Did you know we live in a "Post-Bugaboo world"? Me neither, but it's in New York Magazine, so it must be true! Writer Faye Penn put nine "status strollers"--ok, technically, there were eight, plus the somewhat Bugaboogish Fisher-Price--through the city's obstacle course of stoops, store aisles, subways and buses [!] and cobblestone streets. Then she boiled her experience down to a hundred or so pithy words per rig.
As someone who's written one of these stroller mega-roundups and survived, I'm pretty sure Penn's in a state of PPD, Post-Published Depression: I wrangle with all these stroller loaners, I lost the use of the dining room for a month, and I had to ride the bus, and all I have to show for it is, "Masculine design’s a dad-pleaser"?
Well buck up, Faye, you done good work. Now if you could just publish the unlisted VIP customer service numbers we can call to have stroller company reps come to our house and set up our rides for us:
Stokke XploryYeah, those Norwegians are suspicious, so unlike the Dutch.
Setup & Breakdown: We can’t judge the assembly, because the Stokke rep insisted on delivering it pre-built (which made us wonder). Without instructions, which were not supplied, figuring out the collapse required a home visit from another Stokke rep....
Bugaboo Cameleon
Setup & Breakdown: Came assembled with no instruction manual; techie husband figured out how to collapse mechanism.
Some other snap judgments:
Quinny Buzz: makes you look like the nanny.
Maclaren: "frumpy" [!?], wheels fall off [!?? still?], but the nanny's favorite
Orbit: the paparazzi's new It Stroller
Bugaboo Bee: "lightness," narrow seat = "zombie arms"
Micralite Toro: "Practically turns itself."
waitasec, where's the baby?
This Is How We Roll: Test-driving Nine Hyperfunctional Strollers [nymag]
I'm wondering why the Bumbleride strollers are never mentioned in any of these lists; if my cousin hadn't run across them accidentally in a posh CT baby shop, we wouldn't've known they exist. Of course, you can hardly find them in stores, so I guess this is a failing on Bumbleride's part.
We have the Rocket for our six-month-old and absolutely love it. Granted, we live in Western Mass and don't do a lot of stairs, and I have no idea how much yogurt it can carry, but still. I wonder if they even have a PR person...
Hey they forgot the Joolz too!
[the Joolz is not actually sold in the US -ed.]
I dont agree with the authors bashing of the Maclaren. There is a reason why it is still the #1 umbrella stroller.
I was also skeptical until I bought one, now I will NEVER EVER go back to anything else!! For a plastic/rubber wheeled stroller, the steering is impeccable!
Wait!? Did they seriously call the Maclarens "frumpy" ??? I mean seriously those are one of the least frumpy strollers I've seen!
But you know me and how I'm perfectly happy to stick with my Graco -- especially since they've come out with these and several other new more "stylish" strollers (woot!) :O) http://www.gracobaby.com/catalog/product.aspx?modelNumber=6B49PTI3
-- I must have that.
I'll admit you've made me interested in the Bugaboo and all of these other fancier, and I'm sure more convienient in the big city strollers, but something that takes hours to put together and needs more than a 5 page instruction manual just to collapse... I'll pass.
[otoh, you only have to put it together once! Ultimately, the POV of the article is not too far from NYMag itself: superficial, blinkered status obsession. it's only supposed to seem useful and well-informed for the five minutes it entertains you. -ed.]
while we're on strollers, the Mamas&Papas / Peg Perego Skate has crossed the pond at last
Wait a second...
You have to DISASSEMBLE a Bugaboo in order to FOLD it?
Please tell me I'm wrong...
[the Bee folds in one piece. The Frog/Cameleon, etc. requires taking the seat off, and folding the base. Two parts, one of which probably holds a kid. It can be a pain for car/trunk living, but it's fine for cities where you need to break it down much less frequently/not at all. -ed.]
didn't think much of the article... And she had trouble going down stairs in the bugaboo???! That's one of the best features, IMHO. Just drive it down, stair by stair, with the big tires, holding the little wheels up -- no lifting required. She just didn't know how to use it -- someone should have given her lessons along with the strollers.
[same with the Stokke, which converts to a handtruck for hauling up stairs. yet she said she needed help carrying it. -ed.]