As Father’s Day weekend shines a spotlight on modern parenting, more brands are recognizing that mothers are no longer the only consumers driving family-focused lifestyle purchases.
The shift is evident. This spring, premium stroller company Cybex debuted a fashion collection for men, women and children. The launch party at the brand’s SoHo flagship drew a crowd of tastemakers, many of them fathers, including chefs Eddie Huang and Roze Traore as featured guests. Meanwhile, Bugaboo is doubling down on its lifestyle ambitions with a second collaboration with Kith, launching June 22, following the rapid sellout of the pair’s first limited-edition collection.
The message is clear: parenting is increasingly becoming part of culture, fashion and identity.
Few people understand that evolution better than Joe Gonzales, founder of Brooklyn Stroll Club, a rapidly growing community that has become a gathering place for fathers navigating the joys and challenges of parenthood. What began as a simple meetup for dads has evolved into a movement and lifestyle experience engine that now connects thousands of fathers across New York City and beyond.
Gonzales, who lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with his wife Mallory, a registered dietitian, and their two-year-old son Sol, launched Brooklyn Stroll Club after experiencing the isolation that often accompanies early parenthood.
Brooklyn Stroll Club’s founding family
© 2026 Sarah J Cabrera Photography, all rights reserved.
Today, the organization has grown into one of the most recognizable fatherhood communities in the country supported through brand partnerships, events, content creation and merchandise. Brooklyn Stroll Club holds year-round events and meetups, often centered on self-care. In March, Ceremonia teamed up with the club to host a meetup that offered a session to help dads learn how to care for their kids’ hair. In May, Aveeno stepped in to cohost a morning stroll, complete with a hangout at McCarren Park House for kids activities and product launches .
In early June, Gonzales hosted DadCon26 which welcomed 100 fathers and their little ones to Parkish NYC, a kids play space and family club; and sponsored by BabyBjörn. Other parent-focused wellness and food brands also supported the event.
Before launching Brooklyn Stroll Club, Gonzales spent years working in media and production, most recently as a senior producer at a media agency. His professional background centered on storytelling, brand building and live event production.
Looking back, Gonzales says the skills that proved most valuable had less to do with traditional business training and more to do with understanding how to create experiences that resonate emotion.
“Producing content taught me how to create moments that people genuinely connect with,” he says. “I saw so many brands talking about connection while people were feeling increasingly disconnected in real life.”
When it came to feeling disconnected as a new dad, Gonzales, like so many parents, found himself navigating a landscape he had not fully anticipated.
“The postpartum period was beautiful, but it was also isolating in ways I wasn’t prepared for,” he says. “I loved being a dad more than anything, but everything about my life changed overnight.”
While documenting his fatherhood journey on social media, Gonzales began asking a simple question: Where do dads gather? And how?
“Most people basically told me, ‘I don’t know, you should start it,’” he recalls. He took that challenge seriously.
“Brooklyn Stroll Club started because I needed it myself. The more dads I spoke to, the more I realized I wasn’t the only one feeling that way.”
The first Brooklyn Stroll Club meetup was intentionally simple.
“A handful of dads showed up at the park, and I bought donuts and waters,” Gonzales says. “We had about 20 dads from all over New York talking about feeding schedules, sleep schedules, things they were excited about and things they were scared about.”
The conversations were immediate and honest.
“The moment I realized it could become something bigger was when dads started coming back and bringing friends,” he says. “That’s when I knew we weren’t just organizing a meetup. We were creating belonging.”
Aside from events, content has played a significant role in Brooklyn Stroll Club’s growth, but Gonzales says audience growth was never the primary objective.
“My goal was always to document fatherhood honestly,” he says.
Rather than focusing on parenting hacks or viral humor, Gonzales centered his content around lived experiences—early mornings, exhaustion, joy and the everyday realities.
That authenticity helped bridge online engagement with real-world participation.
“The content wasn’t saying, ‘Look at me.’ It was saying, ‘You’re not alone.’”
Turning Community Into A Sustainable Business
While Brooklyn Stroll Club began as a passion project, Gonzales has personally invested tens of thousands of dollars to bootstrap its growth. Today, he remains the company’s sole owner while operating with a lean team that includes his wife overseeing event logistics alongside contractors and creative partners.
Revenue comes primarily through brand partnerships, event sponsorships, content creation and merchandise.
One principle remains non-negotiable.
“We’ve made a conscious decision to keep our events free,” Gonzales says. “We believe parents shouldn’t have to pay for connection and support.”
That philosophy shapes every partnership decision.
“The question I always ask is simple: Would this make the experience better for our dads?”
If the answer is no, the team walks away.
“Trust is the most valuable asset we have,” he says.
Beyond Events
Today, Brooklyn Stroll Club’s reach extends well beyond in-person gatherings. More than 2,500 fathers participate in the organization’s Discord community, sharing advice, celebrating milestones and supporting one another through the challenges of parenting.
For Gonzales, that ongoing engagement represents the true measure of success.
“The events are often the entry point,” he says. “But the real community exists in the relationships that continue afterward.”
And the organization’s most ambitious initiative to date was indeed its DadCon26, a multi-day fatherhood experience held across New York City featuring family gatherings, wellness programming and partnerships with brands including BabyBjörn, Little Spoon, Fossil, Genexa, Dove Men+Care, Gerber and Nuna.
“We’re no longer just hosting meetups,” Gonzales says. “We’re creating experiences around community, wellness and family connection.”
This article was originally published on Forbes.com