designated charity. You can find further details of the designated charities and their associated wraps here.
The Sycha Slings peacock feather logo is from when I first became a Sycha in 2011. It was the artwork we used on all our wedding stationary and place markers etc, so was in effect our wedding logo. A good friend of ours designed it especially for us so it feels very personal to us, and was therefore the natural choice when choosing a logo for the wrap company bearing our name.