Our Story

Our story, in my words

Hi, I’m Sandra, mom of 4 and the mom behind Wildbreakers by Zelda Matilda. We’re a family of six in Upstate New York, and Zelda Matilda is a husband-and-wife team. My kids are the real inspiration behind it all.

My kids play outside in our big backyard in every season. In the winter it’s snowmen, igloos and sledding. But every 20 minutes the back door would swing open and someone needed a new pair of mittens, because their hands were ice cold. I ended up keeping a bucket of mittens by the door so they could swap pairs all day. Their boots worked. Their coats worked. So why were their hands always the first to get cold?

So I became a bit of a mad scientist. I bought every brand of gloves and mittens I could find and took my kitchen knife to them to see what was inside. I put my own mitten-covered hands in buckets of ice, ran fabric across a bed of nails, and exercised in mittens to see if they let the sweat out. My family thought I’d lost it! I spent years testing and measuring hundreds of little hands.

Then, after a huge snowfall, I drove past a group of kids playing in a front yard with plastic bags over their hands. My heart fell. I understood that mom completely. Kids’ gloves can be pricey, and they’re hard to get onto squirmy little hands. But wet, cold hands aren’t just uncomfortable, they’re a real danger. That’s when I knew. Outdoor play is every child’s right. Keeping their hands safe while they do it? That’s a change-the-world product.

Before gloves, I ran a hair bow business, so I was already a stickler for quality. I found partner factories that could make the mitten I’d been dreaming of, at a price families can afford. Along the way I invented the patent-pending Easy-On Flex Thumb, so kids of all ages and abilities can get their gloves on and enjoy the snow.

Today more than 1 million pairs have been sold, and families all over the world keep little hands warm with our mittens and gloves. And that bucket by my back door? It’s a lot emptier these days. 😉

Here’s to warm hands and long snow days! ❄️
Sandra