About
We started Fierce & Sweet because of a pattern we couldn't unsee.
Walk down the kids' clothing aisle and the split is everywhere: sharks and lions on one side, bunnies and kittens on the other. It looks harmless. It isn't random.
A 2025 study published in the journal Social Development looked at nearly 1,900 animal characters across children's films and found predator roles were disproportionately given to male characters, while prey roles were disproportionately given to female characters — a pattern with no basis in actual animal biology. The researchers then tested kids ages 4 to 14 and found they'd already absorbed the same association, just from watching.
Kids don't choose these stories. We hand them over, one t-shirt and one movie at a time.
Fierce & Sweet exists to hand over something different: a lion cub shirt that isn't "for boys." A shark that isn't "for boys." A snake covered in hearts that isn't "for girls." Just animals, and kids who get to decide which ones feel like them.
Fierce & Sweet is a brand by Dakota Coast Designs, a woman-owned company based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We make these for our own kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, and all the littles in our lives — and yours.