About Maileg
In a busy world of bright lights, bells and whistles, where new stories are continually impressed upon us. Maileg is a world in which matchboxes can be beds for mice; princesses make perfect teatime companions; and adventures can be found on a friendly forest walk. It is a world where cats and mice are friends. Ours is a world of childhood imagination – and this is a world we value.
Maileg (pronounced My’lye) is a brand of charming Danish-designed toys created to inspire our children’s favorite playtime stories.
By bringing storybook whimsy to everyday moments, Maileg toys help children explore the pure and simple wonder of imagination. Beloved for their heartwarming personalities, Maileg toys show playfulness and charm in every last detail. Theirs is a timeless world filled with beautiful accessories and settings to be collected, cherished and shared with friends and family for generations.
Dorthe Mailil
Maileg Founder and Creative Director
Dorthe Mailil, is a Danish designer and illustrator living and working in Herning, Denmark. She is perhaps best known as the owner and Creative Director behind Maileg, a charming brand of toys that merge modern Scandinavian design with storybook whimsy and meticulous attention to detail.
Dorthe’s passion for design began at a young age, leading her to enrol in the prestigious Danish Design School in 1996 to pursue a career in graphic design. Dorthe also supplemented her education with studies at L’ecole D’art de Marseille and Paris, which she cites as contributing to the inspiration behind many of the sweet and nostalgic details that define the Maileg brand.
As the unlikely outcome of one of Dorthe’s class projects, Dorthe created a distinctive clay character of exaggerated proportions whose spunky personality and charm immediately won the hearts of her entire class. This “pixie” quickly grew into a family of pixies, and Dorthe moved from the medium of clay to Fabric.
Following her joy for childhood play and imagination (at all ages!) Dorthe and her husband Erik founded Maileg in 1999 – combining their last name “Mailil” with the “leg”, the Danish word for play.
Since founding Maileg, Dorthe has won many awards and honours for both her toys, as well as for her well-known illustrations that appear around the world in books, magazines and even TV shows. Dorthe continues to provide all creative direction for Maileg, contributing to a growing family that now includes bunnies, mice, and many more cute animals– all living in a charming world of hand-sewn clothing, modern furniture and playful accessories.
It is unlikely to see Dorthe anywhere without her sketchbook in hand, and she has been known to wake up in the middle of the night with the newest idea for her next Maileg creation. There is no telling where her imagination will take Dorthe, and Maileg next!
Maileg CSR
Maileg is a Danish design company which makes unique quality products. The products are mainly toys and decoration articles – all created with an outspoken intrinsic design value. The intention is to spread joy and inspire children to imaginative play. The products are original and with an aesthetic design which prolongs the lifetime of each product. We value the fact that items are being passed on from generation to generation.
At Maileg, we work closely with our suppliers and partners. We value and prioritize the long-term cooperation that has been built up over several years.
The suppliers are visited regularly and our quality assurance team is in close contact with all partners to ensure that all aspects, such as inspections and internal audits at the production sites, are complied with and performed following our CSR policy.
Every day we work dedicatedly to improve and optimize conditions for our suppliers.
We follow the ten principles of the UN Global Compact, which relate to; Human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption. Quality assessments and tests are performed in collaboration with certified third-party laboratories.
Thank you for your interest in Maileg.
All Maileg Toys are in compliance with:
- the EU requirements: TSD (Toy Safety Directive 2009/49/EF) and the harmonised standard EN-71.
- US requirements: CPSIA (Children Product Safety Improvement Act) and the harmonised standard ASTM-F963
- the REACH Directive (EC 1907/2006), which is an evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemical substances used for the products (all of our products are produced without toxic substances)
- the GPSD (General Product Safety Directive)
The environment matters
Maileg believes protecting our environment is an important issue and takes the responsibility very seriously.
Maileg complies with the legislation for the environment, and we work intensively to improve our production by using only the best and most environmentally friendly production facilities. We call it responsible sourcing/production.
At Maileg we believe that even small steps matter and by securing the right mindset for our employees and business partners we believe that what we do today, we can do even better tomorrow.
Maileg supports the 17 Sustainable Development Goal defined by UN and has a project running to secure the company is performing towards the goals with a strategic approach.
OUR MAIN TARGETS ARE:
- REACH chemical standard must be followed by all production partners.
- Our products are shipped by sea. We rarely use air freight to reduce CO2 emissions.
- We mainly use recycled or FSC™-certified cardboard and paper for packaging our products.
- Polybags are only used when necessary, ie. to avoid dust or moisture.
- We reuse the export cartons, e.g. by repackaging them when we send orders to our dealers.
- Also, we work towards the exchange of all information to and from our customers and partners is done digitally and thereby annually save large amounts of paper.
- Most soft toys are stuffed with recycled stuffing.
- We focus on using stock fabric and accessories before new fabric are produced.
- Wooden toys are made from FSC™ approved wood.
FSC C168453
| FSC™ approved paper and recycling of cardboard boxes. | We reduced the use of plastic, and we make wooden toys made from FSC™ certified wood. | We changed the moisture protection of the goods to DRI CLAY. | We changed polybags to recycled material. |
FSC C168453
