You counted all US births. Not all birth parents bottle feed, some still breast feed their children. There are probably more than two and less than four million kids using a bottle at any point in time. Let's say three million?
So, 300K units per year. Cost to make slings- under $2 per unit. A sewing contractor with twenty sewers could make that many in two weeks. Packaging can be minimal as in simply a tag. You can ship hundreds of slings in a box weighing less than twenty pounds. Think bibs or bras. Let's say $2.50 - $2.75 per unit (I still think that's high though).
That's around $780,000 to make package and distribute three hundred thousand slings to let's say Babies R Us or Wal Mart. They could retail for around $12 ea. That's around $9.4 million. Give or take a few hundred thousand, juggle numbers around all you want, it still comes up as a pretty tempting venture for the right company.
I was just talking about this to a friend of mine. Thanks for the encouragement!
by bottleslingguy