Monthly Archive for September, 2009

Flat As A Pancake, But More Useful

Published on September 30, 2009 in Contemporary Stuff. 0 Comments

New Zealander Steven Procter designs pulpits and lecterns for churches, but in 2007 he won the design report award for “Newcomer of the Year” at Milan’s Salone Satellite.  He won, in part, for this sleek and simple stroller:

sprct-pshchr1-225

It’s probably not much on shock-absorption, but minimalism doesn’t get much better than this.   Even better, it folds thin enough to fit in a New York apartment:

sprct-pshchr-fldNot to mention that it stands alone, too.

The award announcement says that “he designed an all in one high chair, pram, cot, changing table and clothes horse which can be folded away and easily transported” but this seems to be a translation error.  It looks as if Procter designed an impressive number of  nursery iems that can be flat-folded — not one item that converts to many.  Which in no way reduces the cool factor.

Via:  kidsmodern

Spotted In The Wild – Vintage Perego Pram

Published on September 29, 2009 in Spotted In The Wild. 2 Comments

Traverse City, Michigan:  A beautiful day for a stroll, and a beautiful, 1970s Perego pram to make the day perfect:

tc-prg-400

Kind of a workhorse, isn’t it?  It’s a reminder of why, historically,  every English villager who could possibly afford a pram (and a bunch who couldn’t) bought them. When cars were few, and life more basic, a pram might hold not only the baby, but a sibling or two, and certainly all the marketing.

Look at the lines on that chassis, the fenders (!), the chrome hubcaps, and the clean, sleek lines of the bed and hood.  Perego did a great job of keeping the essense of what made prams so appealing, all the way into the 1980s.  (Yes, this one happens to be from the 1970s, but you could buy new classic Perego prams into the 1980s in the USA.)

Wire Pram

Published on September 28, 2009 in Pram Art. 0 Comments

From Janine Larson, a Calder-ish interpretation:

wire-pram

Source: Janine Larson Wire Sculptures, Displays and Installations

A Tale of Three Spiders

Published on September 27, 2009 in Pram Rants. 0 Comments

You wouldn’t think, with all the words available in English, that it would be hard to find a unique name for a product.  You wouldn’t think that it would be difficult, even, to find a unique name for an ambulatory (or perambulatory, as the case is) device.  Here we are, though, with evidence not of one stroller named “Spider”, nor of two, but of three.  Observe:

It started (at least in the USA) with Stroll-Air’s Spider Duo NV in 2006:

stl-a-sp2

I couldn’t find any evidence of a Stroll-Air Spider Uno either then or now – - Stroll-Air is still online, but with a very limited range of products, and a really annoying website. You can see for yourself, if you like.

Don’t get  me wrong, I love the name, but it’s difficult to think of the huge Stroll-Air as any kind of arachnid, specially with those Frog feet in front.  (Note to ALL stroller-pushers:  I don’t want to watch your stupid moving images when I visit your site.  I want to see the product, straight and clean, so I can actually figure out what it looks like.  Later, if  I’m interested, I’ll watch your videos.  PS – your ridiculous use of JavaScript means that I can’t link to a specific product on your site.)

Sorry, a little detour there.

The Stroll-Air was followed by the Mutsy Spider (dear to your Curator’s heart):

mts-blu2This, I admit, is the Spider of my dreams, and it deserves (and will shortly have) its own post, especially since we now have this Mutsy at The Pram Museum.

I can almost buy the “spider” moniker here.  The splash of the name across the stroller (and on the carry bag, if you’ve seen one) somehow has a rather spidery sense for me, at least, though you won’t see any embroidered arachnids on either the stroller or the accessories.

Alas, Musty no longer sells the Spider.  Instead, they’ve replaced it with the “Slider“, possibly to ensure maximum confusion between the previous stroller and the current one.  (Note to Mutsy:  See rant above, but thank you, at least I can link directly to your product.)

Sadly, you can’t get it here in the US (we want one!  we want one!), but Emmaljunga is selling a Spider in Europe:

emmajunga-spider-300

Emmaljunga’s Spider is almost identical to strollers that were sold all over Scandinavia in the 1970s, and, really, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better classic heavy-weight truck stroller to run around town with your toddler.   It’s basic, roomy and sporty without any unnecessary frills.

(Emmaljunga:  see rant above.  No, I can’t link directly to the Emmaljunga Spider.  You, dear reader, will have to try to bypass the stupid opening video and click like mad to get to the Spider.)

Interesting strollers, yes?  But not so original on the names. Eensy, weensy vocabulary, guys.   And, just for the record,  real spiders have eight legs.  Now that would make for an unusual stroller.