Traveling with baby!
I'm an avid babywearer, you know that by now, don't you?! Atyu is almost a year old now and I still do wear her and plan to wear her as long as she wants to. That said, at times babywearing is not ideal. For eg., a few days back I wanted to go visit the barber, and babywearing wouldn't be suitable as I can't leave her on a chair or floor at the salon.... Traveling, being out all day long? Carrying her would make me tired quicker than I ideally would... The best option - stroller! The most important aspect of stroller that I was looking for were compact fold & lightweight. Something that would easily fit into small car boots and something that doesn't make me scared of staircases! What if a stroller is not only good on these 2 aspects but ecofriendly as well??? Introducing Greentom! Greentom is a Dutch brand! Dutch design is known for its minimalism and innovation. So what innovation does Greentom do? We use and discard a lot of plastic which is makes the earth suffocated (if you don't know already, there's a garbage patch in the size of Texas floating in Pacific Ocean!). What Greentom does is, take these plastic waste and converts them into Polypropylene frames for the strollers. The fabrics are made of recycled PET bottles. The Classic fabric set is made of recycling 74 PET bottles! The wheels are made of polypropylene with ethylene vinyl acetate which makes it a bit shock absorbent to deal with the road surfaces. Though the whole body is made of plastic, it feels sturdy. I've been using it for 2 months and it has gone through one long air travel as well and it hasn't gotten damaged. Inspite of the cobbled roads of Brussels, it hasn't gotten damaged. One thing I really would like is for Greentom to sell spare parts in its site. See, Brussels has cobbled roads. I've lost one of my trolley suitcase's wheel to these roads! I'd just like to keep a spare set of wheels in the stroller all the time.... I was contemplating a lot between the reversible and classic. The best aspect of reversible is ofcourse, it can be reversed to parent facing mode. But again one of my main 2 requirements of being easy fold doesn't happen here. The seat of the reversible has to be removed and the frame folded separately. In Classic, its a simple fold including the seat, so I chose Classic! I was still worried about how Atyudarini would react as I won't be in her view at all plus I can't see her as well. But then, there is a solution. The canopy, connects to the seat with an extra piece of fabric with 2 small vel-cro attachments. If I open this up, it serves as the viewing window! The canopy is a magic! Its sooooo big and coated with sunscreen as well, and gives a 50UPF which is just perfect for summers. Pushing it is a breeze. I can swirl it with 1 hand! The front wheels lift with the slight pressure which is really easy, especially for those escalators and getting on/off trains/buses. At 7 kgs, I could even take the stairs! I could easily lift it with 1 hand and Atyu in another and take the stairs if that's the only option!!! One of the weird uses is that the on either sides in the inner side of the chair are 2 loops of labels mentioning Greentom & Classic. Guess what we use it for? To clip the teethers & rattles! Perfect way to keep Atyu's playmates with her! The basket is not very big, and can bear upto 2 kgs. Its enough to keep a small bag of a couple diapers, and diaper accessories and 1 ring sling. There is no pocket in the backside of the seat, which would be a great addition. For eg., if I'm just going out for a small stroll, I have to take a small extra bag to put in the cellphone, keys etc which instead if I could put in a small zippered compartment behind the seat, would be perfect. Designing a sturdy product out of plastic (unlike metal) has some drawbacks too, like the handrail height or footrest position cannot be changed. While the handrail is understandable, I hope they can improvise the footrest, may be with something like a spring & clip design. The classic version is suitable upto 4.5yrs (18kgs/110cm), so its a very good investment. Accessories include footmuff, diaper bag, rain cover etc which have to be bought separately.
At 7kg and easy folding, this stroller is every traveler's best friend! The whooping color options make it every fashionista mom's best friend! The designer in me wants Greentom to come up with a concept of 'color your own stroller', where I could pick different colors of seat, footrest, canopy and accessories. I know, from their point of view, it would be an inventory nightmare, but still...........
P.S: I was gifted with the product for review purposes, however the opinions are my own and this post does not to advertise the product/service.
