Good point, but the kid is heavy enough to matter. My folding stroller has locks in front wheel for rough terrains, but problem with using it that way in stores is that 1) I had to have some space to lift (not comfortable when my back was against the store shelf) and 2) 2 actions (lift and pivot) instead of simply turning. It made lots of difference, at least in my case in trips to densely populated areas. And with kids in tow, every second counts 
[edit: grammar]
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Our strollers are suddenly inadequate.
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If looking for different designs search on the English push chair not American stroller.
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This reminds me a little bit of the Consumer Reports number one choice at the time one of my kids was born, which a relative gave us. It taught me the value of those cheap umbrella strollers. There is no aspect of this new choice that is an improvement over what is already available, and for a lot less.
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No personal experience, but my UK friends swore by the MacLaren.
Yeah, okay, MacLaren’s are nice and all. But I’m partial to the Delorean…
Granted it’s heavier, but the stainless steel construction makes the flux dispersal…look out!
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There’s good strollers out there. I had a pretty mainstream one, a Peg Perego SI, which is between 70’s umbrella sling and SUV leaning heavily to 70’s umbrella sling.
Basically a sling with a bit more comfort & support, a small stach area beneath and a hood that provided full coverage when needed, all gone when not.
It lasted 5 years, through 2 kids and was still in fine shape such that it made another family happy after us.
I lean towards 70’s sling, I want tiny and manuverable and do not want to offend when traveling through stores. This was all that but could go for long, long 3-4 hour walks in the city without being a pain to me or child. The straight sling strollers are often quickly uncomfortable for a child unless fully reclined, something many didn’t so. The crappy wheels found on many of the old sling strollers meant hardship on long walks even with sidewalks.
It collapsed into a decent shap for stowage but not fun to carry. A bike lock fixed that. I wouldn’t want to carry any stroller around without the child in it, so abandoning it locked to something was the thing to do for me if out n about & in a park or in a place where I didn’t need it.
Initially I was thinking it too big, but it grew on me. And it has a coffee cup holder on the other side. Foolish to take a picture of it without showing that, whoever took this one shoulda known better.
It needed one repair in 5 years, to a cable used when collapsing it, fixed it meself. Only drawback was that child one didn’t want to give it up and be walking when child 2 was in it. This problem was resolved by carrying child one on my shoulders while pushing the stroller with child 2. That went on til child one was 5, garnering me much sympathy from passerbys.
I travel a lot with my son - at this point (age 3.5) he’d probably be eligible for his own platinum membership if we were more consistent about which airline we flew.
When we travel by car or by plane, we use the Maclaren Mark II, which claims to be about 7 lbs. it’s light, compact, very sturdy, has both sun shade and rain over, and is comfortable for both rider and driver. The latter is really important; many lightweight “umbrella” strollers are really short which means stooping down while pushing - not good for the back. Maclarens strollers tend to be nice and tall and the MkII might even be the tallest.
We also have a “Sunday stroller” which is bigger and better for longer walks, especially outdoors. For that it’s the Britax B-Safe (or something). Biggger wheels and suspension makes it better for rough terrain, and it’s big enough to carry enough gear for a full day tour. Also, it reclines for better napping, especially for younger kids.
As for compact strollers, I personally haven’t found them to fit our needs; while the clever folding seems like it would be a great advantage, for the most part a simpler folding mechanism is all that’s needed to fit most places. Our MkII could fit in an overhead bin but is much more easily gate-checked. The one time I wished I had something super compact was touring San Fran recently, when pushing an empty stroller was cumbersome. But the MkII can be worn over the shoulder just fine, so it wasn’t a big deal.
This homemade stroller gets makes for being hand-crafted, but as others point out, lacks critical features for maneuverability and comfort. After field testing and a few revisions it would probably end up pretty similar to other compact strollers already available.
In short, strollers don’t actually suck. There are, in fact, options for just about every situation. That’s because there are so many people who become parents, and in many that inspires a “I could do this better” moment either in strollers, diaper bags, kids clothes, books, toys, or some other baby gear. That’s not to say that there stilll isn’t room for improvement, but the category of baby stuff is an area with a high rate of innovation that is already pretty evolved.
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I’m definitely going to look into that stroller. I almost always use my jogging stroller, but if I end up flying American, it has to be counter checked. Can you run with a Maclaren Mark II? If not, maybe I should just make sure to fly Delta rather than buying something new.
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I dig it. But can you imagine all the “safety” issues child safety groups would find. It doesn’t have the mandatory foam rubber covering or protective bubble that first time paranoid parents expect.
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I hated strollers when my kid was small and mostly preferred to carry her to lugging the stroller around. It was okay once I got to a place, but didn’t seem worth the PITA of getting it in and out of the car.
The best one I had was an umbrella type that had a feature where the seat could recline back so that she could lay flat on her back if she fell asleep. It was a good combo between light weight and useful with a place to store a few things underneath.
I always hated investing in the baby stuff as it all gets used for a fleeting moment then is no longer useful. Seems a tremendous waste for everyone to go out and buy new baby accoutrements every time a new kid is born.
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You know if all you parents didn’t baby your…well, babies and simply told them that if they wanted to get somewhere they’d have to walk there maybe they’d learn to walk sooner. And the sooner they walk the sooner they can get a job.
Lazy babies looking for handouts is all see.
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No, the MkII wouldn’t be good for jogging; small wheels, and the position of the wheels and cross-support in the back would make it difficult, I think.
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IMHO, babybjörns are far more practical.
This is where it’s really useful to be plugged into a like-minded parenting community. Stuff gets passed along to smaller kiddos and there’s a lot less waste of perfectly good baby stuff.
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I like that this couple have designed and made a stroller that meets their needs. As they point out in the comments, it’s not meant to be a product - it’s something that works well for them.
Having said that, we used to have a McClaren for portability, and a Bugaboo for when size wasn’t as much of an issue. It’s surprising how useful it is to have a buggy that you can easily push with one hand (something this design has over the McClaren, by the way!) The other great thing about the Bugaboo was that you could have your child face backwards towards you, which I always preferred.
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I am impressed that they made this thing from scratch, maker ethos and all that. But that’s as far as it goes, nothing else about it is worthy of comment.
Sure, there’s crappy umbrella strollers out there just like there’s crappy everything else, but a few seconds in the store identifies them pretty quickly and all the rest put this one to shame for all the reasons cited above.
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I’d be terrified that I was going to push those buttons by accident and crush my kid, but I tend to fidget (one time I absently-mindedly stapled my thumb) so maybe I’m an edge case.
… but where do I put all the baby stuff – the changes of clothes, the diapers, the bottles, the blankets, the toys, the wet wipes?" And all I can think is, ask someone who was a parent in the 70s.
They carried all that crap in a big heavy bag slung over their shoulders. Strollers hit a nice compromise in size sometime in the 80’s. You could carry all the baby stuff on them, they easily collapsed for stuffing into the car, but they weren’t nearly the SUV-sized monsters of today.
Given how much the MacLaren strollers cost, I am somewhat surprised.
Excellent strollers though. Recommend! Would suggest adding some wrist weights to the bottom cross bar, to prevent tipping. Lets you hand stuff off the back.
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Because the resources need to allocated to lawyers?
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