Sandra Martin bought her first stroller eight years ago, during the dawn of the high-end pram era. She picked a heavy duty one with sturdy wheels, with a price tag close to $500.
“We thought, wow, that’s a lot to pay for a stroller,” says Ms. Martin, the executive editor of Today’s Parent magazine.
Little did she know that within a few years, not only would she be compiling parent surveys showing that $700 strollers are favoured by even the most frugal parents, but that strollers would have roared past the $1,000 mark.
The price leap has come as a result of some significant improvements in function – walking-mad new parents demand designs with sturdier frames, bigger wheels and more storage. But the biggest emphasis is on form. Image-conscious urbanites want new models as stylish as the latest iPad or Passat. So it’s no surprise that the latest object of their affection, the Bugaboo Donkey, is breaking new price barriers. Although it hasn’t yet reached the Canadian market, the Donkey sells for $1,500 (U.S.) south of the border – and Canadian parents are already clamouring for it. It’s the first stroller with a shape-shifting frame that converts on the spot from a single to a double – and accommodates any configuration of two seats, bassinets or car seats side by side. It’s also sleek and unfrumpy, which may be the secret to its appeal with new mothers. A blogger at Cool Mom Picks dubbed it a “gorgeous, pricey, joy-inspiring feat of modern engineering.”
The style factor in children’s products has been growing exponentially – with rugged urban designs appealing equally to men and women. The Netherlands-based Bugaboo is widely credited with opening up the stroller market in the early 2000s and spawning stylish competitors such as the equally cutesie-named UPPAbaby. Since then, parents have become as loyal to stroller brands as they are to car manufacturers, clothing designers and electronics makers. They visit online forums to recommend their favourites, lament the price of out-of-reach brands, and trade tips on how to get their hands on the latest models.
“If you had your babies 20 years ago, you were pushing around a stroller with animal prints on it, wearing big sunglasses and praying that nobody saw you,” Toronto children’s retailer Karen Judd says. “Now, it’s ‘Hey, look what I’ve got. It matches my lifestyle.’ ”
Until the Donkey came along, the Norwegian Stokke Xplory stroller, introduced three years ago in Canada, was pretty much the most expensive you could buy, at about $1,250 (Canadian), according to Connecticut-based North American spokeswoman Charlotte Addison. The company has seen “double-digit growth” in Canada in the past two years, she says.
“Parents will splurge – they look at it as a necessity, like an automobile.”
The rise of the so-called SUV stroller has been accompanied by a chorus of complaints from pedestrians who say the bulkier strollers – especially doubles that hold two kids – take up too much room on the sidewalk, and restaurant and store owners who ban them from their premises.
Nevertheless, parents who love them are more willing than ever to go to new extremes to get their hands on the latest, greatest models.
Toronto mother Kate Dempsey, who is giving birth to her second child in two months, decided she couldn’t wait. She took matters into her own hands and had the Donkey stroller shipped from a Neiman Marcus in Troy, Mich., last month.
She was already a fan of another stroller made by Bugaboo, the Chameleon, which she used with her now 15-month-old son. “For me, it didn’t make sense to wait,” she says, admitting that, including about $350 in customs duties and taxes, she paid close to $2,000. She knows that seems like a lot to spend.
“I know it’s very luxurious. I feel grateful to have it, for sure.”
