The Kinderfeets Story

To grow, children need the right tools to push outside of their comfort zones and pave their own path of imaginative, fearless, and fun adventure. Kinderfeets design a range of high quality, wooden learning toys to meet this need and to support all children in their early cognitive and physical development. From balance bikes to educational building blocks, every product is sustainably made to inspire young minds to bravely and independently explore our wonderful world.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Kinderfeets was founded by Dutch designer Oscar V. Mulder in 2012 after a labour-of-love project for his young son proved to be a level up in balance bike design. A Netherlands native, Oscar – who resides with his family in San Francisco, California – grew up in a culture where biking is a way of life. Naturally, he was determined to cultivate that same love of adventure in his two-year-old son, Sebastiaan, as soon as he could. Looking to the market of children’s balance bikes (also known as running bikes or training bikes), Oscar was let down by what he found, and so began his quest to fill the gap.

Today, Oscar uses his 20 years of international brand design experience to manage Kinderfeets – a thriving, sustainable business, manufacturing active toys and learning tools that support children in their pursuit of independence, development, and confidence.

Inspired by traditional Dutch bikes, Kinderfeets is a play on words for the Dutch word “kinderfiets”, which translates to “child’s bike.” And as the name suggests, children use their feet to drive their movement on our Balance Bikes and Trikes, by running along the ground. Likewise, our Waldorf Classroom–inspired Kinderboards invite lots of feet-centred fun, stimulating endless possibilities for imaginative play and exercise for the whole family. Our additional Baby Walkers and educational Play Toys encourage motor and cognitive skill development, while also cultivating an appreciation for all things active and creative.

The first thing founder and designer Oscar Mulder discovered about the early market offerings of balance bikes was that there were none to suit toddler-aged children. Then, when his young son could finally fit on one, there was nowhere for him to perch his feet when cruising. These issues posed an exciting design challenge for Oscar, who set about finding innovative solutions that would make a world of difference for little riders. 

Now, Kinderfeets' award-winning Balance Bikes and Trikes range caters to children as young as one years old with a low step-through frame, allowing for lower height settings for the seat and an easier on-and-off experience for the rider. See our Comparision Guide for an easy walk through of the different models and how they accommodate different ages and sizes.

The TINY TOT and TINY TOT PLUS bikes offer two-for-one value, with the ability to start as a three-wheeled trike before transforming into a two-wheeled balance bike when the young rider is ready. Then the slightly larger Balance Bike boasts the innovative design feature of foot pegs, which children can rest their feet on when cruising/coasting. This not only improves safety but also eases a child's transition to a pedal-powered bike later on as they can get used to where to put their feet. Oscar also ensured easy maintenance for parents with  EVA airless tyres (which are biodegradeable), and comfortability was considered all the way through to the padded handlebars and seat. 

Looking after our children and our world

Each sustainably made Kinderfeets product is purposefully designed to ensure maximum child safety, high durability, and low environmental impact. Crafted with non-timber bamboo, birch wood, and/or FSC-certified German beechwood, Kinderfeets use the kind of wood you can feel good about! 

The benefits of these eco-friendly materials are many. Bamboo, in particular, is extremely adaptable and resilient, grows incredibly fast, and has the ability to self-regenerate! In comparison to other hardwoods, it’s much more flexible (even though it has dense fibres) and is also pest resistant. While timber takes 30–50 years to mature, bamboo takes between 3–5 years and requires no pesticides or chemicals to encourage the maturation process, making it both toxin-free and more cost effective.

Further environmentally friendly practices like using non-toxic, water-based paints and lacquers, minimal packaging, and recycled paper for product information not only help to illustrate our sustainable business approach but also set children up for a lifetime of planet-friendly living.

And we are proud to partner with Trees for the Future – a non-profit organisation that, with the support of businesses like us, plants trees to combat deforestation. Part of our annual profits is put towards the work they do in ensuring our planet remains a green, healthy, and beautiful place for future generations.