What’s there not to love about Bugaboo strollers? Established in 1999, Amsterdam-based Bugaboo has become a firm favourite with parents for its design-savvy strollers that are lovely to look at and easy to handle. It’s a prime example of one of those products that has struck a fine balance between form and function.
We recently attended the launch of the Bugaboo Bee3 in Singapore, where we got to sit down with Robbert Cohen de Lara, the Sales Director Asia at Bugaboo to talk about the iconic stroller brand, future collaborations and much more.
Bugaboo has collaborated with designers such as Marc Jacobs, Missoni, Viktor&Rolf and most recently Diesel. Is there another collaboration in progress?
Yes there is but at the moment, we’re celebrating our three-year collaboration with Diesel. Bugaboo is always working on new collaborations and there’s a new exciting one coming up in Spring 2015 but I can’t share yet.
What makes the Bugaboo an iconic brand?
Bugaboo spends a lot of time on innovation and design. Dutch designs are known for being clean, where function and form are integrated. Bugaboo is an example of that. Even though the Bugaboo products are different, there’s a recognisable style to our brand.
Can you tell us the particular lifestyle or parent that Bugaboo tries to reach out to?
We have different products to suit different lifestyles. Overall, the parents that we target are active parents – people that want to go out and take their children to nice places in a comfortable way. It is people who have an active lifestyle and they like doing things with their children.
What are the top innovations that you think Bugaboo has brought to the stroller market?
The starting point for Bugaboo was when our founder, Max Barenbrug, made a modular stroller, which means that you can remove the seat and change it in different directions. Bugaboo was first to come out with that. If you were to look at the market now, everyone does it. Also what’s typical of Bugaboo is the easiness of use.
We put a lot of time in not just thinking about what kind of functionalities people would like to have – even the one they don’t know of – but also how you can make it easy to use.
Which is your personal favourite of the Bugaboo strollers?
For me, it’s the Bugaboo Cameleon which is also the best-selling model in the Netherlands, where I’m from. The functionality allows me do to everything and it’s still very light. But I’m living in Shanghai now, so I understand how people in Asia would buy the Bugaboo Bee because they use taxis and subways a lot.
What inspired some of the changes that has gone into the new Bugaboo Bee3 design?
It’s still the urban stroller but with new fabrics, a wider underseat basket, a sturdier frame, an extendable canopy and an option to buy a bassinet.
What more can Bugaboo fans expect to be released in the near future?
The Bugaboo Runner will target active parents, but it will only be released in the US, Australia and Europe because there’s a demand in those countries. So we don’t have plans yet to launch in Asia.
Bugaboo is always working on new concepts but we don’t have a timeline on that because innovation takes time. We don’t launch new products on a yearly basis, we only launch it when it feels right.
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Image Credit: Bugaboo
