It's a bug's life: The rise and rise of the Bugaboo pushchair

Viv Groskop
7 Sep 2009

If you live in London and have small children how can you not also have a Bugaboo?” asks Neha Khosla, a solicitor and mother of two daughters in St John's Wood, who owns two. “We love ours so much that we're going to give one to my sister, who is having a baby next month.”

Neha, it seems, is not alone — thousands of London parents swear by Bugaboo, the pushchair that believes it is the ultimate urban child transportation device. Launched 10 years ago by an obscure Dutch design company, the space-age pram did not become a must-have until its UK launch in 2003. As the first Bugaboos hit London's streets the brand went viral, ably assisted by a new paparazzi target: the baby-making celebrity.

Primrose Hill-based Fran Cutler — a friend of Meg Mathews — apparently credits herself with being the first person in London to buy a Bugaboo Frog for her daughter Mercy Magic.

Soon after, Gwyneth Paltrow, Stella McCartney and Sara Cox were seen wheeling them through the streets of the capital.

In recent years the Bugaboo has faced competition (the £1,200 Silver Cross Balmoral was Gwyneth's choice for her latest baby) but it dominates the pavements of Westbourne Grove, Kensington and still reigns supreme in Clapham's “Nappy Valley” on Northcote Road.

Instead of being a fad, it has morphed into a classic — and the accessory of choice for Claudia Schiffer, Geri Halliwell, Gwen Stefani, Helena Bonham Carter and, most recently, Kate Garraway.

“It's difficult when you become a mum,” says Katherine Kowalski, 30, mother to Beatrice, eight months. “Your sense of style has to change enormously because you have to think about what is practical.” After spending £380 on a Bugaboo Bee, she says she feels stylish again.

Bugaboo is, naturally, above calling itself a mere pushchair manufacturer, preferring the term “lifestyle brand”. So it's perhaps unsurprising that the company has just announced a partnership with the daddy of all superbrands, Bono's (RED). From 1 October one per cent of the total revenue of all Bugaboo purchases will go to (RED)'s campaign against Aids in Africa. John Lewis will stock an exclusive Bee design with ADO(RED) lettering (£419). And available globally (are you reading, Madonna?) is a new limited-edition Cameleon [sic] denim stroller (£799).

Speaking from Bugaboo's headquarters in Amsterdam, co-founder Max Barenbrug, a father of two daughters, recalls how he sketched the first Bugaboo in 1994 as his graduation project at design school. “I found my inspiration in the street where I saw ugly, badly designed strollers. Somehow, after the 1960s, manufacturers lost contact with the consumer and made only ugly, stupid strollers. This is just my opinion,” he adds.

His aim was to design a product men would feel good about wielding: “You could put it behind your bike, you could use it as a back-pack, you could jog with it.” This macho, multi-purpose prototype never made it to manufacture, but something close to it became the Bugaboo Frog.

Now, says Madeleen Klaasen, Bugaboo's marketing officer, the company is all about “exciting people about being on the move.” (I defy her, however, to say this to a woman who has just spent three hours breast-feeding a newborn baby and realised she has to go to the shops because she has no milk left in the house and it is raining. But, still, the sentiment is noble.)

No amount of marketing speak is likely to put off Bugaboo fanatics, who are near-demented in their adoration. (Could this possibly be because they have shelled out so much money that they feel they have to justify themselves? I'm not saying anything. But I don't own one, by the way.)

Julie Wynne, 30, a retail supervisor from Hillingdon, spent £729 on a limited-edition Cameleon when her son Blake, eight months, was born despite admitting it's too big to fit in the boot of her car: “It's not really practical for somebody with a small car but I use it every day because I do more walking than anything.”

This is a common complaint with Bugaboo: nonetheless, the standard £620 Cameleon comes out as “best buggy” on Mumsnet with a rating of 8.1 out of 10 and reviewers gushing, “I love my Bugaboo!”, “Absolutely adore this pram!” and “One of the most expensive pushchairs on the market but absolutely worth it!”

But there are oft-repeated complaints too: the chassis is a challenge to fold down and it's hard to fit into a car smaller than an estate. Scarily, one fan responds, “Worth buying a bigger car for.” But even those with complaints tend to admit that at least Bugaboos are easy to sell on, which can't be said of cheaper buggies.

Lainey Shaw, 30, a pharmacist from Heathrow, with three children under the age of six, agrees with this. “It's a lot of money to pay for a pram but they really hold their value. You will easily make £400 for a second-hand Cameleon if it's kept in good condition.” She has bought three Bugaboos — one new, two second-hand — and re-sold two of them on eBay at a profit.

Emma-Jane Apuzzo, 43, a primary school teacher and mother of four from Ruislip, loves her denim Cameleon, bought for £680, for her youngest child Giuseppe Alessandro, 21 months. Her eldest daughter Alicia is 20 and used to have a traditional sprung pram: “It was very heavy — Bugaboo is much better.” The family now loves Bugaboo so much that Emma-Jane says Alicia does not even have a boyfriend yet but is apparently already saying, Keep that — I want it for my baby'.

“The only thing I would say is that I have still not worked out how to put on the rain cover,” Emma-Jane adds, “I tried again last week and got really cross.”