THE GO-TO STROLLER BRAND FOR CELEBRITIES, ROYALTY AND DESIGN-CONSCIOUS PARENTS AROUND THE WORLD, BUGABOO HAS BECOME A MODERN DESIGN CLASSIC
‘The best pushchair on the market!’ reads one of the many five-star reviews on the John Lewis & Partners website. ‘When it came to choosing a pushchair, the only brand I wanted was Bugaboo – stylish, lightweight, compact and functional, it literally ticks all the boxes for every new parent,’ enthuses another happy customer.
Loved equally for its good looks and effortless usability, the Bugaboo has become a bit of a contemporary it-brand. It was no surprise that Meghan and Harry chose one for baby Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, joining a long list of celebrity fans. So, news of a super-slick new model from the coveted brand is big news for on-the-pulse parents everywhere.
“We wanted to create something different. Something that hadn’t yet been seen on the street”
Meet the Bugaboo Ant, which launches exclusively at John Lewis & Partners this month. The brand’s most compact and light buggy to date (it weighs just 7.2kg), it features all-wheel suspension, adjustable handlebars, a reversible seat and that all-important easy steering. ‘We wanted to create something different. Something that hadn’t yet been seen on the street,’ says co-founder and chief design officer Max Barenbrug. ‘Something both comfortable and beautiful in its most compact form.’
Barenbrug and team have achieved exactly that – the Ant is designed with on-the-go parents in mind. ‘The Ant is the only pushchair where you can leave essentials in your stroller and pack it away as if it’s a small suitcase,’ explains Barenbrug. Handily, it even fits into the small overhead lockers on flights, meaning you can literally have it every step of your journey – music to the ears of any parent who has had to lug a sleeping toddler from plane to baggage reclaim via passport control.
Since it launched more than 20 years ago, the Dutch brand has gone from a niche independent label to the industry leader with a string of imitators, hoards of fans and impressive sales – more than 320,000 Cameleons have been sold in the last five years alone. The secret of its success? The innovative, lightweight frame and sleek design that can be easily moved with one hand. ‘The weightless, gliding sensation that makes you feel free,’ as Barenbrug puts it.
“So much technology and thought goes into every Bugaboo”
The ease of Bugaboo appeals to the time-starved, style-savvy parent who wants a safe, dependable buggy that will last. Named after animals, each of Bugaboo’s models has its own strength – the lightweight Bee, known for its excellent manoeuvrability; the sturdy Donkey, a duo buggy with carrycot and seat combinations, and the Cameleon – the ultimate all-terrain multitasker.
From the outset, Bugaboo has been a brand loved equally by men and women thanks to its seamless design and fine attention to detail, like the audible feedback – the satisfying click you get when adjusting it. ‘So much technology and thought goes into every Bugaboo,’ says Danny Baker, Partner & Product Coach, Nursery. ‘They are beautifully engineered – each one is super-easy to push, take apart and fold.’
The Bugaboo story began when Barenbrug was a child growing up in the Netherlands. Surrounded by bikes and go-karts, he was fascinated by wheels. He came up with the idea for the first Bugaboo (which translates as ‘cheeky ghost’) when he was a design student at the Design Academy Eindhoven in 1994, after noticing parents struggling to get their kids into cumbersome strollers. By 1999, after developing his initial concept, Barenbrug launched the very first Bugaboo.
What’s the future for Bugaboo? ‘We’ve come a long way since that first model hit the streets, constantly innovating our strollers to meet the needs of the modern parent,’ says Barenbrug. ‘We developed strollers to suit different lifestyles the world over. From the city to the woods, through sand and snow, we ensure that families can go anywhere and do anything.’ Get ready for the invasion of the Ant.
