May 19, 2005

Americans Can Now Invest In A Nest Egg

Nest high chair, by bug design, image: mozzee.co.ukUntil now, getting a Nest high chair in the US was no easy feat. These sweet, shagpad-ready pods by Bug Design were published all over the place when they came out last year, but they were only available for purchase in the UK and Australia, places that, even though they speak English, are actually foreign countries [with steep shipping charges].

Now, though, a very few retailers have started selling the Nest high chair--v1.5 of which also converts to a low chair, the Nester--in the US. Sparkability has a very limited supply, as does ModernChild.
Currently, the Nest is only available in black or white, but I hear it'll be available soon in purple, too. Now go ahead and try not to think of a grape.

Nest is $575 plus [a lot less] shipping at Sparkability or ModernChild

12 Comments

My husband and I had one of the first of these chairs - we special ordered it last year way before it was available in the States. IT WAS AWFUL - we sent it back immediately. It looks great in the pictures, but it is very small, wobbly and not substantial at all. Save your money!

Please allow me to respond to your comment.

The design of Nest is entirely a response to current safety standards and stability is an important aspect that we have given a lot of thought. This is one of the reasons why we have fitted Nest with a pedestal base. It has a wide footprint and 65% of the chairís weight is in the bottom half of the structure thereby providing excellent stability. This is reflected in the fact that Nest exceeded by a generous margin the stability requirements of all safety standards that it was tested against.

Provided that Nest is assembled according to the instructions and the chair is placed on a level surface it is impossible for it to be wobbly.

In terms of size Nest is designed to be standard table height so that junior can join the adults at dinner times. Because Nest comes with a conversion kit for a low chair we have designed the seat to be suitable for kids aged between 6 months and 6 years.

Nest was awarded a design mark by Standards Australia (the institute that issues and administers safety standards in Australia) and the Furniture Design Instituteís award as an example of safe and innovative design.

Wendy Coombes
Mozzee Limited

Thanks for the information, Wendy.

I think it's always a challenge to buy something substantial like a piece of furniture without seeing it and getting a feel for it in person. Or without access to third-party reviews.

Not to denigrate the design or the achievement at all, but for a while, Nest basically existed as an unattainable icon in coverage of the "sweet product shot and 100 word blurb" variety.

I think now that it's finally available in the US officially, people can see it, read some real-world experiences and reviews, not just magazine [and blog, mea culpa] shoutouts and get a better sense of the product.

We got the Nest about a year ago, and yes, it looks great in our kitchen, but there are a few things you should be aware of before you slip your tot in this one:
1. The tray on the version we received does not rotate, like in the posted picture, but slides onto a bolt in the seat. It took our 10 month old about a week to learn to simply put her hands on the outer rim of the tray, rock about 6 times, and presto, the whole tray comes off.
2. The tray helps to hold the baby in place, so a loose appendage is disconcerting, but of course every good parent would be useing the harness and baby would ostensibly be safe. Unforunately, the harness is mass of undifferentiated staps (leg holes, arm holes, they all look the same). WIth a squirming (hungry) baby, slipping him in here is no easy task.
3. Whether they are in the harness or not, good luck getting their little bottom to stay in the cup of the super sleek, and slippery seat. More likely, unless they are wearing rubber, your baby will end up sliding down until her chin rests on her chest. We had to put a pad of rubbery neoprene in the base for our baby to sit on.

So if you want something for for looks, great. But if you want safety and function, good luck with the Nest. I know they must have tested this with real babies, but was it really home tested??

We just received our Nest chair and are sending it back. It was such a disappointment. The design and style are beautiful but the chair lacks functionality. My rather large 8 month old kept sliding down into a slumped position because of the shape of the seat. By the time he had finished his second meal in the chair he had figured out how to remove the food tray, sending it crashing to the floor. The chair definitely needs some modifications before it is actually functional in real life.

Hi! Nest designer Sally Dominguez here. I appreciate reading feedback - my sales in Oz are largely word of mouth - and I am always out to improve designs. We are developing a silicon cushion for smaller babies - the surface is smooth for cleaning and older kids tend not to slip. I am also developing an easier to use easier to clean harness. Functionality was tested on lots of real kids - but I guess every kid is different and there's the rub!

[thanks for chiming in, Sally. -ed.]

i recently purchased the nest chair from ModernSeed.com.
not only was i dissapointed with the overall quality of such an expensive piece of furniture (the bolts and threaded holes were pourly manufactured to say the least) but my daughter was unable to sit in the chair without sliding to a "foot over head" position. Even with the incredibly confusing harness, i never felt safe enough to use the chair beyond the initial thirty seconds i had her in it.
to make matters worse the company that i purchased the chair from, modernseed.com, has a return policy that does not include refunding the shipping charge. That is pretty standard except that in this case they more than tripled the actual shipping cost for FedEx ground and i was dupped for over $100.00.
i am a designer and was excited to have something for my baby that reflected my sense of style... however i was completely disapointed in this product (powder coated steel is nothing to be proud of).
i do, however, appreciate the designer, sally dominquez, replying to the comments posted here and what seems to be her dedication to improving her product... Please Sally, go back to stainless steel and rotating tray.

My husband and I just purchased the super-cool *looking* Nest. I should preface this with I've never ever written an internet review, but I wish there had been more reviews before we purchased the Nest so that we could have made a better decision. It does look very cool, however, it doesn't do much more than that.

Your baby will slip in the seat, unless, perhaps he/she is not wearing any pants. This is, however, addressable. You can prop the baby up with something (we used a silicon hot hand).

The tray is sadly way way way too small. Our baby is not big enough to feed himself so this is not an issue yet. But it does not take a rocket scientist or experienced parent to realize that the baby will push everything off the tray without even thinking about it because it is only about 6 inches wide at its widest spot.

The tray has likely been reworked. One reviewer before complained the baby could kick it off. This is not an issue with the current model. In fact, the tray is so hard to get off now you'll probably have to take the baby out first (meaning you'll have to wrestle with a messy baby to get him/her out of the harness while the tray is still attached). You have to pull toward the baby to remove the tray and my husband is seriously afraid we'll knock the baby in the face if we do that while the baby is in the seat.

It is not particularly stable at the base. And, as one other reviewer noted, it would be much nicer if the base were actually stainless steel. For $600, you'd think they could do better.

Summary: great look, not quite there on the execution. If you are lucky enough to live in a town where you can see one in person instead of order it on the internet - by all means, check it out. If you're like us and have to order it over the internet, save your cash and maybe buy a cool crib. We'll probably lose $100 on the shipping costs because we are sadly going to return it.

I'm so disappointed in the above reviews. Are there any other high chairs out there that ARE functional and have any sense of modern design?

The tray has tiny pinholes all over and around it. During use, the pinholes quickly fill with food and breed bacteria. There is no way to clean out the pinholes using household cleaners. We contacted the store we bought it from and Mozzee openly admitted to the problem and said it was due to the nature of their plastic (see quote below).

I therefore strongly recommend against purchasing the Mozzee. I have forwarded pictures of the issue along with a written complaint to the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Below is the quote from Mozzee:

"The nature of the rotomoulded polyethylene pieces is such that there are tiny pin holes over the surface which (like most plastics) can absorb some colour of high colour content foods (for example ketchup or tomatoe based sauces). This is why we advise in the care instructions to remove food spills after each use".

[Upon seeing the pictures, Mozzee noted that this tray had a production defect that shouldn't have got out of the factory, NOT a fundamental design flaw. They're sending Josh a replacement. See an account of the whole unneccessarily emotional incident here. -ed.]

Mozzee sent us a replacement tray. We used it for a week and then the same problem showed itself. It appears that the entire production must be flawed (or at least the ones sent to Modernchild.net).

If you would like pictures of the issue or other information please let me know. At this point the chair really should be recalled by the manufacturer until they can resolve the bacteria-pocket problem.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news :(

[I'll check with my statistician while I await the report back from the bacteriology lab. Meanwhile, my kid just ate a raisin off the floor. -ed.]

We have had the NEST chair for about 9 or 10 months now, and have been very happy with it. The base is in solid metal and is heavy and stable, so they must have improved on the design. The table, while small, is plenty big enough to accomodate our daughter's bowl and cup. In any case, the tray is very solidly fixed to the chair and could not be moved by her.

Granted, she tended to slouch and slide in the chair when she was very young, but we just put a rubber pad underneath at first and that solved the problem. When she hit about 7 months old or so, she stopped slipping and is now fine.

The harness is not very user friendly, but we only used it a few times. The tray acts to keep her secure in the chair and she's never really tried to get out on her own. In any case, it's never a good idea to leave a baby alone in a high chair.

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