Made for Childhood.
Inspired by the World.
I grew up in a suburb of Memphis. My dad didn’t have a passport. My grandfather had never seen an ocean. But my Great Aunt Freda had traveled the world, and the stories she brought back planted an idea in me that never stopped growing: the world should be explored.
I co-founded Tea in 2002 with a partner who feels the same way. We called it Tea because tea is shared in nearly every culture on earth—from British high tea to the Japanese tea ceremony, it’s a drink that brings people together.
More than twenty years later, the founding principles remain. Tea is still a small, independent, female-founded brand—still run by people who care about what kids wear and how it’s made, still making pieces that outlast the moment they were made for. And every so often, the world reminds me why we started.
During a long layover in Hong Kong, a mom spotted my young sons wearing Tea. Her kids wear Tea too, she said—it reflects her values of raising citizens of the world. On the way home, my boys told me that “tea brings people together.” I’m still not sure if they meant the drink or the brand—but I think that's exactly the point.
Every season, we travel. We sketch. We fall for a color in a market, a pattern on a tile, a detail most people walk right past.
Then we bring it home. Our artists translate those moments into original, hand-drawn prints you won’t find anywhere else. We design clothes for kids who move, play, and get them dirty in them.
Globally inspired doesn’t mean decorative. It means real. Every collection is rooted in a specific place and the life that actually happens there.
We build for the second child. The third. The cousin who inherits the whole bag of hand-me-downs. That means fabrics that hold up, thoughtful construction, and fits designed for how kids actually move.
We’re meticulous about the details that most people never notice—until they do. Wash after wash testing. Reinforced knees. Interior neck tape on every tee. Hand-me-down tags on our sweaters and hoodies that tell the story of where a piece has been. We design for longevity, not the moment. These are clothes made to be loved and passed on with pride.
When your family is done with them, someone else’s is just getting started. Buy, sell, or trade preloved Tea on our Rewear site.
Tea gives back 10% of profits to the Global Fund for Children and grassroots organizations working to ensure a better world for kids everywhere.
We’ve done this since the beginning. Not as a campaign, not as a moment, but as part of what it means to be Tea.
Learn more about our commitment to giving back here.
Respect for people and cultures is at the heart of everything we do, whether we're traveling the world for inspiration or choosing the partners who bring our designs to life.
We work with trusted factories in Peru, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and China—many for over a decade. They’re not just vendors; they’re an extension of the Tea family. Every partner is held to a strict code of conduct covering fair wages, safe working conditions, and responsible production. We have local agents in each country who are our eyes and ears on the ground, and of course our own team loves to make visits as well
We practice fair trade principles and hold ourselves and our partners to high standards, every day.
Tea is the most widely shared drink in the world. In almost every culture, it's how you welcome someone—how you say sit down, stay a while, tell me about yourself.
We named this brand Tea because that's the spirit we wanted to carry into everything we make: curiosity, warmth, and the belief that connection starts when you slow down enough to notice the world around you.
Explore with Us
We Rewear
Great clothes deserve more than one childhood. Shop preloved Tea, sell what they’ve outgrown, trade it forward on our Rewear site.
We’re Local
Tea was built on relationships with neighborhood retailers––the kind of independent shops that carry things they actually believe in. We’ve been proud to partner with boutiques from the beginning. Find one near you and see the collection in person.
