Rich with weight ceilings: How Bearaby builds a million business

Until recently, weight ceilings had a rather modest glamor factor. The fabric mountains weighing several kilos should help with stress, fear and sleep disorders, which is why they are also marketed as therapy corners. Potential useful, but little sexy.

Kathrin Hamm changed that. The German founder made a lifestyle hit with her start-up Bearaby in the USA from weight ceilings. Celebritys like Hollywood actress Kathryn Hahn or Grammy winner Olivia Rodrigo swear by the hand-knitted cotton ceilings-and tell about it in an effective manner in interviews with large US magazines.

The set designers from Netflix and other large streaming services also depart on Bearaby. The ceilings were seen in the “Sex and the City” continuation “and Just Like Us” and in the Apple TV hit “The Morning Show” with Reese Witherspoon. In the successful series “Only Murders in the Building”, the weight ceiling even becomes part of the story. Leading actor Steve Martin cuddles in a funny little scene intimately with his Bearaby blanket and explains that this is as “cozy as a big dog”.

Who would have thought that roughly knitted monster ceilings-five, seven or nine kilos-could develop such an IT factor?

Kathrin Hamm recognized the coolness potential of her brand early and promoted cleverly. She offered her ceilings to the streaming makers in the hope of free publicity. “Weight ceilings have been around for a long time, but they just didn’t look good – Bearaby has changed that,” says Hamm about her recipe for success.

With the Americans, she hit a nerve with the chic blankets and the promise of better sleep. Founded in 2018, her start-up made more than 20 million euros in sales in 2020. For 2025, Hamm is aiming for a medium double -digit million sales.

The market entry in Germany should also help where the weight blankets have only been available since last autumn. Because although Hamm comes from Swabia, she initially made Bearaby great in the United States. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that the US market is larger and weight blankets were already quite known as a therapy ceiling. On the other hand, also because Hamm lives in the USA itself.

Before the 42-year-old started with Bearaby, she already had a considerable career as an economist. Hamm worked for four and a half years at Washington’s World Bank. Due to the many business trips to different time zones, however, it increasingly suffered from sleep disorders. And thus came up with the idea of ​​developing a sleep -promoting blanket. “At that time, not everyone understood that I would give up my safe job at the World Bank to sell weight ceilings,” says Hamm in retrospect.

For the adventure self -employment, she dissolved her pension fund, which brought her $ 120,000 starting capital. A successful crowdfunding and the rapid sale of the first 800 ceilings confirmed in their business idea within two weeks. After six months, she had orders worth 250,000 euros. “Then I knew that the idea was good.” Hamm built a production in India, where today it can have up to 800 organic cotton blankets made a day. In the meantime, Bearaby also sells sleeping masks, neck warmers and weight ceilings for children.

Now Hamm wants to conquer Germany with Bearaby. The dear compatriots are demanding. “German customers are more difficult to convince,” says Hamm. They are much more interested in product details and asked more questions than the Americans. What do weight ceilings really bring? What does science say? And how do you wash things? In order to relieve the small-primarily English-language-service team, Hamm had to quickly expand the German website with a FAQ section.

The fact that a US star says that he can no longer live without a bearaby is not sufficient here as an incentive to buy for the 230 to 300 euro blankets. “Many customers want to touch and try out the ceilings before buying one,” says Hamm. Therefore, in Germany she is now closing cooperation with large yoga studies that lay test ceilings in her room. You can then order later in the online shop. If everything goes well, the German market should ensure sales this year for five million euros.

Where success is, however, free riders are not far. Another challenge for Bearaby is therefore the fight against imitators, which copy the iconic ceilings too brazen. Bearaby had his weight ceilings protected with 14 patent applications. Nevertheless, sometimes only the passage helps. In 2023, Hamm had to spend more than one million euros in legal costs for a large patent dispute alone.