Stroller Hunting.



Yes, I am a researcher. Sometimes to a fault, but mostly for the good of mankind. (And to the amusement and annoyance of my family/friends who like to tease me about it.)

Sometimes I research small ticket items, (colon-cleansing, eye cream, crib sheets) but will most definitely be doing some serious investigating before any medium- to major purchase.

A stroller definitely falls into the latter category. Hey, it's our most valuable piece of baby equipment. In less than one year our stroller has been around the world and around the U.S. on numerous trips--not to mention daily walks, grocery shopping & acted as a travel bed when A was a tiny baby. (Memories, light the corners of my mind....misty water colored memories...of the way we were.) Wiping tear from eye...

So who would have thought that it would be THIS difficult to find our new stroller. You see, they no longer make the A3- and have split its' functionality into two separate models (the Prammette and P3). Further, in comparison with our A3, the quality felt markedly lower, with regard to handle, push & turning radius.

As such, I have been researching this purchase from one end of the world, to another.

Must haves: Comfortable seat with multi-position recline, stability, great push, compact fold, very large storage compartment, resilient wheels (read--can take a variety of road conditions), relatively lightweight, overall high quality-- I could go on. But it's been harder than you'd think to find all of this in a single stroller. I've even spoken with several 'Stroller Consultants' and the owner of a stroller company.

So what did I decide on? That will be unveiled in due time. In the meantime, here are a few of my findings:

For us, the perfect stroller is worth it's weight in gold. That being said, in my view, the highly regarded Bugaboo is overpriced. It is a beautiful stroller--but honestly, this company has been making the most of appealing to what we, in marketing call, 'Early Innovators': people who like to be at the forefront of trend-setting and who are willing to pay a premium for status. Personally, though I appreciate the minimalist design aesthetics and product innovation Bugaboo brought to the market, I am hopelessly practical and rebellious when it comes to status symbols. (Side rant: sorry to offend anyone who's into this, but it strikes me as quite hilarious that people will pay lots of money (way more than they can actually afford) merely to be a walking advertisement for someone else's logo--to achieve the 'high regard' of people who are impressed by such simple foolery. As a marketing professional, I get the effectiveness of preying upon people's low-self esteem and penchant for materialism, but as a human, something is philosophically very wrong with the fact that so many are such willing slaves to this smoke and mirrors.)

All this to say, that while I am not blind to aesthetic value and don't mind paying more for quality & innovative functionality, there needs to be a balance between the need and good stewardship of means. The stroller we ended up purchasing, though not cheap, matches Bugaboo's innovative functionality and is a way better value. (By the way, I did even consider accepting my sister's offer to use her 7-year old, well-kept, Peg Perego. Alas, though it has served her well and is in overall good condition, it is starting to show it's age; it no longer steers well and veers strongly to one side. A good ab workout, but for the most part not practical.)

The Quinny is a very cool stroller, but has almost no storage space whatsoever. (An absolute MUST for us.)



The Easywalker Sky is a very cool Dutch stroller that you'll be hearing alot about in the future, as it is apparently really giving Bugaboo a run for it's money in Europe. But unfortunately, I couldn't demo this stroller and wasn't convinced that it had enough storage space.



By the way, the Britax Vigor is probably the best buy in this stroller-type, if you don't need much storage space.




I considered purchasing a good umbrella stroller, just for travel, like the Combi Cosmo (a great little stroller) but this category just isn't heavy-duty enough for the way we travel.



Some of you may have noticed that the most inexpensive strollers available at Target, etc. have the most storage, and indeed they do. Alas, they don't usually have the best push, turning radius or fold. (I will say: this type of stroller is perfectly adequate (and it would be silly to spend more) for those who need baby-wheels only for an occasional jaunt to the park or mall.

Even considered a 3-wheeled jogging-type stroller like the Urban Advantage...but these are not light and definitely do not fold small--and you just never know what kind of rental car or taxi you might be trying to cram this thing into!



More info. on our new workhorse to follow after we have had the chance to put it to good use for a week or so.