As one of the preeminent high-design modern baby stores in the country, Genius Jones has helped pave the way for a new movement in juvenile products, acting as one of the first retail outlets for the likes of sensations like Bugaboo and David Netto - manufacturers that are changing the very landscape of infant products.

With doubled revenues each year since they opened in South Beach in 2003, owners Daniel Kron and his wife Geane Brito have recently opened a second Genius Jones store in Miami’s Design District, quadrupling their size, and are about to embark on a new Web venture for geniusjones.com.

The name Genius Jones means “know-it-all,” and that’s what Kron and Brito aim to be for new parents — a trusted resource and a wealth of information.

“What makes Genius Jones different than everyone else out there is that we’re a design store, but not just for design freaks,” said Kron. “We have experience, expertise and great customer service along with it. We don’t just treat the products as commodities. That breeds a tremendous respect with customers. We’re not just selling products, we know our products inside and out. Old-fashioned customer service mixed in with the new design movement: that’s Genius Jones.”

Perhaps it is fitting that a store that focuses on the new aesthetic should have its genesis in tropical South Beach, where eye candy lurks everywhere and people-watching is a citywide pastime.

The first Genius Jones store is a 500-square-foot outpost just off the trendy South Beach pedestrian mall known as Lincoln Road, an area filled with sidewalk cafes and boutiques, body-builders and fashion models. It’s what Kron calls his “little jewel-box of a store.”

“A lot of people thought I was crazy,” said Kron, “but I knew I had the right idea. I did my homework.”

Today, Kron and Brito are well-known and respected within their niche market of modern children’s furnishings — kind of elder statesmen in a new and cutting edge industry — and their new 2,000-square-foot Design District store is a showcase for a growing number of manufacturers.

In his previous life, Kron worked as a fashion photographer in New York; Brito was a Ford model. Kron has design in his blood; his mother is the home design journalist Joan Kron, credited with coining the term “high-tech” in the 1970s.

Genius Jones grew out of Kron and Brito’s own interest in design and an awareness that there were other parents like them out there whose needs weren’t being served.

“We shopped for the best in each category,” said Brito. “Our core customer is very educated. She doesn’t want to see a full array of strollers, she wants the best in each category.”

“If you could buy it at Babies ‘R’ Us, there was no reason to carry it,” added Kron. “We weren’t trying to be everything to everyone.”

The store really found its groove with the addition of two key lines: Netto Collection, for which Genius Jones has an exclusive for the entire state of Florida; and Bugaboo — Genius Jones was one of the first American retailers. ...(continued)

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