Bugaboo is getting a lot of media attention about it’s stroller. If you are not familiar with it, then you might have seen it referenced in articles about how much money people spend on their children. Or what things celebrities buy for their babies. Or in a photo shoot with Gwyneth Paltrow.
That’s because it’s one of the most expensive prams on the market. The safe money says that this also means that it has seriously good profit margins for Bugaboo.
Now it’s confession time. My wife and I bought one for our child.
At first it was a hard decision, but the more we looked at the design, the easier the decision became. New Zealand has a couple of great pram manufacturers (Phil and Teds, Mountain Buggy) and I really wanted to support them. In London these prams are almost as expensive as Bugaboo.
However what won in the end came down to one thing. The innovative design. It’s important to note that I’m not using the word “innovative” lightly. Once you start using a Bugaboo pram it’s immediately clear that someone spent a hell of a lot of time doing some serious thinking about how people use prams.
And once you start talking to people who have purchased a Bugaboo pram, it’s clear that this thinking paid off.
I have rarely encountered such a rabid group of fans in such an unlikely arena. When we were looking at a Bugaboo in the store, complete strangers would appear out of the blue and start raving about how good they were.
One guy told me that the cost made his eyes water, but he did not regret it. He came from a large extended family which meant that he had personally road tested over twenty prams in actual use, and the Bugaboo won hands down.
After eighteen months of use in towns, parks, cafes and on the beach, the Bugaboo is still one of the best things we bought for our voyage into parenthood. The design not only means that it’s great to use, but also that I’d buy one again in a flash. What’s more, I’ve become one of those rabid fans.
Advertising cannot buy you that sort of loyalty. But good innovative design can.
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Hiya
I have a bugaboo, and wanted to say its fantastic! We had a steelcraft jogger pram which we sold to buy the bugaboo. I’ve even bought another frame so i can easily switch between the bassinet and the seat!!!! It may be expensive, but it is really cool. Its also great in cafes as you can move the handle so people don’t bump into it when walking past!! My little girl rarely has to have the sun in her eyes as we can switch the seat to face in the opposite direction.
From a raving fan!!!!!
Yes – it’s really apparent from the time you start using the Bugaboo that someone has taken a lot of time to get it right. the front/rear facing options for the seat is just one of the many many features which illustrate this.
The message I take from this is that the once-thought-to-be-innovative design of the three-wheeled mountain buggy is flawed. Fine for jogging, too big for urban use, too damaging to the ankles of other pedestrians in close quarters, too heavy in steel, fills the car boot as folding is only partial. It was dead end in the evolution of baby transport.
I think that at the time when Mountain Buggy released it’s prams, it blazed a trail that nobody had gone down before. The risk with sitting on your laurels with a ground breaking design is that someone else sweeps the ground from under you when they take a hard look at the design. Unless Bugaboo keeps a firm eye on the path ahead, it too will surpassed by a better design.
Agree, you can’t sit still. And in the buggy world that seems to have happened to Mclaren whose product is still sound but they have just tinkered with it.
Other interesting thing about the buggy market – most buyers will only buy one or two in a lifetime, then move on (to paying for schools and orthodontics) so maybe a buggy design life is limited as each new generation moves to something new?
And if you want to buy one, here is the site to go to http://www.wobble.co.nz
I LOVE me stroller. Unfortunalty we will have to sell it (BOOHOO). It was great when my daughter was small,but lo and behold her legs got longer ,and now her feet hang of the end. She now refuses to sit in it. So as a stroller for little little ones it’s GREAT,but once the legs get longer (age 2) it’s no longer useful or comfortable for the child π
You would not believe how long ive been googling for something like this. Scrolled through 6 pages of Google results without finding anything. Very first page on Bing. There this is… Really gotta start using that more often