New product #1 is a travel bag for the UPPPAbaby Vista stroller. Why get excited? Because the bag extends your stroller warranty! (the stroller has a 2 year warranty). It works as follows: If you have your Vista stroller inside the UPPAbaby travel bag and the airline damages the stroller or parts therein, UPPAbaby will provide a new stroller or parts under warranty, even though it is not a manufacturer’s defect. Either Crocodile Baby or a certified repair centre (Weston Luggage on East 1st) will put the parts on for free. Now you will not have to sing the same great song if your stroller gets trashed.
The bag itself is nicely padded with big carry handles and wheels so you can roll it around airports. All stroller travel bags create spaces around the stroller, so there is always room to pack additional small things into the various corners and spaces in the bag. Buying and using the bag is a bit like buying a travel insurance policy for the stroller, while making the transport of your stroller a lot easier. This new Travel bag is available now at our stores or at crocodilebaby.com.
New product #2 is the Cruz stroller. The concept was to create a stroller which is smaller than the Vista (and its competitors) without losing comfort for the baby, but bigger than an umbrella stroller, especially allowing for a big basket. The Cruz is aimed at the consumer who walks around the sidewalks and malls of cities, it is not designed for off-roading although it does have some very elegant shock absorbers built into the frame of the stroller. The seat is the same size as the Vista seat, so a child up to 40 lbs will easily fit in, but the frame is immensely streamlined so it is much narrower than a full sized stroller. As mentioned, the large basket has also been retained, comparing favourably to those small inaccessible baskets on umbrella strollers. In addition the Cruz (just call me Penelope) has a solid (rather than split) handle which makes it very maneuverable, and a flat fold that is easily executed. The Cruz should be in store in late March 2011.
UPPAbaby as a company is essentially a group of industrial designers with one strong woman insisting on certain Mom-friendly features. Their underlying theme is to provide what parents need in a stroller at a fair price. Effectively this means they have taken several features from the Bugaboo Cameleon/Frog (IMHO, the most revolutionary stroller in the last 20 years), re-interpreted them, and added a few of their own that improve usability. With the Vista, they have created a “workhorse” stroller with great maneuverability, a large basket and the ability to expand to carry 3 kids (with the rumble seat and wheeled board add-ons)
Some notable features of the Vista are: the stroller seat faces forward and back towards the parent – the latter affords the baby some protection from strangers reaching in to play with your baby and lets the parent and baby look at each other; the bassinette is included allowing the new baby to lie down in the stroller – this is extraordinarily important for the baby’s circulatory system and their ability to breathe, as well as creating the movement of picking up the baby from a car seat and placing them in the bassinette (this movement reduces flatheadedness!); a large basket for all the stuff you need to carry around; an extended sunshade on both the bassinette and stroller seat hood – this is just a really good idea that does not cost much to implement; and the ability to separate the seat and the frame for folding – this reduces the strain of putting the stroller in the car trunk because the pieces are picked up separately. In addition, the removal of the bassinette from the stroller frame is really easy for the UPPAbaby; no other stroller bassinette is this easy to remove. This is a huge benefit when your baby is asleep in the bassinette on the stroller and you wish to take them into the bedroom. There is no large “click” as you remove the bassinette from the stroller frame like in other models, nor any awkwardness as to how to carry the bassinette – the handle provides perfect balance.
The company went to some lengths to show me how important their customer serviceis. Parts are immediately available and the people on the phones are trying to get problems solved within 24 hours. This was impressive and allows us at Crocodile Baby to respond more quickly to customer service requests also, knowing the support we will receive from the supplier. Also, the Customer Service people sit right next to the engineers who designed the product so when there is an on-going problem, the engineers are right there to correct it. This proximity allowed UPPAbaby to correct their rear wheels on 2007 – 2009 strollers to the vastly improved 2010 model. We expect a continuous supply of high quality products from UPPAbaby, given the way they operate their company.
Gerry Lewarne, Owner, Crocodile Baby
