Royal Swaddle Maker’s Website Crashes Due To Overwhelming Demand

Nowhere could the power of the Internet be better demonstrated than by the worldwide response to what has been dubbed the Royal Swaddle.

This was the cotton swaddle with tiny birds on it in which newborn Prince George was revealed to the world, as he was carried from the hospital to the car. Once the photos hit the blogosphere the question asked by all mothers-to-be was: ‘who made the swaddle?’ The answer came quickly, as fashion writers scoured their sources and found the answer – a New York based company called aden+anais.

Within 9 days the company received 7,000 orders for the Royal Swaddle, despite its website having crashed twice due to the sheer volume of demand. Raegan Moya-Jones, CEO of aden + anais, only saw the photo when alerted by a colleague. She didn’t believe it, “I thought it was photo-shopped,” she said.

Average daily visits to the site went through the roof; percentage increases were: Britain 1,960, Australia 892, Japan 791, and U.S. 458 percent. What that means is that potential buyers can anticipate a long wait until their little bundle-of-joy is swaddled like royalty. Maybe they’ll need to order the swaddle before getting pregnant!

Cele Otnes, a professor of marketing at the University of Illinois, said,”This is history….If you can’t be there, if you can’t have a royal baby yourself, you can buy the swaddle.” She added that people just want to be part of things, particularly anything relating to the British Monarchy.

Prince George is the first heir to the throne whose tiniest actions will be tweeted, or appear on Facebook, within seconds of their occurrence. Actually, aden+anais are not the first to benefit from the royal baby. He appeared previously in a crocheted blanket made by the U.K firm of G.H.Hurt and Son. After its label was clearly seen and widely circulated, the firm was swamped with orders.

It has been reported that Kate actually selected the Royal Swaddle personally at a London store. Being a first-time-mum probably means that it’ll be a while before she gets out to do more shopping, although she does enjoy rather more support than the average mum.